Carvana

[micropolitan guy]

Just used it to sell my 2002 CRV with 219k miles. It was super easy, the whole process took less than 24 hours. I think I got a fair price, heck anything for a 24-year-old car with that kind of mileage is a plus, and I didn't have to deal with the hassle of selling it.

But man, that was Micro Jr.'s first car, we bought it in 2014 during his sophomore year of high school. I inherited it after he left for Denver for law school, after graduating from undergrad. Watching it being loaded onto the car carrier and being driven away was akin to sending Jr. off to kindergarten or college.

Lots of memories in that dependable vehicle. Honda CRVs are almost indestructible, I can't believe how many old ones like ours I still see on the road.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Purchased a new-to-me vehicle last month. Seriously considered Carvana but found a better deal elsewhere. But it sure was tempting, especially when some of the vehicles would be brought right to you for free.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

We bought our CRV like a month before Covid. Just hit 50,000 miles. It’s been reliable so far.

 

[MileHigh]

On my second CRV and fourth Honda. They are great.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

My job involves a lot of consumer complaint stuff.

Carvana is a solid option when you are selling a car.

Do not, do not, do not buy a car from Carvana.

 

[qtlaw]

Just used it to sell my 2002 CRV with 219k miles. It was super easy, the whole process took less than 24 hours. I think I got a fair price, heck anything for a 24-year-old car with that kind of mileage is a plus, and I didn't have to deal with the hassle of selling it.

But man, that was Micro Jr.'s first car, we bought it in 2014 during his sophomore year of high school. I inherited it after he left for Denver for law school, after graduating from undergrad. Watching it being loaded onto the car carrier and being driven away was akin to sending Jr. off to kindergarten or college.

Lots of memories in that dependable vehicle. Honda CRVs are almost indestructible, I can't believe how many old ones like ours I still see on the road.

When we sold our minivan a couple of years ago (Sienna that was nearly 20 years old but only 140k on the clock, talk about a rock solid car), that was nearly heartbreaking as well. Thought of all the family road trips with the kids buckled in and watching on the portable CD player.....some wet eyes at the house that day.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

My job involves a lot of consumer complaint stuff.

Carvana is a solid option when you are selling a car.

Do not, do not, do not buy a car from Carvana.

Details, please. If you can. As the son and grandson of car dealers, my mind is racing at what you may find with their cars.

 

[FileNotFound]

Details, please. If you can. As the son and grandson of car dealers, my mind is racing at what you may find with their cars.

I know a few people whose car-buying experience with Carvana was reasonably positive. I know a few more who had a terrible time getting the necessary paperwork to title and register their cars in a timely manner. causing all sorts of problems with lenders and the law. Also, their prices really aren't that great.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Details, please. If you can. As the son and grandson of car dealers, my mind is racing at what you may find with their cars.

From everything I’ve seen, they don’t do anything with the cars they take in before they turn around and resell them. If you’re looking to unload a car with a major mechanical problem Carvana is great, because they don’t inspect the car before they take it in. They will also turn around and resell it without inspecting it.

They also have a history of never sending the title after you buy the car.

 

[BTExpress]

I just looked on there and found a Civic with almost the exact same mileage (17K) as mine had when I bought it two years ago. Carvana's was $6,000 more than what I paid.***

***Carvana's was a later model . . . but still had 500 more miles than mine.

 

[Spartan Squad]

I mostly liked how easy it was to find and arrange to purchase a car from Carvana. Got a reasonable amount for my trade in. The paperwork and everything was easy enough at the dealer I ended up picking up from.

I didn’t like having to wait for a car to be shipped up from Southern California to the Bay Area. Took longer because they had to wait until the transport truck was full. I was given a delivery time frame but they missed it because of shipping. Had to hound them to find out what was going on. Secondly, they don’t haggle. I probably could have gotten a better price. But I’ll live with it because not having to do the song and dance with a guy trying to get a commission was nice.

 

[TigerVols]

From everything I’ve seen, they don’t do anything with the cars they take in before they turn around and resell them. If you’re looking to unload a car with a major mechanical problem Carvana is great, because they don’t inspect the car before they take it in. They will also turn around and resell it without inspecting it.

They also have a history of never sending the title after you buy the car.

Carvana was a trending topic on Threads recently and the number of people providing horrible accounts of not being able to get their titles was staggering.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

We had a satisfying experience with Carvana's main rival, CarMax. We found a car on their website, had it shipped from Ohio for an acceptable price. Took it home for a weekend, had it inspected and returned on Monday to close the deal. An O2 sensor failed within the 90-day warranty and CarMax fixed it for free -- actually, replaced both O2 sensors. My regular shop quoted me over $1,000 to do the work before I remembered that the warranty period was still running.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Money was deposited in my account this AM, as promised; transaction complete. I'll have to check in the next week or so to see if it's on the market, and how much they are asking for it.

 

[UNCGrad]

I had a good experience with selling to Carvana as well. My car was starting to have an issue, but dealer wiped the codes clean for me to shop it around to a couple of dealers. They, of course, low-balled me to a serious degree, which I expected. The car wasn't worth that much, but still got more than double on the offer from Carvana. I walked out of both places saying, "Thanks for your time. I'll take the Carvana offer, of which I have a copy right here..." One guy tried to bring me back, but he still came in under. C'mon, man. At least match it.

Uploaded my documents to the site, the guy came out to the house with the Carvana truck, walked around the car once, started it, handed me a check and started loading it and drove away. It wasn't a huge bucket of money, but I did better enough that I could feel good about the process I did.

 

[ChrisLong]

In 2013, my experience with Carmax was ... um ... not all that pleasant. I think they sell mostly 2 or 3 year old cars from rental companies. So most are washed regularly but otherwise uncared for, and have few accessories.

Carmax lowballed me for my 2000 Ford Explorer. I think the tires and rims were worth more than I was offered.

Took forever to find a replacement vehicle. They just got in a shipment of cars and they were stashed everywhere. To test drive one car, the guy had to move six. I rejected the car because the previous owner smoked and the car still reeked. Before we continued looking, he had to move all six cars back to where they were.

Settled on a 2010 Ford Escape. I would have had to go to the bank to get the rest of the money for a full cash purchase, but it was later on a Friday, so it would have to be Monday. They refused to accept a deposit to hold the car, they said it was against company policy (which I think they changed soon after).

They agreed to finance it with no pre-payment penalty since I was coming in the next business day to pay in full. But they had to do full credit check, full financing paperwork. They also had a 7-day unconditional return policy. I started the paperwork, then realized I was going to be late for work. So I left my wife and daughter there to finished it up. They had start over doing a credit check on my wife. Blah, blah, blah. It was a load of bull****, they were there maybe 6 hours in all.

I liked that Escape, gave it to my daughter later that year and she loved it.
My biggest satisfaction was razor-blading off the CARMAX decal on the tailgate.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

My uncle, as executor of my grandfather's estate, had to find a way to sell four vehicles, all of which were low-mileage and in pretty good shape cosmetically and mechanically.

The prize of the fleet was a Cadillac. A few years old, not much in terms of mileage, pretty much stellar. Apparently, CarMax lowballed the snot out of the bid. Suspect that was a hard pass. At least I hope it was.

Given how much they want for their machines, I'm not too impressed. I suspect, as ChrisLong said, it's selling off rental fleets. Given that I worked three years in that industry, some of those machines are seriously abused. They might want to come down from their ivory tower. Prices too high, no-hassle deals (i.e., no negotiation on a ridiculous, sky-high price point), options lacking on too many machines and lowballing offers on vehicles offered?

Run. Fast. NOW.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

From everything I’ve seen, they don’t do anything with the cars they take in before they turn around and resell them. If you’re looking to unload a car with a major mechanical problem Carvana is great, because they don’t inspect the car before they take it in. They will also turn around and resell it without inspecting it.

They also have a history of never sending the title after you buy the car.

That's kind of what I suspected.

Of course, a lot of dealerships don't either. Despite their promises of conducting XX-point inspection on used pre-owned vehicles.

 

[qtlaw]

My lifelong buddy has been in the car dealership sales since mid-80s so I'll bring his POV here, you do realize that dealerships have to make $$ on the transaction right? So when they offer you say $5k less than Kelley Blue Book high value, they're trying to make a profit after they refurbish it, and pay their overhead expenses. They cannot match the private sale price.

I've sold at least 10 cars on Craigslist and I've gotten way over the trade-in every time. BUT I have to take care of getting it smog tested, get the sale documents together, and find and sort through the buyers.

No doubt, selling to Carvana is going to be much smoother than buying from Carvana. I did buy one care about 7 years ago from Shift (defunct now I think). That was smooth, they came with the title docs and DMV docs and all I had to do was give them the check for the keys.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

My lifelong buddy has been in the car dealership sales since mid-80s ...

How many dealerships has he worked at over the years?