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Comments
They are preset for certain pressures and will show green at the right pressure and yellow at low I think. Some of them might show red if the pressure is too high.
Any auto parts store should have them.
this advice has been around forever, and it is still good.
even if you don't have a car from carmax.
I've used the low tire pressure indicators for many years with no problems. I check them regularly, a few times a week, to be sure my tire pressure is safe.
Contrary to the experience of the lovely folks who posted, I've never filled a tire, and then had it gain extra pressure by itself (other than what you might expect from hot air after riding), so there has been no need for an indicator that communicated my tire now had significantly more air pressure then when I filled it.
And I have EVERY RIGHT to expect that the tires were filled to the correct level at some point. While they might have gotten low in the meantime, 18 psi excess pressure is a dangerously high amount to find in my tires.
Additionally, I made this discovery about 3 months after my purchase and during colder weather. So it is very likely the tires were actually at an even higher PSI when I drove it off the lot.
Whatever, I've never heard of that right, but it's your RESPONSIBILITY to make sure they are filled to the correct level once you own the car.
Note that tire air pressure increases in HOT weather while the car is sitting on the lot...
Also, tires do get HOT while driving and gain extra air pressure.
(i.e.)example: It's the same as if Carmax would have sold you the car without gas and you drove all around town and got stuck, it's not their fault, it's yours for not pumping gas.
Just my personal opinion! :lemon:
(Just as I'd have assumed that normal, reasonable care was taken while prepping a car that Carmax would sell.)
However, I'm seeing what appears to be some vested interest here to promote Carmax regardless of the sloppy work they've done.
This makes me believe that maybe I'm not seeing just "honest personal opinions" in reply to my concern.
To reiterate, I bought the car in July, and I tested my tires for (high) pressure in September during 70 degree weather.
The tire pressure indicators that I installed tested the tires for low pressure during this entire period.
This should have been adequate for testing my tire pressure during this peroid.
And since I would not expect that a) my tires inflated themselves over the two months I had the car or b) that the 70 degree weather in September was more hot than the 90 degree July weather.
It is good to know, however, that there are Carmax folks are posting on this board with the hope to discredit anyone who complains about lack of reasonable care and service.
When I see silly posts telling me that I should have expected my tires to fill themselves, and tested them frequently to guard against that, I'll now know they're coming from Carmax employees looking to discredit legitimate complaints on the board.
It's a shame that these people aren't spending this extra time to improve Carmax's "reconditioning" and basic service.
Is it a good idea to check these things yourself when you buy a car? Sure. Do most people do that? No.
Absolutely not.
I paid above retail price for what I thought was a car that was professionally "reconditioned" and thoroughly inspected.
Instead I found out that the most basic inspection wasn't done on the car, and I was sold a vehicle in dangerous condition.
I definitely feel like the car I actually got was different from the vehicle that I thought that I was buying.
Do you have any actual idea what is done to 'certify' a used car? It's put on a lift, a mechanic (probably a junior one) looks around at the undercarriage for anything obviously wrong - leaks, wear on tires, anything loose or hanging. The oil and filter is probably changed. The brake pads front and rear are looked at - tires are pulled if necessary to see these. Puts it on the ground and checks and tops off the fluids. Gets inside the car and starts it. Fiddles with all the major controls to verify that the AC, radio, lights, turn signal, etc are in working order.
The car 'might' be driven around the block to verify there are no major drivability problems.
All this can probably be done in 30 minutes.
The 'cleanup' shop guy then will spend much more time than a mechanic, attempting to scrub out the debris from the previous owner/s.
It's 'certified'. You pay a premium for the car. What you are actually getting is an extended warranty, and paying for it.
To truly 'check out' a car would involve letting it set and doing a 'cold start'. Then drive it out, getting up to freeway speeds, then stop and go, and a nice curvy road. Multiple stops checking the brake function. 'Hot starts'. Listening for 'sounds'. 'Feeling' strange 'things' in the suspension, transmission, engine. This would take quite a while to complete. It's not done.
Even if this is done - no mechanic can know if a component - mechanical, electrical, hydrolic may fail in the near future. It just cannot be done.
It took Jiffy Lube about 30 seconds to check my tire pressure.
It is ridiculous to say that it would have been impossible for Carmax to check.
In addition, it is very likely that Carmax actually created the dangerous situation by over inflating the tires, perhaps (as an earlier poster suggested) when they were doing an alignment on the car.
I once drove a new Honda that hadn't had it's Pre-Delivery Inspection. They come off the trucks with about 40PSI in the tires and we adjust these during the inspection.
I drove about a block and the car bounced like a basketball!
Yes, they should have done a better job but I do think your "Exploding Tire" title was a bit over the top.
I said no mechanic can give an accurate estimate of possible future failures.
Lawyers love people like you. Take no responsibility for their own life, and if something happens it's someone elses fault.
That's not not crazy (a double negative so it'll be easier for you to understand, based on your style of prose).
I am surprised you didn't take the opportunity to measure the actual pressure which would have saved a lot of aggravation and assured the indicators were in fact working properly.
Having said that, I think we've taken this thread about as far as we can. It's time to move on.
tidester, host
And that is exactly the reason I buy from carmax. 2 cars in last 5 months, since me and my wife moved over from Europe. If there is a slight chance that the car body had some work done, or that the car was damaged in flood, carmax will sell it wholesale. The risk is too high, and for a local dealer? Well, they'll find enough fools who think they're smart enough to figure that out themselves. At least they hope so...
However, if you did have a problem, I would expect that you reported them to the BBB. They are a member, and they are forced to use arbitrage by independent party. Yet, BBB site states that their report is satisfactory, no unresolved complaints there. Not really common for a car dealership...
But am I disgusted that I was put at risk because of Carmax's gross negligence? And do I want to warn others?
You bet!
I still can't believe you didn't feel the bounciness when you drove the car.
After the tires were reduced to the proper pressure, I noticed a marked increase in handling and shock absorption while driving.
However, when the car was sold to me in unsafe condition, I had nothing to compare it to.
Personally, I don't doubt they may have been a bit overinflated but I strongly suspect the Jiffy Lube guy embellished things.
Who knows? Time to move on.
I have absolutely no reason to think the Jiffy Lube guy "embellished."
After the tires were reduced to the proper pressure, I noticed a marked increase in handling and shock absorption while driving.
However, when the car was sold to me in unsafe condition, I had nothing to compare it to.
That's where a tire gauge comes in handy. You've made your case and it has been discussed to the point of becoming overwhelmingly repetitious so let's move on - please!
tidester, host
The "other lots" will negotiate their inflated price at least $1,000 less than the no-haggle Carmax price.
As a fleet manager, I am in and out of the local Chicagoland Carmax dealers quite often as I sell 6-8 cars a year. I have yet to see a good deal at a Carmax.
My favorite was a 2001 Taurus SE with 45k miles that they had for $10.9k in August. I could buy that car at 50 dealerships for no more than $7k and the salesman would we take me to lunch.
Honestly, I see Impala LS and base models that are about $4k over the dealer auction prices. Nice profit model.
I had a woman call me saturday asking questions about Land Rover Discovries. She wanted to know the prices of two of the vehicles we had on our lot but she had the stock numbers and exact mileage.
If she had that information then she obviously had the exact prices too but I humored her and gave them to her anyway.
Her response, "Ughh why would I pay that when I can get a Discovery from car max for thousands less plus the transportation cost?"
I asked her if those vehicles had a warranty with them and she said should could buy one for a little more. I talked with her a few more minutes to trying to explain how most aftermarket warranties are not very good for Land Rovers and try to get more information about the car she was buying from Carmax but she wasn't hearing any of it.
She was getting a great DEAL at carmax without any work.
After I got off the phone with her I looked at carmax's inventory to see what discos they had in stock. They were priced slightly lower then ours but all of them had more miles and some of them were even out of the factory warranty.
I would have sold the Discos we had in stock with a real Land Rover extended warranty and less miles for about what Carmax's no haggle price was and still made enough profit to make it worth my while. Too bad she wouldn't give me a chance to do that.
I hate to think what kind of shape those Discos are because only the bad ones make it out of Land Rovers lease return system.
Plenty of the 2003-2004 New Discoveries are good and some of the 2002 Series II Discos are good as well.
Even some 2000 and 2001 Discos are ok you just have to know what to look for.
I can normaly tell with about a 10 minute drive if a Disco is a total dog. After that it doesn't take too long to figure out if it is a good one or a great one.
Just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.
I deal with several of the major leasing companies and they are selling 2003 and 2004 Taurus SES with 50k for $6,000 to client employees.
Average price of a 2004 Taurus is 5,500 dollars with an average mileage 53,000.
There are a handful of former manufacturer vehicles bringing almost 8,000 dollars but they have very low miles and there are a couple of repos or damaged vehicles bringing 2,500 dollars but 5,000 to 5,500 seems about average for an average condition vehicle with average miles.
Now that that is settled lets move on. If Mr. Guru wants to be the next Terry why don't you head over to real world trade values.
A 2004 Taurus with 53,000 miles seems to be high mileage to me... about 18,000 miles a year.
There are a couple of outliers in the data set that have close to or over a 100,000 but even taking those out average miles barely drops below 50,000.
I have always said that a good deal is a state of mind and nothing else....
That is a lot of miles UNLESS you are using the car for business. My wife is getting a new company car. Her 2004 Impala has about 64k miles on it. The fleet average for that company is about 19k miles per year (insurance company). My fleet average is about 14k excluding two drivers that average 28k per year.
My sources are from three of the major leasing companies and are generally consistent with the myriad of fleet magazines.
There are only a few million Taurus, Impala, Malibus, etc. out there coming off of corporate/rental leases. It is not like they are difficult to price (or acquire).
$11k for a 2001 Taurus is outrageous when the dealers were unloading NEW MODELS for $12-13k in 2004-05.
I would NEVER buy a car at CARMAX unless I did not care what I paid.
Maybe to avoid wasting immense amounts of time when the dealer "checks with the manager" for each question you have. And it takes him 5, 15 or even 30 minutes each time.
Or to avoid "locking the car" at the lot which has options you don't need, and then adding needed options in the office, while going through numerous iterations like the above.
Or to avoid buying the car they want to sell, rather than the one you need?
Do I have to feel stupid whenever I go to a regular dealer? Is it "giving up" if I don't want to go through haggle? I like cars, and I consider myself to be fairly educated in this field. However, I go through experience of buying/selling a car, once every couple of years, at most. He does that every day. And he doesn't need to buy/sell this particular car today. I do! Who will "win" the game, most of the time? Do I really think that I know better than someone who's job this is? Further more, do I get any juice out of playing this game?
And now the conclusion. Carmax is more expensive for an average car. However, they do have standards. They have absolutely no incentive to sell me something I don't need/want, just because the price is higher. As a public company, they are forced to be pretty open about their business practices. This in itself is not an absolute guarantee, but it allows for peace of mind. What standards can I expect from an average dealership? Why would they care? And finally, their incentive is directly proportional to the profit margin. More they screw me over, more they make. Chances are, the better deal you got from the dealer, the more he'll try to make it up on you when you come the next time. Really nice relationship.
Why go through that stuff?
You will still end up paying less than carmax and not have any of the problems your whining about. seems simple to me.
The whole process seems as a game to me. The bad part is that this is a game for my money! And I don't like to play and do business at the same time. That's the simple answer to the question why Carmax is succeeding.
Being a public company means that their financial reporting has to be in accordance with standards.
Carmax has a great business model. They make a lot of money of the sales and service of vehicle. They offer you a wholesale price on the vehicle which is what they could get the car at auction and they place a high retail sticker. If you are content with paying significantly more to know up front you are going to pay, go right ahead.
Personally, when I have a car to buy for a friend, we ALWAYS go to Carmax and see what they are charging. That is the CEILING price. Then we go to dealerships and generally save $1500-2000 on $10k car. I am willing to haggle for an hour (though the actual time is generally 15-20 minutes) to save that kind of money.
It's really nice of you to answer questions concerning Carmax. I'm thinking about going to work for them. I've considered part and full time sales associates positions. I was wondering what your thoughts are in general in working for Carmax? Would you suggest I try part time with them first and if I like it move into a full time position? I have NO real car sales experience. Do they care or do they prefer to train their own? How's the pay for a part or full time sales assoc.? I hear the pay is like $8 bucks an hour plus some kind of commission. How does the commission scale work for car sales? Is it always the same flat rate? If so, what is the amount? Is there a way to make more money? Do they pay x-tra for warranties and other stuff? Is there a substantial commission for the extras? I saw on the Carmax website something about some "club level status" for sales people with high sales called "Directors Club and Presidents Club" Just titles? Or real money?
Is there good advancement into management? Do the management positions pay well or are they pretty lame? If you have time to answer my questions I'd appreciate it. I know I asked a lot of em! Whenever you have a minute! Thanx