Prices Dropping? Unusual Number of Unicorn Alerts

Over the past 24 hours I’ve gotten emails alerting me to price reductions on five of the 43 cars* I have saved in my CarMax profile.  Not a lot – $601 per car, but in the year I’ve been tracking unicorns I’ve never gotten this many.  Curious….New Year’s sale (CarMax doesn’t do sales) or is this related to the massive increase in inventory I blogged about last month ( The $577 Million Car Loan and Other Fascinating CarMax “Analytics” ) .

*I have 110 cars in my profile but many are listed as “No Longer Available”.  I keep them because more than a few resurface in another city, or even a few have been sold back to CarMax and show up back on the market.  That’s how I knew the 2010 Jaguar XKR I declined in January 2017 sold in Maryland, and was traded in and offered again in Virginia in December for $1,000 more than last year!

Here’s the unicorns I’ve been alerted to today:

Mustang GT Price Drop

$17,998 – Stupid Low Mileage 2006 Mustang GT

 Link – If Dead Car Sold/Hold/Transferred

VW EOS Price Drop

$12,599 – Rare 250hp V6 VW EOS

CarMax Link – If Dead Car Sold/Hold/Transfer

PT Price Drop

$10,599 Low Mileage Retro Cruiser 

CarMax Link – If Dead Car Is Sold/Hold/Transferred

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First Five Fabulous Unicorns

I have a couple of dozen (about 50 really) CarMax unicorns tagged but wanted to open with a sampling of what’s on the lot today.  Again, my bar is $35,000 or less, 60,000 miles or less, an enthusiast car, and relatively exclusive.  Your standards may vary.  So here they are in no particular order:

2007 MB CL550 $26,998 34k 8-9-17

2007 Mercedes CL550 – The “big coupe” from Mercedes – the two door version of the S-class, originally a $100,000 car.   You can read the review from the link below.   It’s the third generation CL and has everything a top of the line Mercedes should have – in 2007.   What I like? It’s big, exclusive, comfortable, well-appointed with Distronic auto cruise control, cheap, low miles (driven only 3,400 miles yearly), and you can get a warranty for the next five years. I like that with only 34,000 miles CarMax will likely give an affordable warranty to 75,000 miles – but I would take all they offer that I could afford.  What I don’t like?  No bluetooth. Ad says rear view camera but I doubt it – CarMax photo spread almost always shows a shot of the rear view camera in action if it has one.  Rear view photo of the car doesn’t show one.  I don’t like less than 400hp but 382 ain’t bad.  I also don’t like that this car is not transferable and is 3,000 miles away from me.  I would give it serious consideration.  I’ll bet it’s gone in days, although there’s also a 2009 CL550 on the lot at $32,998 that hasn’t moved in a week.  We shall see!

Car and Driver Review CL550

2011 BMW M3 – The “benchmark” sport coupe per the review below, and the best everyday sports car I can imagine.  I’ve owned a 3-series.  Everything is in the right place.  M3’s are tough to find in my unicorn category.  Once a $70,000 car, most are close to the $35,000 unicorn limit, have 70-80,000 miles on them and are 8-10 years old.  I have a hard time paying that much for that old with that mileage.  So I like the balance of price and mileage here.   I like the SMG transmission and 400hp.  I’m not a big fan of the hard top convertible only because I own a convertible. Otherwise it’s the best of both worlds.  Don’t know why, but the hard top convertibles sell at a discount over the hard top coupes.  If you like these then you’re in luck!   A little short on amenities but you can’t have a bad day in an M3.

Autoweek Review – 2011 M3

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