Number of owners does not bother me provided car were properly serviced throughout the years. Carmax and auction history would be red flags to me. These cars are too liquid to be dumped at Carmax or need to be sent to auction unless there are "issues."

 

Generally agree with you. I have a number of friends who just want an easy way to sell their car. The more I think about it, most of them lease so end of lease return is real easy. For those who own their cars, Carmax makes it real easy too.

 

 

Around here, the logistics favor CarMax. There is only one Porsche dealer and they rarely have a used 911 for sale. It just is not a big seller here. They use a lot of salt on the streets here in winter. So, when you are looking for that special car, odds are good you will be looking south. That makes buying from CarMax very attractive, with their transfer fee, grace period and 30 day warranty. Plus if you trade yours in to them, you save thousands in sales tax. That basically offsets what you would have got if you sold privately.

I could be wrong, but I think most of the people in this forum have some real world budget limitations, or you wouldn't be buying 6 - 12 year old cars. So, things like saving $2500 - $4000 in sales tax is a very real consideration.

 

I would have carmax get the cigarette smell out prior to purchase. It can be done, combination of ozone treatment and detailing. But I would only consider buying after carmax fixed it.

 

I had the same experience with a nice 335i. I went to pick it up, and it smelled "funny". It had been masked to cover up cigarette smoke. I returned the car 2 days later.