Another Enthusiast’s Successful Quest for a CarMax Unicorn

I don’t make anything off this money-losing blog. My reward is hearing from other CarMax unicorn enthusiasts about my blog posts, or even better, when you all find cars of your own that support the idea of finding deeply depreciated high-end cars and protecting yourself from expensive repairs with MaxCare. I got a very nice email from a gentleman we’ll call “Ian” to protect his privacy. As far as I can tell, he went through the entire car search unaware of this blog and only found out about it afterward. He was kind enough to share his story, which I greatly enjoyed.

I find it reassuring that I’m not the only one who treats a car search like a Rubik’s cube, with each twist affecting all of the other combinations available to me – or not. Am I all in on performance, luxury, or a balance of both? How much should I spend, and if I spend more (or less), how does that shape my choices? Do I want to recreate an experience I had with a previous car or get something totally different? Once I fill in those blanks, how many different cars fit the bill, and how do I pick between them? Then, I learn something new and start all over again. Reading Ian’s email, it’s clear he and I think alike on the search, and I suspect some of you do, too. So, I’m sharing it below, and I’ll occasionally add some commentary in red (to match his car). Enjoy.

Ian’s Story

The story of my unicorn from CarMax starts with my previous car, a Genesis G70 4-cylinder, I bought five years ago. That car also had an interesting story as I bought it sight unseen with a >20% discount over MSRP. The car was flawless; for a while, it was unique, and I received many compliments. However, it was my second choice at the time, as the car that stole my heart back then was the Audi S5 Sportsback. Right from the start, even though I liked my G70 a lot, I was thinking about other cars. The G70 nickname became “The Unloved.”

The G70 was leased, so around the 3-year mark, I started test-driving possible replacements. Like you (me), I tried to stay open to many options and considered both sedans and coupes. During those test drives, I discovered which features were important to me. Off the top of my head:

• AWD, as I live in Washington State, and it rains for eight months of the year.
• The engine sound, so V8 preferred, but I was also open to “nice” V6s.
• HP, preferably over 400.
• A bright color without overdoing it (my G70 was gray).
• A moonroof.
• Nice interior (which immediately disqualified Mustangs and Chargers/Challengers).
• Able to trade in my G70 for tax purposes.
• The price had to “make sense” (I’ll explain later that part).
• Try to avoid fees from dealerships (VIN etching? c’mon) and transport fees from CarMax / Carvana.
• Able to test drive the car (requirement from wifey).

A good requirements list. Not included, although he gets there in the search below, is what’s the mileage limit that will give you a decent amount of driving before hitting the MaxCare cap? (Remember, Chuck writing in red here!)

At some point in the search, I took a 2,000-mile road trip with my G70 and had a blast. After it was over, I kept thinking about how awesome it would be to make a similar road trip in a sports or GT car. I landed on the BMW 6 series with a nice V8 that checked all my boxes. However, the car had seriously depreciated because its engine was infamously unreliable, which led me to the rabbit hole of after-market warranty providers. That’s where I learned (from Porsche forums (that hurts :)) about the great CarMax MaxCare warranty. I added a new feature to look for: under some kind of warranty, whether it was the last 18-24 months from the factory, a CPO, CarMax, or Fidelity (one of the MaxCare underwriters). As is always the case, the target price starts creeping up, and you are over your initial allocated budget sooner rather than later.

I found a 2014 BMW 650i at $40,000. However, I couldn’t convince myself to pull the trigger for financial reasons, so I spoke to a financially savvy friend, hoping that he would side with me, but of course, he didn’t. However, he had a great idea: he made me realize I was more interested in the experience of driving a fun car on a road trip but not so much in the actual ownership of the car.

On the one hand, my friends have been helpful to me, clarifying my priorities and evaluation choices. On the other hand, eventually, they will all get sick of hearing about my car searches.

I decided to rent the cars instead I might want to drive to get them out of my system. Over a two-year period, I rented several cars through Turo and took road trips in them. This was awesome as I got to know the cars more deeply, and I kept increasing my knowledge about what I wanted in a car. (I had not heard of Turo until Ian wrote; coincidentally, they’re in the news this week due to the New Orleans and Las Vegas tragedies.)

Some of the most notable ones are below. (I picked the CarMax examples, but they aren’t the ones Ian looked at.):

Lexus LC500: It has an amazing engine note, a great interior, and gives you confidence when driving it, but it was heavy and cumbersome.

C8 Corvette: This was the sportiest and flashiest car I drove. It was a blast to drive but also not very comfortable or practical.

2014 Audi RS5: the one with a V8, another incredible engine note, but the interior and tech made the car feel cheaper (at least to me).

BMW M5: An absolute beast. A car that big shouldn’t be able to go that fast!
Jaguar F-Type P450: It was the Goldilocks car: not the best-sounding, fastest, or most practical, but 9/10 in every area.

BMW M4 Competition: This car won me over, as I wanted to hate BMWs, but I couldn’t. It has great handling, is very fast, and has lots of tech.

Then, it seemed that I would settle for a big-ish car like an Audi RS7. At the beginning of this year, I was so close to a green light on a beautiful BMW M550i, but I got cold feet at the last minute at the dealership, with everything ready to complete the deal. The reason? My G70 was flawless mechanically, serving me well for four years. It was still under warranty, and I couldn’t justify trading it for a 72K-mile BMW with no warranty.

The fever eased for a few months until about four weeks ago when I went out with the same friend who advised me to rent a sports car. He recently bought a used Audi TT in a sporty trim, and again, listening to the sound engine reignited the fire in me. Also, even though it had only been six or seven months since I almost got the M550i, I now looked at the G70 in a different light. It had only a couple of months left on its warranty; while the car was mechanically sound it had suffered cosmetically. All rims had curb rash, and tree sap had fallen on several spots. Its value as a trade-in was diminishing because I hadn’t properly taken care of it. I started looking at replacements again. This time, I was looking for smaller cars. At some point, I drove an Audi RS7 and RS5 back-to-back, and while I enjoyed the RS7, the RS5 felt just right, much closer to the size of the G70.

I continued searching for smaller cars, looking at two possible options near me: another G70, but with the V6 engine (after all, I loved the car) (a natural alternative – what if I just got a better version of what I have and love now?), and a red RS5. I test-drove both and disqualified the G70 as the brakes were severely worn (I should know how a G70 drives!), and it was black (not my favorite color). The RS5 became the new baseline. The car was very good (even though I’ve never liked the Audi shade of red), just was on the expensive side, and again, it would need a high-priced third-party warranty on top of the sale price.

After that weekend, I got another friend’s opinion on both cars, needing someone to bounce ideas off. However, when I showed him the V6 G70, he asked an excellent question – “what are you getting for the money you’re paying to trade up your car?” More power.  “That’s it?” he questioned. He had a point. If I were going to pay to replace my G70, I would have to get more than just two extra cylinders. I should be happy and excited about the car. 

Next, he inquired about my budget. I have always thought about it as “$XX,000 after my trade-in” with bands for 10K, 20K, and 30K. “And what does that mean in terms of a monthly car payment?” I mumbled. I haven’t thought about it that way. What I could do instead is to work backward from a monthly car payment and figure out how that translates to a purchase price. This is usually a bad idea (that’s the strategy used by new car salesmen). I have a great reference point: precisely this month, I’m paying the last installment on my wife’s SUV, which was $625 monthly. There will be no impact on our monthly budget if the payment for my next car is at that price point. And when I check an online car payment calculator with my assumptions (48-month loan, 6.7% interest, trade-in value), I get a top price of $50,000. But that’s all inclusive of tax, title, fees, and, more crucially, third-party warranty.

Using that advice as a guideline, I started looking at the cars I had loved on my road trips. I started with the Lexus LC 500. It wasn’t AWD, but it felt planted when I drove it, and I love its looks. I found a couple of them for sale. They were obviously above what I wanted to pay, but I figured I wouldn’t need a warranty, and they wouldn’t depreciate as much.

I moved on to my next choice, the Jaguar F-Type. F-Types are a bit tricky to shop and compare because there are so many variants: V6 or V8, the original and two facelifts, the packages and options. At least I knew I wanted a coupe instead of a convertible! So I went to CarMax and searched for F-Types… and this one came along: beautiful shade of red, great wheels, price is right, model year 2017, low mileage for the year… and it’s an R, which means 550 HP. On top of that, the car is in Oregon, a 3-hour drive from where I live.

But what am I missing here? What’s wrong with this car? I scrolled down and saw the rental history and theft report. OK, let’s go deeper: for how long was it rented? When was it stolen? Was it crashed afterward? In addition to the Autocheck report provided by CarMax, I retrieved its Carfax. The rental isn’t too bad: it seems it was a rental for about a year, from 28K to 40K miles. I can live with that. In addition, the car was very well taken care of during its first 30K miles. OK, let’s look at the theft report… and it’s nowhere to be found. Alright, was the car crashed? Nope, no record of any crash at all. So, long story short, a CarMax employee likely checked the wrong box when entering the car’s info into the system because I couldn’t find any other reference to the car being stolen. I think the car received very little market attention because of the listing errors. (I have spotted unicorns underpriced because the CarMax lister missed some options on the car. I have also found some unicorns that don’t have what the listing says it has and have been unable to get CarMax to lower the price. Can’t even get them to correct their error in the listing!)

OK, OK, what options does the car have? CarMax rates it a 9/10. I got the window sticker for the car, and the car looks awesome:

– $2,500 for the blade-forged wheels

– $2,500 for the extended leather package

– $2,500 for the Vision package (the most crucial package to have)

– $750 Black package.

Total MSRP when new: $113,000

CarMax price: $44,000. 60% depreciation in 7 years.

Am I still missing something? I cross-checked against all the options available for that model year, and it’s only missing two: color seat belts and a front defroster. Otherwise, it is fully loaded. However, the proper comparison is against the facelifted model years that came afterward. Those have a full touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and optional ventilated seats. But Apple CarPlay can be retrofitted, so I’d just lose the ventilated seats. I figure I will survive.

One last step: how much is my trade-in worth? During the Audi RS 5 test drive, I was offered $19K for my G70. I wanted to get $20K to make the math work. I got a CarMax appraisal… and it came back at $21K!  I have no doubt in my mind now I want this Jaguar F-Type. As I mentioned, the car is in Oregon, and I am in Washington State. I can get it transferred for free, but that would involve a wait of a few days, so instead, I decided to reserve it to test drive it right there in Oregon. If I buy it, the drive back home will also give me some highway time to test the car. It’s Friday night, and I make the earliest appointment, Sunday noon.

On test drive day, the car looked better in shape than I had expected. I notice some scratches here and there, but otherwise, it doesn’t look like a seven-year-old car. To my surprise, CarMax allows me to test drive the car for 30 minutes on my own (in Washington, they usually only allow you to take a short drive around the block!). Because I had completed a road trip with a Jag F-Type, I know how the car drives, and when I tested this car, I was surprised to discover it is buttery smooth. I want this car.

MaxCare was more expensive than I expected. I paid $4,500 for 5 years / 100K miles on the odometer, which wasn’t cheap and brought the final sticker price to $48.5K. But I stayed within budget thanks to the appraisal value and the tax benefit when trading in, plus the fact that I didn’t pay any transportation fee. I liked the car, but knowing it made sense financially made the whole experience even sweeter. I fell in love with the car and how I acquired it.

I’ve had the car for a few weeks, and it is simply perfect. I already took it to an independent inspection by a Jaguar Master Technician, and it came back perfect. “Great find”, he commented. I don’t know what else to say.

Anyway, thanks for your patience in reading all of this. I wanted to capture the story now that the details are still fresh on my mind, but I needed some external motivation to write it down, and that’s where you come in. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who has had a similar experience looking (and finding!) a great deal at CarMax. I won’t purchase any cars for a while (ha!), and I hope my story shares some similarities to your experiences.

Cheers!

Ian

Thanks, Ian, for a thorough play-by-play on how you got from your Genesis G70 to a 550 horsepower 5.0 liter V-8 powered Jaguar unicorn within budget. Highlights for me the twists and turns a unicorn search takes, and hopefully, we get clarity on what we want and the fidelity of cars available within the budget. It feeds the notion that if we look hard enough, we can have it all, more car than we thought we could afford and protected by the MaxCare warranty from expensive repairs.

If you like Ian’s 2017 Jaguar F-Type R, here’s one in Colorado Springs that I just saw today. It’s almost identical, but it costs a little more money!

Stock No. 26549189 VIN SAJWJ6DL7HMK35936