CarMax Reviews

Pros

Good "team" environment. Free lunches on some Saturdays.

Cons

Limited opportunities for advancement. Pay could be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more open to promote from within.

Pros

Opportunities for advancement are good

Cons

Because the opportunities for advancement are good they end up with a lot of incompetent managers.
When Austin Ligon retired and Folliard took over the company lost it's focus, the stockholder became more important than the customers and associates.

Advice to Senior Management

Start caring about your customers and associates again. Put the focus back on quality and stop thinking any repair that last 30 days is a quality repair

Pros

They have a nice facility and nice people for the most part. They focus on health a lot and keeping their associates healthy.

Cons

They are known for micromanagement depending on what department you work for. The hours are 8am-11pm. They offer salary below market value although they claim they are competitive.

Advice to Senior Management

Not all of the leadership is professional. Sometimes you wonder where they hire some of the people, especially at the call center.

Pros

-Easiest place to sell cars.
-No haggle prices keep you from having to go back and forth with a manager and the customer over the price of the car.
-Take customers through the door in a rotation as opposed to everyone competing for leads.
-Flexible hours for a car dealership.
-Huge national inventory that can be shipped into any location making the selection process for the customer easier.
-Cosmetic standards on cars are high.
-Very laid back environment.

Cons

-$160 flat rate commission on any car is very low compared to other dealerships.
-Economy is weak so 100% commission isn't what it used to be.
-Too many sales people on the floor. Have to go an hour between customers. Meanwhile you make $0 for your time that you stand around doing nothing.
-Customers will waste hours of your time and not buy.
-People are rude to used car sales people.
-Customers will come in and want to test drive and see all the prices, then take all of the information you gave them to a different dealership that will negotiate. When this happens, you just worked hard and made $0.
-Required to shovel snow, organize cars on the lot, attend meetings, etc. without any hourly pay.

Pros

Managment is very open to your personal and proffesional life. They are always there to help you become better at what you do.

Cons

Commision is low. You need to be a top seller to make good money.

Advice to Senior Management

None.

Pros

Close to where I live, friendly atmosphere, supervisors allow you to work without micro-managing.

Cons

Health benefits expensive, but dental and vison is ok

Advice to Senior Management

no advice

Pros

I made $48,000 last year PART TIME. 25 hours a week. This year I'll probably make $34,000. It's the only job that I know of I can work limited number of hours for this kind of income. I also get a company car. But it takes about five years in your position to get to that point. Schedule is only 18 hours a week but you can work more. Management is fair. Good policy in regards to treating associates with respect. It's nearly impossible to get fired for performance. This may be a pro for some (it's a con for me).

Cons

No benefits for part time. Full time benefits (although very good) are expensive. Company is changing. So future is unclear. They have gone away from hiring naturally good sales people and are hiring inexperienced robots they are trying to train to be good sales people. This is hurting sales and customer service. I still recommend this company as I think things will work themselves out. They do learn from past mistakes so hopefully they will learn and turn things around.

Advice to Senior Management

The job is 100% commission (which works for me) but you are managed as if you are on a salary. Consultants who work on 100% commission need to be left alone to sell. Micromanagement is stressing the sales staff and sales are falling quickly. Please pay us a salary plus commission if 30-40% of our time is going to be wasted doing tasks unrelated to making a sale. Please focus this attention on new hires who desperately need it. Also, please, go back to old hiring practices. Sales behaviors cannot be successfully trained. It's a skill only certain personalities possess.

Pros

Fortune 500 #32 company to work for.

Cons

Full commission sales can be unpredictable sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Good training. Good feedback system. Positive encouragement. Decent but expensive benefits. Excellent website and tools to work with.

Cons

Carmax is making as much or even more per car than reputable dealers, but pays its sales people about 20% of what they should be making per car. Also, their mechanic shops have cut a lot of corners + the mechanics were converted to hourly, effectively cutting their average pay by about $10k annual. Nothing sucks like telling a customer how great quality Carmax cars are only to have your customer angrily walk out because the car is not of acceptable quality.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your people what they are worth and bring back the quality and prices that made Carmax a name worthy of respect.

Pros

(This is for the Home Office).

The work life balance is excellent. There is a lot to learn and it is amazing how nice everyone is. Lateral rotations are encouraged to exercise flexibility, and allows you to broaden your skill set all within one company. Teamwork is heavily encouraged, and competition amongst your peers is refreshingly-discouraged. Management is caring, and there truly is an open door company. There are lots of team builders and corporate perks/events; the company just has a "fun" attitude. Very strong job security.

Cons

This is a company you want to "settle down" with... NOT one you want to further your career in. Because of the flat organization (at least at Corporate), there is very little room for upward mobility. The majority of people who come in either stay at their level, or may get promoted one level up max. Performance management is weak. You will find that people who should have been let go years ago, merely get a coaching and continue to be employed. It hurts morale, encourages employee complacency, and because excellent performance is rarely recognized materially (title, promotion or merit increase),your peers tend to settle for "average" performance. Base salary is uncompetitive compared to other area companies' equivalent positions - the company believes that the intangibles (company culture, work/life balance) more than make up for it.

Advice to Senior Management

- Manage out the poor performers
- Offer more incentives for strong performers (merit increase, title promotions, etc)