CarMax Des Moines

When I moved to Iowa, I first purchased a lemon of a vehicle from a local place. The transmission has gone out in that Subaru. After trying to locate a vehicle within my price range to replace the “lemon”, I ended up at CarMax. I was hopeful to find a trustworthy vehicle from a trustworthy company and it’s 125+ point inspection. They were able to get me into a Nissan Rogue in May of 2019. I did purchase the 125,000 mile extended warranted, which covered a replacement wheel bearing and complete failure of my AC system. Fast forward to 126,000 miles…and my transmission from the Nissan is done. There are many instances, including class action lawsuit and extension from Nissan, covering these CVT transmissions because of known failures. Not only did CarMax brush me off after calling their service department, but, they told me, “Well, you should have got the 150,000 mile warranty.” The place that touts being a customer-centered business was quick to brush me off, and, asked for a call from their operations manager after leaving a message. This was following the conversation with their service department. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. $5k for a new transmission and 1,600 miles out of warranty for a known/ongoing issue with Nissan is the real kicker. Never missed a single payment. CarMax is just like any other seedy experience in the car game.

I messaged on a truck to see if it was available n there and never got replied back on it

I love the no hassle car buying experience and my salesman was a good guy that was a veterans car salesman. They took care of getting me set up with a second key very quickly and got me a great interest rate on my loan I quickly paid off within 6 months. I will shop there again and have sent many members of my family there!!

Do not buy car from these people they are very racist and treat they customers like crap especially if you are black. They are very rude and nasty managers.

CarMax managed to make this the absolute worst car buying experience I've ever had. Rick was one of the most incompetent people I've met and I have a difficult time understanding how he has managed to live this long, considering a simple thing, like a phone call, seems to be impossible for him to manage. We ordered a car from NC and then he wouldn't update us on the status. He didn't tell us our car was there. He said he had the title set aside to rush it through, but that didn't happen. He couldn't tell us why, but he did tell us that nothing was his fault and he doesn't get paid until the sale goes through (seriously unprofessional to talk about your commission dude). We ended up just bypassing him and calling the business office. Seada seriously saved this sale- her professionalism is the only reason we didn't go somewhere else. Rick had approved us for financing and didn't even save it correctly, so when we got there to finalize everything we had to do the financing all over again which hits your credit. There were multiple employees milling around, staring, eating, talking, dancing, etc and it made the whole thing feel really disorganized and unprofessional. After 4 hours and a migraine we finally made it out of there. I will never, ever go back to another CarMax and would highly recommend that people stay as far away from this one as possible. Everything was so disorganized and it felt like we had to do all the work to buy a vehicle, when it should have been the other way around. The facilities get 2 stars because the bathrooms had no soap in the dispensers and were dirty, and there must not be a break room since employees have to eat their snacks while walking around where everyone is trying to sign paperwork. The best way I could describe CarMax would be to call it a xxxx show.

I thoroughly enjoy being able to walk into a car dealership to just look around and sit in vehicles, without being chased around the parking lot by a salesman! That is Carmax. You can go in, walk right out to the cars and browse, and all of them are open, have stickers with pricing and details, and you can get a feel for them without being bothered; no hassle, no haggling. I have purchased one car though them and was happy with the test drive, the buying process and the car has been great. Thanks Carmax!

Jeremy Wright went above and beyond for us. He helped us find the right car and right price. When you go there ask for Jeremy Wright. Tell them Aaron Haskin and Angie Butler sent you. The car is amazing.

I showed up at 5:15pm. I knew exactly what I wanted to look at. I told the guy at the front desk and he told me he would put me on the list of appointments. There were about 5 other employees standing behind him doing nothing. He stated that I could go ahead and take a look at the car and move the seat to be ready for a test drive. He said if you aren’t back then I’ll send the salesman out to you. Making me believe it wouldn’t be long. After spending 20 minutes outside I went back inside. The same 6 employees standing around inside. I waited another 5-10minutes before walking to the desk. I said “with 6 of you standing around I can’t get one of you to show me this car and take it out for a spin?” The guy at the front desk said “we are appointed only” there was 1 person schedule for 6pm. 2 people scheduled for 7pm and 1 person scheduled for 8pm. I walked out. It forced me to go to my next dealership that was a little farther way. However I walked in and received great service. I bought the car that night! I would never recommend car max to anyone. Horrible customer service!

Excellent selection of quality used vehicles. Priced very fairly, but low-balled big time when wanting to sell them my current vehicle to the tune of nearly 20% below KBB trade-in value.

When you reply to a car search request for more photos it behoves you too include the vehicle and the dealership identifiers in your email, before demanding identirying info from buyers. This dealer accomplished that miniimum standard. Sadly, across the board dealers are so bad at this that carmax gets 4 stars.