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 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
Continue reading “First Five Fabulous Unicorns”
Okay, there were 500 2008 Corvette Indy 500 Pace Car replicas sold by Chevrolet, butaccording to the pace car registry only 148 had a manual transmission, and of those only 71 were convertibles. Special enough for me. The pace car came with the Z51 suspension, the “NPP” dual mode exhaust (and pretty much no one knows what the NPP stands for), chrome wheels, two-tone interior, and personally signed and numbered by Emerson Fittipaldi on the right rear fender. And the cheesy graphics on the sides. This two-owner car has fairly low miles and can be found here in Columbia, SC. If the link is dead the car is sold, on hold, or being transferred.
Was surprised to find this 2008 Corvette with only 2,000 miles TOTAL. I normally get excited about 10-year-old cars with 3,000 miles per year, 30,000 total as 
