Thinking about a Rubicon

My buying technique was, "go to carmax.com" n.

On Sat, 08 Nov 2003 22:58:04 GMT, "Nathan Otis" shared the following:

Just don't try to get any kind of a trade-in return on a vehicle from Carmax. I've bought a few vehicles from them, but every time I've tried to use a vehicle to trade-in on one from them, they give me a ridiculous quote. Just my own personal experience. YMMV. They quoted me something stupid like $3000 on a '95 Thunderbird with 4.6 V8, auto, power everything, very very very good condition... Told me the 10-disc CD-changer and awesome Sony stereo didn't matter... so when I took their ridiculous offer to get the deal done, I swapped out the Sony stereo for a $25 Radio Shack special and removed the CD changer. That's a story all in itself. heh heh Sheeeeeot. And that was back in about '98 when the car was only 3 years old. $3000 for a 3-year-old T-bird in awesome shape? I brought a '96 Ford Windstar to them for a trade-in also and they tried to bend me over on that one, too. Oh, wait... They *did* bend me over on that one. d'oh... And the T-bird one... Oh... CarMax... I'd buy another car from them but won't even consider taking a vehicle to them to trade in on anything. Unless it's a hunk-o-junk that I can't sell...

-- Travis

meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

Was looking at a really nice one the other day, white, auto, AC, etc. $30K!

I went out on autotrader.com for slightly used ones.. visited dealers in town for new ones... I got one price at one place, then went to the next and said, well you are the dealer I would really like to go through,, what is your best price. I never would commit right there. I said I am gathering prices and will buy the lowest at the end of the week. at the end of the week dealer A would call and I woul say, well B beat your price by 1000.00 , can you do better ? then C would call and I would say A beat B's price by

500 more.. can you do better ? You have plenty of time to shop.. play them to death. I finally got my slightly used Rubi for 22,900.. 3300 miles.. manual, soft top, 7speaker stereo/cd , khaki colored. It is exactly the way I would have ordered it if I bought new.

They are out there, you just have to look real hard. Don't expect to see too many used ones. There were two in a radius of 150 miles from here, when I used autotrader..

dave

Why didn't you make the deal on the new car and then sell the T-bird yourself?

-Fred W

They will not go broke even selling at or below invoice. They get something called dealer holdback from the manufacturer. See here:

Invoice is what the dealer pays up front for the car to be on the lot. It isn't their "final cost".

-Fred W.

On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 13:18:09 GMT, "Fred W." shared the following:

Impatience on my part. :-/

-- Travis

meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

Go to 2 dealers.

Find a Rubicon at the first dealer that you like.

Go to the 2nd dealer that has a Rubicon that you like.

Tell dealer 2 that dealer 1 said they would show you and sell you any vehicle on the lot at invoice, minus any factory rebates.

I bought my Rubicon for $24,100 after rebates and negotiated in a new hard top for $1,000 from the parts department.

White, Soft Top, Auto, etc etc.

Rob K.

Funny. I've noticed the local (Maryland) CarMax will make sure you know if a car you're looking at has a nice aftermarket stereo... The first Jeep I looked at did, although i ended up buying the newer one with less add-ons, but all the important bits worked correctly...

They are owned by Circuit City after all... n.

That's enough for me to know to stay away from them.

Chris

Do what you must, they saved us thousands on our last two purchases. n.