What can you tell me about ordering with delivery from CARVANA?

[BonzaiDuck]

In the old days, we traveled around to local dealerships. I'm awaiting my old SUV's return (see my other thread). I had an appointment today to maybe seal a deal and buy a 2025 RAV4 at the dealership 4 miles from my house. I took it for a test drive last week. I canceled, thinking I wanted my car back to make me feel like I had more of an advantage so I could visit other dealers. The price just seemed a bit more than what I wanted to pay.

I feel the need to get this done, but don't want to be in a hurry. Yet I've been shopping around, window shopping, getting familiar for weeks now, and I'd focused on make and model in my online investigations for about a year.

I just found the same model I wanted with an acceptable color at CARVANA. Shipping it to me will cost $590. It has 15,000 miles odo, had been a rental car, still has the active warranty, and the price is right.

Somehow this feels strange to buy a car online. Can anyone tell me what they know about CARVANA? Am I at any risk with this? They can have the car at my home by Wednesday next week.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, I can appreciate any insight members can offer about this, but I will tell you about today's experience.

I was about ready to pull the string to buy a 2025 RAV4 Hybrid LE, 1 owner -- rental agency, 16,000 odo miles for about $35,000 out the door including taxes tags and registration. Something bothered me about putting all my own money out there, so I thought I'd use part of my pre-qualified bank loan option. And -- get this! Their own CARVANA financing was at 10%!! That's INSANE!

But I'm entering my data, and finally they say they need my driver's license and my bank-loan papers. Well, I had the license and the papers in PDF format in my document archive on the PC here. OK! I try to upload, and they get rejected -- maybe for resolution, but I don't know. Somehow they were telling me to take pictures with my cellphone. So I did that, and spent a half hour figuring out how to send it to my PC.

By the time a got all that done, I said "F*** it!" I get my old car back from the shop next week. I'm going to shop Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, and I'll visit Toyota again and look at Subaru.

I never realized I would be in this pickle. I WILL get past it!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Nothing. Never bought anything from Carvana nor have I ever known anyone adjacent to me who has done business with them.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Nothing. Never bought anything from Carvana nor have I ever known anyone adjacent to me who has done business with them.

Reddit or some other sites had encouraging reviews by people, but the idea of buying a car that way just makes me uncomfortable. The driver license episode was the last straw.

 

[manly]

Reddit or some other sites had encouraging reviews by people, but the idea of buying a car that way just makes me uncomfortable. The driver license episode was the last straw.

Carvana makes you uncomfortable enough to check out the car rental agencies??? How about neither?

Looks like you can get a low-mileage 2023 RAV4 LE for $26k + tax. XLE is a little higher.

AutoTempest is a meta search engine and will locate you plenty of late model units, including some in the Inland Empire (or adjacent counties).

 

[PowerEngineer]

Yes, used car buying in the "old days" was very different. It used to be that the used cars that dealerships offered for sale were mostly ones that they had taken in as trade-ins on new cars. Nowadays, all dealerships seem to be buying and selling cars through auction houses (check the Carfax reports). This was certainly true for the used 2024 Tesla Model Y Performance we bought from a nearby VW dealership. It was one of a half dozen Teslas that their auction buyer purchased for their used car inventory. Seems the buyer was a Tesla disciple. 😊 So far so good with the Tesla...

This leads me to believe that purchasing a car through Carvana, Carmax, or other internet services is not much different from buying from most B&M dealerships. And likely better than Craigslist. But I could be wrong.

With the Tesla in hand, we ended up selling my wife's 2015 Chevrolet Impala to Carmax. Their offered price was better than what I got from the dealerships (including the one that sold us the Tesla) and the sale process was straightforward and hassle free. I would not hesitate to sell a car to them again.

One last thing. You'd be wise to at least look at a Honda CR-V before committing to a RAV4 IMHO.

 

[Ken g6]

I was about ready to pull the string to buy a 2025 RAV4 Hybrid LE, 1 owner -- rental agency, 16,000 odo miles for about $35,000 out the door including taxes tags and registration. Something bothered me about putting all my own money out there, so I thought I'd use part of my pre-qualified bank loan option. And -- get this! Their own CARVANA financing was at 10%!! That's INSANE!

Seeing the price you were considering, I gotta make one last plug (pun intended!) for an EV. You can get a new Chevy Equinox EV for $36,495, before California incentives ($10,000-$12,000 to scrap your old vehicle, plus $2000 toward a charger or public charging), taxes, tags, and registration. And they're offering 0% financing for 60 months. A used Equinox EV would be about another $10k less, with all the same incentives except the loan rate. Here's a video review of the car if you're on the fence.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yes, used car buying in the "old days" was very different. It used to be that the used cars that dealerships offered for sale were mostly ones that they had taken in as trade-ins on new cars. Nowadays, all dealerships seem to be buying and selling cars through auction houses (check the Carfax reports). This was certainly true for the used 2024 Tesla Model Y Performance we bought from a nearby VW dealership. It was one of a half dozen Teslas that their auction buyer purchased for their used car inventory. Seems the buyer was a Tesla disciple. 😊 So far so good with the Tesla...

This leads me to believe that purchasing a car through Carvana, Carmax, or other internet services is not much different from buying from most B&M dealerships. And likely better than Craigslist. But I could be wrong.

With the Tesla in hand, we ended up selling my wife's 2015 Chevrolet Impala to Carmax. Their offered price was better than what I got from the dealerships (including the one that sold us the Tesla) and the sale process was straightforward and hassle free. I would not hesitate to sell a car to them again.

One last thing. You'd be wise to at least look at a Honda CR-V before committing to a RAV4 IMHO.

Actually, I've turned my focus now to the Subaru Forester in its various incarnations, and I may be inclined to forego a Hybrid drive-train.

But . . .

Seeing the price you were considering, I gotta make one last plug (pun intended!) for an EV. You can get a new Chevy Equinox EV for $36,495, before California incentives ($10,000-$12,000 to scrap your old vehicle, plus $2000 toward a charger or public charging), taxes, tags, and registration. And they're offering 0% financing for 60 months. A used Equinox EV would be about another $10k less, with all the same incentives except the loan rate. Here's a video review of the car if you're on the fence.

. . . I still have time to reconsider everything. Of course, I would like to accomplish the desired objective by middle of January, and for obvious reasons.