Anyone have any experience with Carvana?

[Darcy03231]

I'm in the market for a new to me car. Saw the ad on tv last night and checked it out. I can buy the car I want through them at almost $2000 less than a comparable car through the local dealer. While I'll pay shipping & taxes/tags, there's no dealer fees and the shipping & taxes/tags are about half the cost of the dealer fees. I have to admit I'm leery, but tempted.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

Since you posted this....I've been at the Carvana website and OMG, its how I'm going to buy my car this summer.

 

[Darcy03231]

Since you posted this....I've been at the Carvana website and OMG, its how I'm going to buy my car this summer.

It looks pretty easy and straight-forward. I'd just love to hear from someone who has actually done it. I buy stuff on-line all the time and have it delivered, but I never thought to buy a car that way.

 

[Hrhpd]

We purchased a car from Carvana earlier this year. They promised delivery within a week. The day before they were supposed to deliver, they claimed weather and postponed delivery for another week. When they postponed for a third time, saying they were still stuck in the same state, we cancelled the purchase and bought locally. There was no way weather was keeping the truck stuck on the highway for 3 weeks.

There are some nightmare reviews out there of crappily covered up damage or fixes just to get the cars sold.

We were NOT impressed and relieved after finding the bad reviews.

 

[soccerdad72]

No personal experience, but one of their 'vending machines' is in our area and both my boys have said that's the way they want to buy a car.

 

[Squirlz]

I tried. Put down a reservation fee and got a confirmation. That was the last I heard from them. They said my exclusive preview would be in 8 days. Kept checking and there was one delay after another. Finally it was shown as available but still I had not been contacted, so I did the chat thing and they said that my reservation had been canceled because I had looked at another car. I had never heard a single word from them during the whole time.

My research showed plenty of complaints among some good reviews. Best of luck.

 

[tvguy]

I couldn't buy a car without seeing it in person first, driving it first, and having my mechanic check it out first.

 

[Darcy03231]

I couldn't buy a car without seeing it in person first, driving it first, and having my mechanic check it out first.

According to the website you have a 7 day money back guaranty.

 

[dadtoagirl03]

I bought from Carvana in Dec. I was looking for a specific special edition Pathfinder and found on Carvana. It was $3000 less than I could find on any dealer lot in the country, and they gave me $2000 more for my Camry than anyone else on trade. They delivered and it took less than 15-mintues to sign the paperwork. I took it to my mechanic the next day to have it checked out and found no issues. They have a no questions asked return policy for 7-Days as long as you don't drive over 400 miles. I'd do it again in a heartbeat when I buy my next vehicle.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I have not purchased a car from Carvana, but I have dealt with them at work a couple times. In my experience dealing with them, the titles to the cars they are selling have been difficult for us to obtain. We had one in which our customer borrowed the money to buy the car and Carvana has failed to get him the title so he can get it titled/registered in his own name (and get our lien on it). We have another where the customer financed through Carvana's lender, then refinanced with us. For whatever reason, Carvana has failed to send us the title. They put me on hold several times and after about a 30 minute call, they were like "oops guess we need to get that sent out". We sent you like $30,000 over 2 months ago...ya think you might want to send us the title to the car

As far as their deals go, or the reliability of the cars they are selling, I cannot say. However from a titling aspect, they have a lot of room for improvement. This kind of thing CAN happen with your typical brick and mortar car dealer as well, but it does not happen often. Don't even get me started on how much I loathe Carmax.

 

[Darcy03231]

Thanks for the input everyone. I ultimately decided to buy the car at a local dealer. Using the pricing from Carvana (and another similar car at a different dealership) I was able to get the out the door cost of the local car down closer to the Carvana price.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Yesterday at work I ran across another instance where Carvana failed to send the proper paperwork on a car we financed. This seems to be a common theme with them I guess.