Carvana experience

I know it’s low miles, but 5-6 years old with a 5.7L for $33k is insane. Good price they paid him for it though.
according to my brother, it's kind of a rarely optioned car... base R/T, cloth seats, the small base level stereo, but with the Super Track pack ( Bigger Forged Wheels, Bigger brakes, Performance Suspension, 3 season Eagle F1 Supercar Tires)

apparently the Super Track pack is usually accompanied by leather, the fancier stereo, etc. or so i'm told...
 
What a train wreck of a thread. Everybody (with one or two exceptions) saying how bad buying through Carvana WOULD BE with ZERO first hand knowledge. Not even a 2nd cousin three times removed from their great, great grand fathers side..........

I didn't say anything about buying through Carvana being "bad," just that they had their office attached to a DriveTime facility and the varying quality of their presentation of the cars is funny. Like most places they do a quick once over, but may miss things. It's a fact of buying used cars. Everybody says they do an x amount point inspection, but cars get rushed through with a minimum amount done and that's just the way it is.
Nobody is doing a white glove inspection or actually looking at 150 points. It's a used car, on the internet, that's it.
 
What a train wreck of a thread. Everybody (with one or two exceptions) saying how bad buying through Carvana WOULD BE with ZERO first hand knowledge. Not even a 2nd cousin three times removed from their great, great grand fathers side..........
Yeah, you didn't even include roommate.

 
I didn't say anything about buying through Carvana being "bad," just that they had their office attached to a DriveTime facility

Drivetime & Carvana connection

All you need to know about Drivetime & Carvana. (Spoiler: father & son)

Think about how low Drivetime/Carvana overhead is compared to a new car dealership or a used car seller like Carmax.
 
OK-you are talking about a scenario where you do not have first hand experience. You don't know anybody who has used Carvana and you haven't. So I will take that for what it is worth-and everybody else should too. You are the "old school" on here that would avoid buying online anyway.
lol, no. This is not at all isolated to carvana but is necessarily a required tactic to compete.

Are you a shill for them? because it seems very strange that you would suggest they have more customer friendly ethics when claiming a 150 point list is just the same deceptive nonsense repeated by others, if they don't warrant all those things.

Which is it? There is no point in listing 150, even 5000 things, if all those things aren't guaranteed with a warranty. DO you not recognize this? I could care less what someone checks, only what they guarantee.

It's all a load of nonsense. I accept that they want to try to buy vehicles with least problems (same as anyone else, lol) but you are truly a vulnerable customer for not recognizing the nonsense marketing for what it is. Their assurance is before sale. How much is enforcible in court after sale? If it isn't, then they are essentially being deceitful, telling you how great they are (normal seller puffery) but then not standing behind it.

Remember, anything stated including a nonsense 150 point inspection claim means nothing. What matters is within the 4 corners of the document you sign to purchase it. Everything else is nonsense. If there is a warranty, great. Read it carefully.
 
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What a train wreck of a thread. Everybody (with one or two exceptions) saying how bad buying through Carvana WOULD BE with ZERO first hand knowledge. Not even a 2nd cousin three times removed from their great, great grand fathers side..........
The problem is the marketing nonsense not backed up by a legal responsibility, that they go out of their way to deceive people about what assurance they have that they would stand behind the product.

Do correct me if I'm wrong. Show me a warranty on all items on their checklist. It's just marketing nonsense trying to trick people who are gullible if they don't have a long term warranty on every item they claim to check.

At the same time, it seems ludicrous to me to make such a warranty on a used vehicle. They are trying to play both sides towards ignorant consumers that don't know any better, and this marketing nonsense stinks, and goes far beyond your naive notion that an inspector must get it perfect for a buyer. That is laughable.

That does not make carvana evil, or a company to be avoided if you want to support them and their overhead, but it is what it is, additional overhead instead of DIY and based on misleading nonsense marketing except for things backed up in writing.
 
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It's an interesting concept.

There's a large DriveTime "processing center" on the outskirts of Birmingham that has a Carvana office attached to it. There are no retail car sales there, only cleanup, repair, and storage. Carvana has a different entrance, but it's literally in the same building as DriveTime. I'm not sure if they are just using the space or if they are contracting cleanup/repair to DriveTime as well. It's an interesting place...their parts counter, while not open to the public, is technically an Advance Auto Parts store with its own store number. They order things they have to get OE from local dealers. Carvana has a nicer showroom downtown in a small, old dealer building from probably the 1920s.

One thing that's funny is their pictures...some come out great and could be a picture in a new car brochure, and in others there is dirt, dust, smudges and smears everywhere.
One thing I will say, is Carvana has less cars than they had a year ago when we bought our Ford.

Just doing a search I felt there were way less options. We drove by the San Antonio vending machine yesterday and even my WIFE commented wow the vending machine is low on cars.

If you do some searching on carvana, you will see they have added "partner" dealerships to their search. So drivetime makes sense.

I did a small loan on my escape like 4-5 grand. The 4 percent loan through carvana was originated through a company called Bridgecrest, which is DBA Drivetime.

Drivetime is usually subprime trash loans, but I didn't mind because it will be paid off before christmas.
 
One thing I will say about Carvana, is you get a 3 month warranty for free with your purchase.

They will steer you to a shop to get it repaired, but the one they recommended was 75 miles away from my house, and I told them I wanted to take it to the Ford Dealer, and they paid the claim no problem.

I would probably buy another one from them, here is my key reason. They will take your trade and make an offer on it with no inspection. I was truthful on my trade, but when we traded it in the guy didn't even look at the trade, he just got in to verify the mileage and VIN.

They give more for the trade than anyone else. And once a year they give $1000 cash back for any purchase on Black Friday week.

So the numbers made sense. I was offered $6k roughly for a 2011 Sonata with 110k miles and a history of mechanical problems, and $1000 in black friday cash. A 2016 Ford Escape was $12,500 with 20k miles. It was almost a no brainer.

I paid a few hundred bucks to have the Ford transported from New Mexico to Texas.

If you are a person who wants to get a dream car, then probably not Carvana, but if you just need something for transportation to get to work, the numbers made sense to me.
 
Sounds like a place worth remembering if I know someone who is considering trading in a car, vs. not selling it privately.
 
The problem is the marketing nonsense not backed up by a legal responsibility, that they go out of their way to deceive people about what assurance they have that they would stand behind the product.

Do correct me if I'm wrong. Show me a warranty on all items on their checklist. It's just marketing nonsense trying to trick people who are gullible if they don't have a long term warranty on every item they claim to check.

At the same time, it seems ludicrous to me to make such a warranty on a used vehicle. They are trying to play both sides towards ignorant consumers that don't know any better, and this marketing nonsense stinks, and goes far beyond your naive notion that an inspector must get it perfect for a buyer. That is laughable.

That does not make carvana evil, or a company to be avoided if you want to support them and their overhead, but it is what it is, additional overhead instead of DIY and based on misleading nonsense marketing except for things backed up in writing.

Dave9-What rubbish. Congrats you were just put on my "ignore list".
 
I've browsed their selection here and there over the years and they do a great job with the pics and descriptions. I'd have no problem dealing with them if they had something I was specifically looking for and the deal was right. They're not going to be any shadier than any other used vehicle store. In fact, given their national presence, I'd think they'd more honest and straight forward. They've got more to loose.
 
Sounds like a place worth remembering if I know someone who is considering trading in a car, vs. not selling it privately.

I've heard that in the current situation, Carvana is making attractive offers to break leases as well. Due to the shortage of slightly used cars.
 
Dave9-What rubbish. Congrats you were just put on my "ignore list".
I am genuinely curious what makes you think that you get any further guarantee than what warranty is stated in writing in the contract? For anything, not just cars? Granted a few states offer further protection, but nothing that detailed. If I am on your ignore list, at least this is something for others to remember.
 
I sold them two cars and they got great cars and paid top $$$. I couldn't be happier. But I don't buy used cars so I'd be a seller only. I never cared to see what they marked them up at. Once its out of my hands I could care less.
 
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I've heard that in the current situation, Carvana is making attractive offers to break leases as well. Due to the shortage of slightly used cars.
The Carvana guy that picked up my car told me the Atlanta office is buying 20 cars a day from individuals.
 
I am genuinely curious what makes you think that you get any further guarantee than what warranty is stated in writing in the contract? For anything, not just cars? Granted a few states offer further protection, but nothing that detailed. If I am on your ignore list, at least this is something for others to remember.
I think what you're missing is that everyone's CPO car does this even Mercedes. Lots of threads in the Mercedes forum where people think they're buying a CPO car that was gone over with a fine tooth comb when in reality they did nothing and people have to bring it back for stuff that should have been fixed under the CPO terms. So if they're advertising a 150 point inspection it's just fluff. Same kind of fluff you get when bringing in a car for an oil change and they claim they do a bunch of items as a free inspections when they don't actually do anything. When buying anything, the standard rules apply, buyer beware.
 
^ Of course it is also true for CPO cars that their checklist means nothing without a detailed warranty in writing to back it up. It is true for all sellers, that things not in the contract are not guaranteed, except for a few states with additional protection.

However when it comes to a free inspection with an oil change, I find they usually do that, trying to upsell more repairs or services. It is one of the reasons I do my own oil changes, that I don't want them poking and prying on fragile plastic or aging rubber trying to sell me an air filter for example, or taking a dipstick out and not putting it back enough to seal, causing a vac leak then I'd be like *** did they do this time when the dash light comes on!
 
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