I had a great experience recently at the Carmax in Gilbert. It's quite far from where I live in downtown Phoenix, but it ended up being worth it both times we drove down there.
The first time I went in was Saturday 4/6. A few days before I had inquired about a Mini Cooper that I found doing a car search online. Keith was quick to respond to me and I made it out there as soon as I could. When we showed up on Saturday, Keith was busy with a customer so Denise took care of us instead, and she was absolutely wonderful. I was able to test drive the Mini Cooper I wanted and test drove another one just to confirm I liked the original (which I did). After that, my trade-in was appraised and it ended up being lower than I had hoped, but there were a lot of factors taken into account. So later on, I got approved for a loan very quickly and just needed to go home to get some documents.
I returned on Monday 4/8 to finalize everything. Keith was available to help us that time and he was very professional and really knew what he was talking about. It took a few hours to get everything done, but that's just how this works. As a first-time buyer, it was absolutely amazing to drive away in my new Mini Cooper. It's the perfect car for me and I find any excuse I can to drive it now.
My suggestion is this: do your research. I work in an industry where I'm very familiar with car dealerships and how they work, and at Carmax I never once felt like I was being pushed into a sale or being scammed into buying something I didn't need. It was an independent decision, and it was exactly how I'd like every car-buying experience to be in the future. I will without a doubt recommend Carmax to anyone looking for a car. Thank you again Keith and Denise for making my Mini Cooper happen! It had been a long search!