This is an automotive mystery, and I welcome help from anyone and everyone to solve it. My hobby is searching the CarMax website for unicorns, and sometimes that means searching with one attribute or another and seeing what pops up. Are there any V-12’s? Hellcats? What’s the highest mileage car? Lowest? Most expensive and least expensive? Oldest? Newest? The latter drove me to this post. Of the 83,000 vehicles in CarMax’s inventory, about 100 are 2026 models. Intrigued by how “used” 2026 models end up on CarMax lots, I dug deeper. Imagine my surprise to find a dozen nearly identical brand-new (almost no miles) 2026 Nissan Rogues not only at CarMax but also at a single dealership in Turnersville, New Jersey. I had to know more.
January 2026 Update – The number of new Rogues went up to 27, and nine have sold (so far). Most are in Maryland and New Jersey, though some strays have reached Michigan, Missouri, and even El Paso, Texas. Long ago, I was fascinated with the Where’sGeorge tracker for dollar bills. Explains my odd fascination with keeping tabs on these Rogues.
I called the Turnersville, New Jersey, CarMax, identifying myself as a writer on all things interesting at CarMax (a bit of an exaggeration), hoping to ask their sales folks how and why they came on a dozen identical “new” cars. I presume they got them in a batch at an auction, and yet couldn’t imagine why. And why sell them all at the same CarMax dealer – why not disperse them to nearby dealerships? A very nice young saleslady called me back to say she had no idea how this happened, and really, dealerships have no visibility into how cars show up on their lots anyway. I did not believe her and figured she was both clueless and, even if someone at the dealership knew, they weren’t going to tell me.
Next, I called the closest Nissan dealership to that CarMax, Nissan of Turnersville. They’re a seven-minute drive from the CarMax dealer. A gruff but loveable sales manager scolded me repeatedly that there’s no way CarMax could sell “new” cars, and these were probably old, and don’t worry about it. I assured him these were 2026 models, and as far as I can tell, they were never titled and have almost no miles. He said maybe, but if you buy from CarMax, you won’t get Nissan’s 1.9% financing (Salesmen are all alike), and I interrupted to say “not my point – a used car dealer in your backyard is selling a dozen damned near new Rogues in direct competition with yours!” I got his attention and we had a nice chat, and I gave him one of the VIN’s since he seemed intent on following up by then. I got a hint of the New Jersey mob indignation at someone encroaching on your turf and wondered if some car dealers were going to the mattresses. Imagine my disappointment when, a few hours later, I got a text saying,” By the way, if you are interested in buying a new Rogue…”
That was yesterday. Tonight, I started scrubbing the CarMax listings to begin this post and was gobsmacked to find that most of these new CarMax Rogues are moving from Turnersville, New Jersey, to the CarMax in Laurel, Maryland, not far from me. What the hell? For the longest time, the CarMax in Laurel was the last CarMax that sold new cars – Toyotas back then, so I’m wondering if there’s a connection. The web tells me there are no CarMax’s selling new cars anymore. I’m baffled why having a dozen new Rogues at a dealership in Maryland is any better than one in New Jersey. And while I’m doing this rigorous analysis over some Jack and Sprites watching Thursday Night Football, I see there are two more of these 2026 Rogue’s inbound. We are up to 14 now.
I don’t know a lot about Rogues and don’t much care. But of course, I had to dig deeper into this little SUV. It’s made in Smyrna, Tennessee. All of these models have AWD and a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder engine good for 201 horsepower, 228 ft-lbs of torque, and a 0-60 mph in a sluggish 8 seconds. Be aware: CarMax lists some of these as three-cylinder and others as four-cylinder, but they’re all three-cylinder turbos. The sales price is pretty narrow, $27,998 to $30,998.
The mix is eight SV models and six S models, and all eight SV models are actually the next level up Rock Creek trim, with a few more features standard. The Rock Creek models are outfitted with automatic cruise control and Nissan’s best autonomous-driving feature, ProPILOT Assist. As an aside, I’m wondering how much better autonomous driving is on modern (2026) cars compared to my 2021 Mercedes?
The 12 vehicles above popped up in Turnersville, and the two below were listed for Laurel tonight. I’ve added all 14 to my saved folder on my CarMax profile so I can see where the hell these vehicles go next.
For what it’s worth, all of these Rogues were first available in September. All in New Jersey. No mention of fleet or rental. All say the last recorded mileage was maybe “1” OR “2” miles.
Oh yeah, for those unfamiliar, like me, with the trim levels and MSRP for the Nissan Rogue, here you go. Rock Creek is not a trim level you can sort for in the CarMax app, but you can see from the Nissan website below that trim was $4,000 more than the base model, and maybe, since CarMax can’t distinguish, perhaps a bargain? The top-of-the-line trim is Platinum. This ain’t that.
In closing, if anyone can help figure out the dynamics of this peculiar accumulation of Rogue Nissans, I would welcome your input. To help, the stock numbers and VIN’s for the 14 Rogues are below. Thanks again for reading, and I appreciate any help.
Stock No. VIN Location
27794620 5N1BT3BB9TC679037 LAUREL
27794623 5N1BT3BB4TC686445 LAUREL
27794624 5N1BT3BB8TC694581 LAUREL
27794625 5N1BT3BB8TC694435 LAUREL
27794627 5N1BT3BBXTC694405 LAUREL
27794628 5N1BT3BB0TC676110 LAUREL
27794630 5N1BT3BB3TC693578 LAUREL
27794635 5N1BT3AB2TC686767 LAUREL
27794636 5N1BT3AB2TC671153 LAUREL
27794637 5N1BT3AB8TC688846 LAUREL
27794639 5N1BT3AB2TC681178 LAUREL
27794640 5N1BT3AB1TC685769 LAUREL
NEW
27794638 5N1BT3AB5TC685399 LAUREL
27794626 5N1BT3BB5TC696028 TURNERSVILLE (COMING SOON)
Interesting blog. It’s possible that like Carvana, Carmax has bought a new car dealership. Carvana bought one in Casa grande Arizona, and I believe it’s a Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership. They’re offering new cars now. Regarding the autonomous driving, I would imagine your current Mercedes is equal if not better than what Nissan is putting out. It’s basically lane keeping assist with smart cruise control. Hands on the wheels eyes on the road. Doubtful it’s to the level of blue Cruise or similar. If you really want to have an eye-opener, get in a newer Tesla that has FSD and go for a ride. You will be astounded at how well it does. Recently took a trip, in a neighbors new Model Y, from Scottsdale down to Yuma, Arizona and back. Did not have to touch the wheel or the brakes one time. I never thought I’d own an electric vehicle, but I’m seriously considering buying a cyber cab when they become available. Use it for myself and also to earn a little money!
Thanks, Drew. I never posted about my cross country drive in the Mercedes last year. For some reason on I-70 in Kansas the car rolled 70 miles over an hour totally hands free. I changed lanes, slowed and accelerated in traffic, and I never touched the wheel. I had been experimenting with it and was timing it. Only ended when I had to exit the highway. And for over a year never happened again. I get prompted on either distance or time or terrain – who the hell knows, but never more than a minute I’d guess. This week I made a thousand mile road trip and several times it did not prompt me for long, long periods – the best was 20 miles and again ended when I exited the interstate. I’m flummoxed. The car is clearly capable of much more than it (usually) allows me to do. Oh well – for now it’s enough hands free to pour fresh coffee.
Sure some Nissan dealer trying to hit their stairstep incentive and sold a bunch to CarMax,
I do this everyday, this is a simple one: these are all coming from Nissan factory sales available to all car dealers on wholesale auctions. The discounts under Msrp are crazy on these things (but are about 5-10% under current wholesale values). Carmax sweet spot is usually around 10%. These are often factory cars etc — and right now there’s a lot of these rogues. Carmax hasn’t hit a lucky gold mine here. They won’t overpay for a car and have simply seen an opportunity to fill retail demand for Nissan rogues. Remember carmax doesn’t guess. And Joe car dealer down the street can buy these rogues too.
Thanks, Jake. Had no idea. Can I add this to the post and credit you?