CarMax is the United States' largest used-car retailer. CarMax is a Fortune 500 company and has been named "America's Most Admired Company in Automotive Retailing" by Fortune magazine, as well as having been placed on Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in 2005 (#87), 2006 (#93), 2007 (#88), and 2008 (#46). blank">Corporate-IR.net media.carmax.com During the 12-month period ending February 28, 2007, the company retailed 337,021 used cars, which is 95% of the total 355,584 vehicles retailed by the firm in the US during that time. CarMax trails _Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based competitor AutoNation Inc. in total car retail sales, but CarMax holds a larger used-car operation. blank">Hamptonroads.com

The concept for CarMax was developed by _Circuit City executives under then-CEO Richard L. Sharp for nearly a year in 1991 using the code name "Project X" and was also known as "Honest Rick's Used Cars" to those intimately involved in the planning. archive/2006/09/01/8384327/" target="_blank">Money.CNN.com The concept was actually first proposed by a consultant hired by Circuit City to evaluate possible business opportunities beyond the scope of their consumer electronics locations. The consultant suggested the Auto Industry and Furniture Business as possible avenues and it was decided that Auto provided the best growth opportunity. The first CarMax used car auto superstore was opened in September 1993, 1.7 miles from Circuit City's corporate offices in _Richmond, Virginia. Ironically enough the first auto sold was to Rob Ukrops, the son of a friend of Rick Sharp's making Rick Sharp the first true sales consultant at CarMax. The concept then grew to seven locations before Circuit City issued the first CarMax stock in February of 1997. Initially the stock was a tracking stock still under the umbrella of the Circuit City Corporation. That is until CarMax officially split from Circuit City which was completed on October 1, 2002. The company spin off from Circuit City was issued in a stock dividend for Circuit City shareholders as well as to the investors in the CarMax tracking stock.

While Used Cars was always the target business, CarMax did venture into new cars, purchasing the rights to locations from new car manufactures such as Chrysler, Jeep, Mitsubishi and Toyota. CarMax even purchased an Auto Mall in Kenosha, Wisconsin that had additional manufacturer franchises, such as Ford, BMW and Volvo. This has never been the direction of the business but it was an experiment that confirmed that the Used Car business was the right choice.

Another principle that CarMax was initially founded on was the idea of no fees. This concept was later abandoned as it was determined that customers were not concerned about paying transaction fees associated with the purchase of a vehicle. CarMax even had a purchasing fee for a time that was charged to any customer that sold a car to the dealership. This too was later abandoned as they calculated the fee internally and reduced the offer on the vehicle to the customer by the fee amount.