[Maestro]

Most of us probably have seen their commercials and how easy it is to buy a used car from them. I personally wonder if it was a better deal or not. I know when we were looking to buy a used X3 I did look on their app, but they did not seem to have anything which was worth a second look. We ended up buying a new X3 right before all the problems happen with shortages.

Anyway, It looks like Carvana is not what everything thought they were, this video really dug into the company and found it operates on the edge of being a scam. Carvana is owned by the same people who own Drvtime which does predatory lending to people buying new cars. The video did not specifically say this, but they indicated that Drvtime had almost 50% of their car loans in default at any given time and were repoing cars, I wonder if Carvana was selling the repo cars. This would explain why it takes months and years to give people their title to the car.

[vreihen16]

Are you saying that Susan from Carrrrvana is really a bad person?

My now-late best friend used to deal in used cars from the regional auto auction. Every title problem that he ever had was a result of the auction not delivering the title (lien-free or otherwise) in their contracted time frame. You would be surprised at how many cars he returned to the auction on the last day to back out of the deal because the title paperwork never arrived.

With some states being title-hold for the lien-holders and seeing how much mortgage banks were messed up finding foreclosure paperwork, I think that Susan from Carrrrrvana is at least partially a victim as well for trying to flip cars before the paperwork clears. Certainly not worthy of a halo, though.....

[allinon72]

Seems that a good portion of Carvana's inventory came from poorly rehabbed auction flips. If not that, marked cars that don't quite cut it on a decent dealer's lot. Think about it - back when Carvana was paying big money for cars, all you had to do was buy a passable car at auction and flip it to think for a tidy profit. It's widely known of how little due diligence they did on their car purchases. It's shocking how many "disappointed with Carvana" videos there are on YouTube...you could make a whole day of it.

Unless I was a low income borrower, i.e. Drivetime customer, I would assume that every car they possess in inventory has one or more fatal flaws and thus NEVER consider them.

[br438]

Carvana 1yr stock price is a hoot to look at. ouch.

[Our03z4]

I bought my Audi from them, they were the only place in the country that had the options I wanted. Everything went perfect, delivered on time, excellent communication, car was as described, got a perfect PPI and even got physical plates came on time (didn't even know they did that part). I did have a thermostat and water pump failure on the car near the end of the warranty period. They took care of it no questions asked at my indy shop, cost $2600. I think where you see the issues with them is on the cheap cars. I wouldn't hesitate buying from them again.

My purchase at a Volvo/BMW dealer went horrible, they couldn't get my tags until over 100 days which caused me to have to drive on dealer plates.

They sell more cars than anyone so of course there is going to be issues.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by br438

Carvana 1yr stock price is a hoot to look at. ouch.

Jesus what the hell happened?????????????????

[br438]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Jesus what the hell happened?????????????????

Don't really know. I think it was a combination of their practices that led to a horrendous PR problem... coupled with a market cluster...

ok... but really. I don't know. It's probably in the video. Someone who knows for real??

[Llarry]

My selling experience with Carvana was pretty negative. Attractive price offered, then all sorts of data provided to them (driver license scans front and back, title front and back, etc.) and then they said "Great! Now all you have to do is turn it over to us in Southern California (some 500+ miles from Oregon!) WTF?! I ended up at CarMax getting thousands less that the quoted Carvana offer.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by br438

Don't really know. I think it was a combination of their practices that led to a horrendous PR problem... coupled with a market cluster...

ok... but really. I don't know. It's probably in the video. Someone who knows for real??

I've been following the news on Carvana due to a potential business relationship we walked away from. For anyone interested, here are a bunch of links to articles discussing Carvana. Basically they have been losing money for years and recently made a large purchase and were forced to lay off a bunch of people.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ca...bal-2022-05-10

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/...o&cm_ven=YAHOO

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/carva...221427957.html

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/c...161421039.html

[CarsAndGuitars]

Originally Posted by Llarry

My selling experience with Carvana was pretty negative. Attractive price offered, then all sorts of data provided to them (driver license scans front and back, title front and back, etc.) and then they said "Great! Now all you have to do is turn it over to us in Southern California (some 500+ miles from Oregon!) WTF?! I ended up at CarMax getting thousands less that the quoted Carvana offer.

With my M240 on order, I've been getting quotes rom all the online players and Carvana is consistently making the highest offers. My fear is selling the car to them, and them shuttering their doors before they pay off my loan balance. With this in the back of my head I will probably be dealing with CarMax or the dealership, whoever comes out on top.

[OkieSnuffBox]

Regardless of everything else, why would you buy from Carvana to begin with?

Their stuff is so incredibly overpriced. It's essentially a national chain of "buy here, pay here."

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Jesus what the hell happened?????????????????

You didn't watch the video, it explained what happen. Its a basicly a company with a poor business plan and investors want their money out of the business so they dump the company on the unsuspecting investing public. It was a classic pump and dump.

[leopard print]

I sold my Toyota Tacoma to Carvana a couple years ago. Got a bill of sale and did my part with the DMV informing them of the sale. Apparently, Carvana needed to do some purchase paperwork on their end, but didn't. I got several letters from the DMV post sale saying I was responsible for registration and that I would be sent to collections if I didn't pay. After several calls, a couple trips to DMV offices to show them the sale paperwork, and countless headaches out of frustration, it was resolved. At least I think it's resolved as I haven't received a notice for 6 months.

I will never do business with Carvana ever again. The above stories just confirm that.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by Maestro

You didn't watch the video, it explained what happen. Its a basicly a company with a poor business plan and investors want their money out of the business so they dump the company on the unsuspecting investing public. It was a classic pump and dump.

SOrry yeah didn't realise the OP had this content, it's amazing huh, 2008 all over again.

[billnchristy]

I interviewed there for Facility manager in GA. Wild place. Kinda sad I didn't get the job as I was told I could take any car I wanted home any day which sounded pretty cool because I could take a truck if I needed one or drive a BMW or Benz or whatever any other day.

The place was setup in multiple crappy steel buildings and barn like structures along with massive lots. They would get cars through auctions or other means, run them through the main building and replace basic parts as necessary, they even had an autozone built into their building. They had a body shop that did mostly PDR but I imagine the bondo budget was pretty high too. It was basically a massive ass version of a normal auto-shop but done in an assembly line kind of way.

After seeing how it worked and that it seemed like there was very little high-end experience, I don't think I would buy from them, but like I said, the perk of having whatever car was on the lot was super attractive.

[Tommy-G]

They have actually been shut down in certain states for business practices.

[allinon72]

There are several Youtube videos explain how they actually make money, but it's mostly on predatory loans they originate, package into tranches, and sell off to debt buyers. It's basically the same strategy that blew up the mortgage market in 2008. To make matters worse, their shareholder voting rights are heavily skewed towards the founder and his son, meaning regular shareholders are left holding the bag. Why big investment firms continued to give this company capital, I'll never understand. It's basically one big, probably illegal family enrichment scheme.

[BMWCCA1]

Originally Posted by allinon72

It's basically one big, probably illegal family enrichment scheme.

Sounds a bit like a US President owning a hotel bearing his name just down the street from the Whitehouse. Even if the lease on the US-owned property specifically prohibited it.

[allinon72]

Originally Posted by BMWCCA1

Sounds a bit like a US President owning a hotel bearing his name just down the street from the Whitehouse. Even if the lease on the US-owned property specifically prohibited it.

Are we going to go down that road?

[BMW F22]

What about Shift for selling cars? Or is Carmaxd dealer the best places?

[zx10guy]

I used "We Buy Any Cars". Got more than double what CarMax was offering back in 2014 for my 94 Z28. Transaction was quick and easy. Did an online estimate for my car on their website. Set up an appointment for them to see the car. Drove car to their location. They did an inspection in the parking lot. They gave me their offer. Went into their office and was out of there with check in hand about an hour to hour and a half later from the time I arrived.

[br2wdc]

Back two years ago right at the beginning of the pandemic, I used Carvana successfully because they had the biggest offer for my 2017 VW GLI. Carmax offer was $2k less and so was another online buyer.

Flatbed came to pickup the car, they gave me a check for amount left over after paying off the car, and we were DONE: best/easiest car sale I have ever made.

Carvana seems to be a completely different company today, with a huge inventory of overpriced cars which stay listed for weeks on end with horrible customer service. It's clear to me more cuts are coming to their headcount, plus they will have no choice but to reduce prices to cut into the huge inventory backlog they currently have.

Originally Posted by Maestro

Most of us probably have seen their commercials and how easy it is to buy a used car from them. I personally wonder if it was a better deal or not. I know when we were looking to buy a used X3 I did look on their app, but they did not seem to have anything which was worth a second look. We ended up buying a new X3 right before all the problems happen with shortages.

Anyway, It looks like Carvana is not what everything thought they were, this video really dug into the company and found it operates on the edge of being a scam. Carvana is owned by the same people who own Drvtime which does predatory lending to people buying new cars. The video did not specifically say this, but they indicated that Drvtime had almost 50% of their car loans in default at any given time and were repoing cars, I wonder if Carvana was selling the repo cars. This would explain why it takes months and years to give people their title to the car.