CarMax Salesmanship Shines in Quarter

What CarMax did well, therefore, was sell. It converted a larger percentage of the people kicking tires on its lots into actual buyers. Though the company made no mention of the "ABCs" in its earnings statement, it partly attributed its better "sales conversion rate" to "the effects of our new sales training initiatives."

CarMax also cited increased inventories of cars on its lots, "a larger percentage of motivated buyers," and an increase in the average selling price of its vehicles to $17,185 per vehicle from $16,278 a year earlier.

CarMax's much smaller competitor, America's CarMart(CMRT), also surprised Wall Street with better-than-foreseen results when it reported its second quarter earlier in the month.

Elsewhere in the auto universe, car-parts retalier and repair chain Autozone(AZO) is slated to release results Wednesday before the opening bell.

-- Written by Scott Eden in New York

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