Question about who to trust painting the M37X I just bought

[Wilbursan]

I have until tomorrow to decide if I want to keep my 2013 M37X that I just bought from CarMax. It already had a bad wheel bearing they had to replace, and today I had the local dealer check it out and looks like it's been lightly damaged on the front and rear bumper. There is slight damage underneath, but nothing major. What's odd is that all 4 quarter panels also look as if they were repainted (peeling on the bumper, some orange peel on one quarter, overspray behind the gas cover, etc) but they don't show any damage (not obvious anyway, they recommended I take it to a body shop). The car just wasn't hit hard enough to warrant that so we're thinking some idiot drove it who just kept bumping into things. Mechanically they believe the car is sound, it just needs to be painted correctly (and some minor dents in the bumpers).

I just found this out today and am taking it back to CarMax tomorrow to see what to do about it. I just got off the phone with the salesperson and she said they will "take care of it" and they have a "complete shop", which suggests to me that if they agree to any repainting they are going to do it themselves. Now the manager hasn't said anything yet so that isn't official, but that's what it sounds like to me. There no way I'm paying this much for a car and have three different paints on it (the factory, the current attempt to fix it and the new one) so if I agree to keep the car it's only on the condition that it gets fully painted. So if it comes down to it, would you let CarMax paint your car?

[Ilya]

Yes I would because they likely would warranty it with a nice warranty (CarMax has a track record of being a decent place all things considered).

Otherwise, if they are footing the bill for outside work, I'd find the highest rated spot in your area lol. Definitely don't over pay for the car though. Good call there.

[Larz]

I agree, CarMax (at least the locations I have visited) seem to take customer service quite seriously. I have purchased two M's and an SUV from them using two different locations. I reckon they will also take great care in the body / paint shop. I'm not sure they will be willing to paint your entire car, but if they will, I would have no reservations about the job they will do.

[Wilbursan]

I talked to them yesterday and so far the best offer I've gotten is to allow them to repaint the areas that have been painted already. I'm really worried that in 4-5 years that will be real obvious. That's what happened to a previous MX6 I had. Granted it was red, not black. They've offered to find me a another vehincle but there is nothing in their network (or anywhere else I can find) will all the options I have for this price - usually 20-30K more miles and a couple of grand more. Man I hate making decisions like this.

Other than this, it's a damn fine car.

[Wilbursan]

To finish this up, I took the car back yesterday. I had a body shop look it over and they found more evidence of body work. The front bumper had actually been replaced, not just painted, and the gas door was dented. Also, several of the buff marks I had seen were actually places someone had sanded and then tried to power-buff them out, including several in the back passenger door indicating it had probably been painted too. That's far too much touch-up work for me, and even if they had offered to pay for a new paint job I was unwilling to let someone disassemble my brand new (to me) car and put it back together, so I passed. To CarMax's credit they didn't blink about refuding my money. All of it, no "we keep $500 for processing" or any crap like that. They even offered to absorb my next transfer fee if I choose to buy from them again as long as it doens't exceed the first. They are a very easy company to deal with, but I'm pretty convinced that the source of this sloppy touch-up work was another CarMax (I have no evidence of that though).

[renaldo0613]

Oh man. I'm in the process of purchasing a 2012 M37 from carmax as well. Just got delivered today. Looks like I will be following your lead on getting that body checked out outside of carmax. Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you.

[Wilbursan]

I would take full advantage of the 5 day grace period. I'd take it to the dealer as well as the body shop to get it looked at underneath. Mine had some slight damage under there that was going to cost me a few hundred bucks as well, and it was evidence of some minor collissions. There was also rust as this car had been in the NE. Mostly adjustment bolts so they actually said don't worry about it. Sometimes they come right off, sometimes you have to torch them, but whatever you have to do is the same whether your're doing it now or later so may as well wait until you have to. Doesn't hurt to look though.

Good luck getting it into a dealer. Mine unexplicably did it for me but they were slammed. I think they are handling a bunch of recalls or something?