Avantages
I can honestly say the best part of working there is the relationships that you have with your co-workers. I know that I made some friends for life. If you are a car nut you get to drive a lot of different vehicles. Very good benefits: medical, dental, vision, flexible spending account, adoption assistance, 401k and employee stock discounts. Plus discounts on parts, services, vehicles etc. The schedule is very flexible for part-time consultants attending school. Management isn't very restrictive when it comes to vacation requests. It is relatively easy to become a full-time employee if you start out as part-time. Paid extensive training. Uniforms are required but you do have a choice between colors and styles of shirts and you are even allowed to wear shorts and tennis shoes. Win great prizes at quarterly meetings. Free lunch on most Saturdays and break room has HDTV plus PS2 with Guitar Hero.
Inconvénients
If you can't stand being "micro-managed" don't work here. Goals can be very difficult to attain if you want to have a life away from work. The people who I saw do the best worked at least 60 hours per week. Ans as far as goals are concerned they are supposed to be mutually agreed to by the sales consultant and the manager but sales managers often just tell you your goal and you are on your way. You are on commission and the economy isn't doing well so your pay can suffer. At times it is very hard to be competitive with new car dealers because of the no-haggle pricing structure (and the buyers paying too much at auction). CarMax may sell a vehicle that is 2-3 model years old for the same price as a dealer would sell this year's model. A prime example would be the Toyota Prius or Corolla. It is very difficult to advance from sales to a management position, you would have to be in what they call President's Club (15+ cars a month average) in order to be considered for management and at that point it wouldn't make much sense because you'd be taking a pay cut.