Unless you do not own a television, then you have probably seen the "CarMax difference" commercials that extol a "different way to buy a car." Free appraisals and purchasing of your car even if you do not buy a car from one of CarMax's nearly 100 superstores across the United States, internet inventory of over 20,000 cars, 30-day warranties, 125-point mechanical evaluation and repair, no cars sold with frame or water damage, three-day financing challenge, and five-day return policy almost seem too good to be true. From this journalist's perspective, having worked as a sales consultant for five months in 2008 at one of the four Houston, Texas CarMax stores, CarMax claims are far more gray than black and white.

A friend and I first visited CarMax in January, 2008, to help her buy a Ford Taurus. As a single mother with what CarMax staff refer to as "credit challenges," she was able to qualify for a Taurus the sales consultant identified with only $1000 down and a relatively-high, but not usurious interest rate. It had rained the night before our visit to CarMax and, as we opened the trunks of three Tauruses, we found all to be flooded with several gallons of rain water. Had it been only one car, it could easily have been explained as the trunk needed to have the rubber water barrier trim replaced. But three?

We then looked at a selection of four Ford Focus cars. All were free of swimming pool trunks and the one we test drove seemed to be a good value for a 2004 model. She purchased this car and has only been challenged with the need for multiple alignments over the past seven months. This is more attributable to the driver's closeness to curbs than her car being a lemon.

At the time, I was not in the market for a car, but since the sales consultant handled my friend's transaction with such Southern grace, and my 2004 Scion XB had been in three accidents and had over 110,000 miles on the odometer, I decided to go through mid-life crisis early and buy a 2002 Ford Mustang. It was a great buy, except the brakes had to be fixed by CarMax technicians three times in less than 30 days, and when I traded the car three months later for a more fuel-efficient 2007 Ford Focus, the brakes still squealed like a pig.

Unfortunately, I was laid off from my job as a health care administrator one week after my friend and I bought the Focus and Mustang. Facing few career options in my field at the time, I recalled the old adage that it is easier to get a new job when you already have one. So, on February 18, 2008, after being interviewed by five CarMax managers, I became a CarMax sales consultant. Looking from the outside-in as a car buyer, I had a fairly good purchasing experience (in comparison to the 15 other cars I have purchased from high pressure showrooms in Texas and North Carolina), yet being on the seller's side of transactions revealed some things that all consumers need to know.

Beware of advertising claims. "Well buy your car even if you don't buy ours." Rarely will any car dealer give a car owner what they perceive the car is worth. There is a lot of emotional attachment to cars. Most smart car buyers and sellers consult Kelley's Blue Book on-line or other reference guides used by banks and credit unions to estimate their car's value. There are wide arrays of factors affecting car value: 1) supply and demand, 2) fuel efficiency, 3) mileage on the odometer, 4) model year, and 5) body and frame condition, are the most common. Vehicles in reference guides are rated on condition and mileage, and to a lesser degree, accessories. The guides offer wholesale, sale-by-owner, and retail prices that estimate value.

At CarMax, in five months, processing over 300 appraisals, I presented offers to customers ranging from $50 to $35,000. All were wholesale prices. Less than 25% of my customers sold their cars to CarMax. For those that did, I was paid $50 per car in a commission. CarMax is totally truthful that they will buy any car. However, for those purchases not meeting the "CarMax Standard," auctions were held in the vehicle make-ready area every other week where upwards of 100 used car dealers bought these cars to sell on their lots. In fact, CarMax is proud to be the third largest vehicle auction in the United States. Interestingly, most vehicles sold at CarMax lots in Houston, at least, are from Mannheim national auctions, fleet sales, and rental car retirement sales--not trade-ins.

A 2008 law requires disclosure by dealers if a car was formerly used as a fleet vehicle, rental or taxi. There is no law that requires disclosure of body work performed or fender-benders. Car Fax and Auto Check vehicle history reports only detail repairs that were reported to them. They are a good guide to show history of title transfers so buyers can surmise if their purchase was driven in snow or sand based on the prior ownership. They do not show unreported mechanical and structural repairs.

As a CarMax associate, ironically, cars deemed unfit to be sold at CarMax to the public may be purchased by employees for themselves or family members at a small mark-up. In fact, one of the repair technicians purchased the Scion I traded in January. It had frame damage and a hatchback with a handle that was hanging on by Super Glue and a prayer.

Management at the store where I worked did not question sales associates who bought several cars a year (despite all sales staff signing a non-compete clause) and sold these cars on their own for extra income. Some sales consultants also referred unhappy appraisal recipients to "friends" who could offer more money for the trade and to certain insurance companies where there were personal relationships.

The creme de la creme of sales associates attained higher commissions as they achieved Senior Sales Associate, President's Club, and various levels of diamond status by selling certain numbers of vehicles each month, quarterly and annually.

Over 500 vehicles were sold at the CarMax where I worked in a typical month. However, by summer, escalating gas prices both increased the number of "low-ball" appraisals dramatically, reduced the number of prospective customers coming through the door, as well as sales (since approximately 15% of customers will buy on their first visit), and caused a huge inventory of gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks to stockpile that did not sell in the two weeks CarMax expects to "turn" a vehicle.

Contacts by consumers with CarMax on the Internet may have seemed like strictly informational conversations, but most e-salespeople used the interaction as an opportunity to run credit applications and commit customers to appointments to see their "dream" vehicle. CarMax associates are quick to brag that there is no Finance Department to deal with and interest rates are shown directly to the customer. This is only partially true. While no Finance Department exists, at least six sales managers have access to every credit applicants credit report that scroll continuously in the sales managers' office. Also, CarMax Auto Finance, or CAF, is the most chosen lender among customers with good or excellent credit.

One method used by every dealer I've encountered in 30 years to get prospective buyers to "fall in love" with their vehicle is to have them drive it home. CarMax puts a unique spin on this tradition by offering to finance the car while the customer is there (since CarMax cars are allegedly not held for interested customers) and give them three business days to possibly get a better interest rate at their bank or credit union. One of my customers, a 21-year-old bartender, was financed by CAF at 11.9% interest as a first-time car buyer. She received a 5.5% rate at her parent's credit union and will save considerable funds over her five-year loan.

From my experience, most people never bothered to shop around for financing because sales consultants were trained to emphasize the monthly payment and play down the interest rate. One of the first questions asked at any dealership is: "What kind of payment are you looking for?" CarMax loans are all simple interest loans with no prepayment penalty so there is some flexibility in years taken to buy the vehicle and this is very positive. However, all car buyers, like home buyers, should get prequalified before they buy to maintain control of the transaction.

Car shopping in our Internet age has saved many of us from wasting gas driving from dealership-to-dealership. Still, there are many consumers who like to "kick the tires" or examine the vehicles interior for wear and tear or odors. CarMax offers a service through their website where, for a non-refundable fee of $50 (local) to $749 (across the United States), a vehicle can be transferred from one store to another. Prior to the electronic transfer and prepayment of a fee, a "walk-around" is initiated by a buyer/appraiser at the vehicle's home site. Questions generally emailed by the sales consultant ask about odors, unusual wear and tear, and accessories. Within 30-minutes, the answers are returned.

In the case of one of my customers, who paid $549 for the transfer of a Chevrolet Tahoe (that was supposed to arrive in approximately 21 days), the SUV was noted "not a smoker's vehicle." When it arrived after 35 days (because the other CarMax said it needed to have an area painted), it reeked of smoke. While one local CarMax manager did pay an outside company to rid the SUV of the odor and it then smelled freshly shampooed, the customer feared the intense odor returning in time and walked away from his transfer fee and any purchase from CarMax. Had he bought the Tahoe, I would have received $150 in a commission for at least 12 hours assisting this customer. When he and other unhappy customers walked away, I made nothing--although there was a loan of $7.75 per hour that could be drawn upon when sales were quite dismal.

As gas prices rose, sales declined dramatically and our store hired more sales consultants (in my opinion to proactively replace the consultants who could not pay their bills and had to seek other career options). Sadly, by reducing the number of sales interactions per consultant with more consultants serving fewer customers, CarMax showed how little they valued their sales staff.

One way for sales consultants to double their basic commission was to recommend and sell MaxCare, extended service plans for a few or multiple years or 12,000 miles per year (whichever came first). On paper, MaxCare is outstanding. As long as routine maintenance is performed, for deductibles of only $50 at CarMax or $75 elsewhere, many expensive repairs were covered. However, the caliber of the CarMax technicians and mechanical errors I experienced over time made me see little value in using CarMax for service.

I asked the manager of our repair shop what training or certifications CarMax technicians have that qualify them to repair over 30 makes of cars. Also, I asked how he knows that all 125 areas are checked before a car is released to be sold. He said there were no vocational requirements, "but the brake guy was good and the others know what they're doing." When asked about how he ensures all 125 points are inspected and corrected, he said "after a while they get so good at it, they just know what to look for." Yet, all vehicles are sold with a certificate signed by a technician that attests to a 125 point check he performed.

I experienced this lack of quality control on two occasions. While an engineer and I were test driving a BMW sports car convertible on a hot, but overcast, day, half-way through the 10-minute test drive, he said, "I'm taking us back to CarMax." I asked if he did not like the car. He explained that "there was a definite problem with the brakes--could be air in the lines--and we stopped a few feet past a stop sign three blocks from the dealership. When we returned to CarMax, I asked him to pull the car into the service lane and he did, stopping just beyond the back door as the brakes once again failed to adequately stop the car. He thanked me for the test drive and told me that this experience made him uneasy about buying a car from CarMax so he was going to a BMW dealer. When I brought the problem with the car to the general manager and operations manager, their greatest concern was that I left the vehicle "unsecured" in the service lane rather than behind gates protected by military camp-standard entry and exit bars. I was ordered to pull the car behind another set of bars into Service. When I refused, at risk of getting injured, the general manager told me to go stand by the car until someone from the "make ready" department could pull it into a secure area.

As a sales consultant, one of our many unpaid jobs was to "merchandise." This, in CarMax lingo, is moving cars that are blocking other cars into parking spaces and moving improperly parked cars into their proper spots. While I was moving a Jeep Cherokee from a space blocking other cars, the accelerator became stuck and the car uncontrollably raced towards a row of other Jeeps. I pressed the brake down firmly to the floor, stopped the car (inches away from another car), and was thrust forward towards the steering wheel and back into my driver's seat. I was shaken, and developed a bad headache and neck pain over the hours that followed. I again reported the mechanical failure and was asked by a sales manager if "I accidently hit the gas instead of the brake."

In both instances, I was shown no empathy from management. On the day following the Jeep incident, the assistant to the general manager sent me to an occupational health clinic. I was sent to get a CT scan, diagnosed with a mild whiplash, prescribed a mild muscle relaxant and ordered to one-week of physical therapy. When I was released by the doctor from therapy, no longer taking the prescribed medication, she wrote on the back-to-work form that I could "return to car sales but not drive cars with stick shifts." The general manager, a former top CarMax sales consultant, said I could not test drive cars or work as a sales consultant, but he would create light duty jobs for me. These jobs forced me to bend repeatedly filing titles in the Business Office, stand in line for licenses at the county tax-assessor collectors office, and sweep-up trash around 535 cars and trucks in the car lot and visitors parking area. It was over 90 degrees with no clouds in the sky and 100% humidity on lot clean-up day. By the end of the week, I had a follow-up appointment with the occupational health physician. When I told her how the general manager amended her orders, she simply shook her head and said "I wonder where he got his medical degree?" To add insult to injury, the humiliating cleaning of the parking lots gave my fellow sales consultants a field day harassing me about my "promotion." Sadly, I still suffer from neck pain and have no known recourse.

My late father-in-law, Mayer Kerub, moved to America from Egypt and he made his living in Houston selling men's suits. I remember something he told me over 20 years ago when he was describing the work environment in Alexandria in the late 1950s. The garment business he worked for was privately owned by a Jewish man, and then taken over by President Nasser's administration. My Jewish father-in-law and family were forced from their home by a monarchy/theocracy that had no tolerance of Jewish neighbors. His trials and tribulations in Egypt came to mind during the bizarre months I worked at CarMax. One comment he often made was, "In Egypt, I would give the shirt off my back to a needy non-Jewish neighbor, but I would never turn my back on him because he might take my life." On a far less dramatic scale, my fellow sales consultants were apt to steal shirts, hats and jackets paid for by employees and in too many cases stole sales from customers that had previous relationships with other sales consultants.

Another irony is that I was told shortly after being hired that only 10% of sales consultant applicants were hired. With the high turnover, I saw that being a breathing human being was really the only criteria to work 60 hours or more per week for 0 to $30 per hour in typical sales.

If you are seeking an honest car transaction, be a smart consumer and beware of any deal that looks too good to be true. After my experience, if nothing else, I will remember the words of the senior most sales manager at my CarMax. "Mark," he stated with great conviction in his voice, "these are used cars; if someone traded them in with low mileage or they are recent models, there's likely something wrong with them; think about it."  Definitely food for thought for anyone falling in love with a car.

Flying the Friendly Skies

What is going on around and above us these days?  Gas prices are likely the number one topic around the office coffee maker.  Stories in various media are telling of closer-to-home camping vacations that, in more affordable times, might have been flights to see "the mouse" in California or Florida.  Food prices are rising.  The oldest and the first black man ever faced-off for the presidency.  Starbuck's has announced closing of hundreds of stores and laying off of baristas.  Questionable home mortgages and investor uncertainty are making the Dow a bear market that may be more then a grizzly. 

I speak from experience as a traveler having, over three weeks in July 2008, journeyed from Houston to Washington, DC twice; Columbus, Ohio; Billings, Montana; Casper, Wyoming; and Syracuse, New York on staff recruiting trips.  And I can't forget the layovers and overpriced captive-audience meals in Denver three times, Chicago twice, and Charlotte once.

It has been said that altitude affects attitude.  High flying ticket agents and flight attendants are exhibiting new attitudes as they face the stress and ire of tired travelers facing cancelled flights.  Add to these mood swings, instances of no pilots assigned to flights (one on AirTran and one on Southwest), and cattle car seating.  If the herd doesn't fill the planes, then cancellations or delays are more often than I have seen in forty years of flying.  I can compare attitudes and airline staff since I have had my long legs pressed against seats on AirTran, Southwest, United and its affiliates.

The reality angry travelers choose to ignore is that airlines are not free from the high costs of fuel worries that face us passengers driving to work.   Thousands of dollars more in jet fuel for flights have resulted in airline employees with stressful, often exhausted looks on their faces as passengers get grounded on higher priced flights, and aren't happy about it.

Did you know that most airlines are now charging to check luggage, while others aggressively promote more legroom on exit aisles as an option for only $49.00 more each way?  On three of my flights, the amount of ice allowed in each flight attendant's galley was so limited that warm, "free" beverages were served.  A recent upgrade for the twenties crowd allows passengers to buy Red Bull on a number of airlines I flew (as if flying doesn't make you charged up enough).  One of my fellow passengers, a marketer for a medical device company said her Lexapro (anti-depressant/anxiety medication) made flying bearable these days. 

But don't ask for special favors.  When my boss and I were minutes late for a flight back home to Houston from Washington-Dulles Airport, we actually observed a supervisor who refused to open the door to the jet bridge (that was still connected to our plane) for two ticketed, elderly Chinese men who were on their way to their mother's funeral in Houston.  The AirTran one-woman show told us all "once the paperwork was delivered to the pilot it was not possible to have others board the plane."  She went on to point out our obvious illiteracy since "the boarding passes clearly state the plane must be boarded no later then 10 minutes prior to departure."  So, for those of us old enough to remember the O.J. Simpson we admired running through a crowded airport, I suppose the new message is "too bad you're late but we can put you on stand-by (for us four hours in Washington), so take your time, enjoy a $7.00 sandwich and $6.00 beer."  Maybe I just do not understand the President's economic stimulus package and the airlines really do!

As an aside, of course you have to love the TSA.  They have created a marathon where laptop debagging and shoe removal may be new events in the 2012 Olympic Games.  Seriously, homeland security at airports is a needed service in these trying times, but I missed a flight because my Aim toothpaste has less than three ounces in a seven-ounce tube.  Details. Details. Details. All in all, the former Scout in me always tries to be prepared. So after my toothpaste was confiscated and I was reminded again of TSA policy by an officer young enough to be my child, I now check bags with large tubes of toothpaste, hair gel, and other potential threats to mankind (like the Big Boy bank I packed after lunch at a hamburger joint with fond memories from my childhood).  It was plastic but safely made it home with my other intangible memories of air travel when fares were cheap, airline personnel would call back a plane to help mourning sons make it to their parent's funeral, and we could actually eat a free Dobbs House meal on long flights.  I even remember being pinned with junior pilot wings by a real pilot and being given playing cards by a stewardess on a Delta flight from Houston to Florida decades ago.  Once, while proudly wearing my Delta wings, I was invited into the cockpit to see where it all happens.  Now that was way cool!  At least we Baby Boomers have the memories.  They are priceless.