I know nothing and accord-blew-a-spark-plug lady found a newer car there.
Is it a decent place? Any scams? Seems cheaper than carmax.
I know nothing and accord-blew-a-spark-plug lady found a newer car there.
Is it a decent place? Any scams? Seems cheaper than carmax.
I didn't buy a car from them, but I literally came one click away from doing it. From everything I was able to find out in researching them, they're legit. I really liked that they showed you every noticeable scratch on the car, had the 360 degree views, etc... Prices seemed pretty good, at least for the cars I was looking at (Kia Soul and Mazda3 wagon).
Carvana, Vroom, and CarMax are all doing their best to disrupt the traditional dealership model and they are all 100% legit. I hope they succeed; I'm making a trip to CarMax today after an incident at a Hyundai dealer yesterday where they held my keys hostage and completely ignored my requests to negotiate a sale price instead of a monthly payment.
I had a good experience with Carmax when we bought my wife's Lexus RX. Looking at the 6 vehicles in stock changed our minds on interior color because you see the wear difference. Although they say you can't haggle, we were able to get new tires in the same deal on the car because they were so close to the min wear. We did not trade in our well maintained Lexus es300 with 215,000 miles because they only offered us $500.
They are building a Carvana in Raleigh, NC near my wifes work. Checked it out online, looks decent for those who dont want the "dealership experience" (haggle).
Did have a hard time finding what if any hidden fees there are. Was it just taxes and tags or were there dealer processing and advertising fees and did they charge you for the soap to wash the car and first tank of gas like some dealerships do?
Saw a couple reports of engines going out within a year of purchase but they sell warranties. I know its a roll of the dice but buying a car sight unseen and the catch on their return it and get your money back test ownership is that you get the purchase price of the car back, there are other charges that you cant get back and it could add up to several hundred dollars per a couple peoples reviews.
People who had the delivery option were complaining of deliveries in the dark and signing off on a car they couldnt properly see with damage that happened in transit, but that was mostly durring the winter with earlier sunset.
A couple people did the fly then drive and if they want to return it they have to drive it back then either fly home or rent a car on their own dime or pay to have it shipped back.
I dont know what their 100+ point inspection covers but I did see one report of somone who had their Carvana purchase shipped to their mechanic and the mechanic saw proof of a bad respray meaning it was in some sort of accident. Not sure if that is just a case of trusting too much in the Carfax report and their inspection not being thorough enough. But the customer refused the shipment and it went back to Carvana.
Verify car features, they had a Prius V that was listed with heated seats but didnt have them on the actual car.
Granted these reviews sound bad but when put against the thousand of vehicles they have sold shouldnt be too much of a concern.
If a Carvana vending maching is close to you and you can go in person I would definitely look at it.
If you are within their standard delivery range I may consider it.
I wouldnt do the fly and drive or extended range ship in case things didnt work out with the car, but thats just me.
Their prices seem a little less then standard dealership prices listed on Autotrader but on the $15,000-$20,000 cars I was looking up Carvana seamed cheaper by $500-$1,500 which I am sure if you took the time to look around, negotiate at a dealership or private party and be willing to walk away from those not willing to haggle you could get the same car for +/- $500 of the Carvana price.
I've sold a car to Carmax and another to Vroom. Vroom priced out better than Carvana, but man, it was sketchy! You had to overnight the signed title to them before they picked the car up, and only once they picked the car up and signed off on it matching the condition in my photos did they wire the money. I dunno that I would deal with them again. Carvana seemed much more like Carmax.
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