Always important to get an independent assessment of CarMax unicorns, as I’ve always maintained one should treat buying from them like buying from a private owner. Despite their claims of in depth inspections of the cars they sell, the reality is they do little before the sale but are great at making things right afterwards. So this week I had my 2010 Mercedes S600 that I just bought thoroughly looked at with a PPO (*Post Purchase Inspection in my case) at by Euro Motorcars in Germantown, Maryland – where Service Advisor Zach Baum and Mercedes guru John Heflin are highly regarded by the Greater Washington Section of the Mercedes Benz Club of America. Turns out Zach also has a CarMax unicorn – a Mercedes C63 AMG and has also leveraged the excellent MaxCare warranty!
Bottom line – no drama. The S600 I bought was previously a Mercedes Certified Previously Owned vehicle, and the previous owner had a pre-paid maintenance plan. The car was regularly serviced and yes, had the normal amount of high end repairs done during its nine years and 45,000 miles – ignition coils, motor mounts, and Active Body Control (ABC). For now, the only issues with this purchase are a missing key FOB (CarMax replacing), dirty floor mats (CarMax cleaning), and shrieking wiper blades (also on CarMax). Knock on wood, but after almost 2,000 miles and a PPO this may be the best of the three unicorns I’ve purchased so far!
