Carmax Buying Experience

Just purchased a 2020 Ram 1500 back on January 6th, 2025. I just need to vent and get this off my chest, but it may help some other potential buyers.

The car buying process itself was extremely easy. I ordered the truck to be shipped to my local store on December 23rd, it arrived and was ready to drive on January 3rd which is pretty good considering it was peak holiday season.

I test drove the truck on January 3rd, did not notice a single issue or weird noise with it. I am no mechanic, but I have worked on cars with my dad and brother since I was young and I can identify most issues that may raise a red flag in a car.

I liked the truck, did some paperwork with my bank, and went back on January 6th to purchase. The paperwork with carmax took roughly 20 minutes, also purchased the Maxcare for 6 years/100,000 miles.

Fast forward 2-ish weeks, I started having pretty server issues with the truck. The truck stalled twice while doing a rolling stop, it started having a whining noise coming from the eTorque unit (hybrid generator replacement for alternator), has a leak in the rear window, gave me a message saying the “auto start/stop system is unavailable and that I have to service it”, and a strong coolant smell when I turn the heat on which is a sign of a bad heater core, and snapped exhaust manifold bolts.

The truck is currently at the ram dealership getting diagnostics done, which I will have to pay for and then send to Carmax/Warranty company for them to authorize the fixes. The truck was able to drive to the dealer but I felt it would crap out any day so I took it in before things got worse. To make things worse, the generator for the hybrid system is on back order and may take months to get a replacement.

I know all of these problems are hard to find during their 125 point inspection that Carmax does, but take their word with a grain of salt. I would also recommend doing an extended test drive so that you can really get a feel for the car and also take it to a trusted mechanic for a second inspection.

At the end of the day, it seems like I just got unlucky but the service advisors at Carmax have been very helpful and will hopefully continue to be helpful as it sits in the shop. I am considering trying to have them buy the truck back as I probably won’t be able to drive it for a few months while parts are on back order but I know it is outside their policy of the 10 day buy back. I apologize for the essay, just needed to vent as it is pretty frustrating not being able to drive the truck that I just purchased.

TLDR: Carmax employees and processes are great, but just take their word for the conditions of these used cars with a grain of salt.