Buying a car through a local dealer or Carmax?

yes

Absolutely.

Bought my wife a car there a few years ago. All in all, not a bad experience.

With Carmax you will pay at or just a few hundred over the kbb.com price for buying from a retailer.

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Painless experience

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but dont expect them to come off the price.

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IF you're not concerned with getting a good deal, buying from the dealer is equally painless. Carmax is fine if you just don't feel like doing any negotiating, but don't try to kid yourself into thinking you got a good deal.

But in the day and age of being able to handle almost all aspects of buying a car over the internet, I see no reason to not get the best deal. The days of spending hours/days at a dealership negotiating to get a good price are gone.

CarMax cars start at 10K for a compact car with 150K miles on it..... They are huge because they make a ton of $$$ selling trash for big bucks. You can get a much better deal elsewhere.

I guess it depends on who has the car you want for the best price.

I would shop at a dealer with great reviews/reputation and one that specifically deals with 1 owner vehicles.