CarMax – One Test Drive Only Policy?

On Saturday, September 21st I visited my local CarMax dealership in Louisville, KY. I worked with a sales associate named Rickey Smith, who made a very strong impression on me. He answered all of my questions, gave me some great suggestions, and was absolutely fantastic to work with. I told him I was just looking that day. I didn’t take any test drives at CarMax, but had had test drives at Oxmoor Hyundai, Oxmoor Toyota, and Bachman Chevrolet. The customer service at Oxmoor Toyota and Oxmoor Hyundai was very good; my experience at Bachman was the pits. The sales guy at Bachman wasn’t very helpful and I felt like I was bothering him. That said, I was sold on my CarMax experience thanks to Rickey. I didn’t know what car I was going to buy, but he was going to be the person I worked with. I asked if he worked the following Saturday and at what time. I returned yesterday, Saturday September 28th and once again received amazing customer service from Rickey. He was helping a nice couple when I got there and I waited a few minutes. In the meantime, I walked around the lot a bit, and although I did wait seated for a few minutes, Rickey checked up on me a couple of times. He was able to make me feel important, but didn’t rush the customers ahead of me or rush them in way, shape, or form.

Once Rickey was able to help me, he was extremely considerate of the fact I had been looking at a number of cars on CarMax.com. We narrowed the search down to an Elantra (on-site), an Ionic (on-site), and believe it or not – a Chevrolet Camaro (on-site). I was so in love with that Camaro that it was hard to keep on the down low. We took them all out on test drives. I wasn’t sure about the Camaro. It being a muscle car and all and not in the realm of fuel-efficient and hybrids I was looking at online. I was equally in love with a silver on gray 2021 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid in Texas. Rickey was giving me all the info on shipping vehicles, but he couldn’t help but notice how in love I was with the Camaro.

Rickey is the kind of salesperson you want. He was very well-read on vehicles, performance, and had some great insights into financing, resale value, and the various nooks and crannies of manufacturer and extended warranties. He even knew about the life of lithium batteries and explained to me how their degradation worked insofar as the age of the vehicle and in terms of mileage.

In any event, Rickey never upsold me. He didn’t try to get me to buy the Camaro or the Hyundai’s. He simply made observations. And when he saw how enamored of the Camaro I was, he went above and beyond and found a newer Camaro, with 12,000 less miles, and just a smidgen more than the vehicle we checked out. Unlike the 2020 Camaro in Louisville, he found me a 2022 Camaro LTS in Columbus, GA. The shipping would be just $300. I told him I wanted to think it over, but would more than likely order before his next day at work (Wednesday).

Since I was pre-qualified and Rickey was my agent, he told me that even if I ordered through the app and he wasn’t working that day that he’d get a notification. And that’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be sure he was the only associate I worked with. Whoever trained him did a great job.

And I was ready to order, today, Sunday September 29th. But unlike Oxmoor Hyundai and Oxmoor Toyota, CarMax is open on Sundays. Another great tip Rickey gave me was that the interior body of the 2020 Camaro in Louisville and the 2022 Camaro in Columbus, GA, were identical. And since I was still slightly iffy about my actual legroom in the Camaro and because I wanted to gauge the horsepower just one more time before ordering, I figured I’d stop in.

As soon as I entered, I told the sales staff I was working with Rickey, that he wouldn’t be back till Wednesday, but that I was more than likely going to order my vehicle online and meet with Rickey when it arrived to finalize everything. I then went to the lot and found another car I’d want to test drive, a 2022 Kia K5. My mom’s been raving about Kia’s so why not? That said, I was there for the Camaro and to seal the deal with a second test drive. But once I said I wanted to try the Camaro again, the associate said that CarMax has a one test drive policy. I didn’t understand so I asked if he could explain that to me.

The associate told me that at CarMax customers are entitled to only one test drive per vehicle. He’d unlock the Camaro and let me sit in it, but that was about it. I couldn’t believe what he was saying to me, especially because I had been pre-qualified and was working with Rickey. Surely, the associate was mistaken so I tried to explain my position, but he reiterated that that was CarMax’s policy. At that point I asked to speak to a manager.

I was able to speak with Donna Pennington – the Sales Manager. She reiterated the associate’s line. She stated that it was CarMax policy that customers are entitled to only one test drive per vehicle. She said that perhaps an exception could be made on Wednesday (mind you this happened today, Sunday) when Rickey was working at the branch again. The sales manager spoke with a degree of certainty that made me think that she was either instructed to parrot this nonsense or that it’s actually CarMax policy.

I love to research by nature. I was a history major at the University of Florida and I’m a practicing attorney, here, in Louisville, Kentucky. If this is CarMax policy it should be posted everywhere online. And not just posted, but posted conspicuously – meaning ALL IN CAPS – so that customers know it’s one and done. The funny thing is, I spent about 30 minutes looking for this CarMax rule that the associate shot at me and which Sales Manager Donna Pennington cited as policy – and I couldn’t find it.

And policy is actually much stronger than some random rule. Saying something is company policy means it couldn’t possibly be more official. So if this is such a big issue with CarMax – why is it impossible to find? And there’s no way a sales manager is going to make up policy, is there? I’d think that would be a fantastic way to get fired. Who could have trained these folks on such a nonsensical approach to selling cars – USED CARS, no less!!

Upon a cursory search, I was able to find the Louisville CarMax manager on LinkedIn. The manager appears to be Andy Gilland, listed as “LGM.” According to his LinkedIn’s profile he’s been the Louisville general manager from January 2019 to the present. Maybe he knows something about the CarMax One Test Drive Only POLICY. Maybe their legal team does? If there is, in fact, such a policy I’ll be happy to include it here.

I’m not sure where this POLICY came from, but as a result of Ms. Pennington’s horrible customer service and that of her front desk associate, I can’t in good faith buy a vehicle from CarMax Louisville – or CarMax, anywhere. I’m also very sad that I can’t buy my next vehicle with Rickey Smith, who was absolutely amazing. He’s such a nice, down-to-Earth person, and I was even going to slide him a Benjamin once the sale was complete. I don’t normally do that, but this was a big deal for me, and I would have loved sealing a deal with him. I was going to do it with a very quick handshake. It’s a real shame because if a guy like Rickey could duplicate what he did with me across an entire sales team, CarMax would see unprecedented growth.

Anytime a customer feels at home and TRUSTS the people they’re working with, you’ve got the recipe for a great business transaction. Ms. Pennington, her associate, and perhaps even Mr. Gilland, might consider taking a page from Rickey’s approach. Even if this nonsensical rule were policy, Ms. Pennington – AS A MANAGER – could have saved the day. She didn’t. She didn’t because even if it’s a rule, she’s not a customer service person. That’s my subjective opinion. Don’t like it? Sue me.

I won’t do business with CarMax and I don’t recommend anyone go there, either. They have solid people working there – like Rickey – but as far as the company goes, they’re not getting my business. And you should think twice before giving them yours.