Carvana anyone

[daepp]

Looks like a new (newer?) car acquisition & sales service. She wants to sell a low-mileage 2017 Jeep (Willys Ed.) in purchase an Explorer or Edge. They seems to be both offering a decent price and selling at a fair price as well.

Of course, the devil's in the details, but anyone have any positive or negative experience with Carvana?

https://www.carvana.com/

"Because car buying shouldn't suck" - Nice tag line at least.

[MBAtarga]

I purchased a 3 Series from Carvana about 6 years ago and my son bought his Honda Accord off Carvana about 2 years ago. I've got a $500 discount code you can use as a referral if you are interested.

My overall impression was positive - as was my son's. The one issue I had with them is there were cosmetic issues that were not disclosed on the site with the pictures they displayed, yet some less obvious minor issues were shown. I was told that they "select" some typical blemishes to indicate the car condition. I can discuss with more details if you want.

[RSBob]

Looks like they only go back about 5 years. Doesn’t work for a cheap b@$t@rd like me but hopefully will for others.

[daepp]

Thanks everybody - good info all!

[onewhippedpuppy]

My only feedback is to sell the Jeep outright. You'll be able to give someone a good deal compared to retail and still pocket thousands more than trade-in. Otherwise if they are like Carmax, just go into it knowing that you are probably paying a premium for the convenience factor, and that they are just another car dealership so buyer beware.

[daepp]

Good advice to be sure. Unfortunately she's a 26 year old young woman, and her patience is wearing thin. She fell into this Jeep for $21K by a very motivated buyer I knew (was afraid to tell his wife...). She only owes $14K. It a really fun and special edition Jeep, but also only 2 doors. I'm thinking it would be easier to sell in the spring (fun factor), but after trying to wade through the CL and Facebook scammers, her patience is wearing thin.

From a cross country trip I took in it in 2017:

[onewhippedpuppy]

Damn, I'd like to have another Jeep..... If she gets a lowball offer let me know.

[MMiller]

Originally Posted by daepp

Good advice to be sure. Unfortunately she's a 26 year old young woman, and her patience is wearing thin. She fell into this Jeep for $21K by a very motivated buyer I knew (was afraid to tell his wife...). She only owes $14K. It a really fun and special edition Jeep, but also only 2 doors. I'm thinking it would be easier to sell in the spring (fun factor), but after trying to wade through the CL and Facebook scammers, her patience is wearing thin.

I would think that Jeep would move rather quickly if priced aggressive assuming it has a 6 and auto trans on Autotrader. I don't think the 2 doors holds it back, 2 different buyers in my mind vs the unlimited. I'm not moving vehicles on CL these days but having better luck on Autotrader(national exposure search engine)

[MBAtarga]

I got a cash offer from Carmax for my Tacoma and Carvana allowed me $200 more on trade for the 3 series. Here in GA - you owe tax on the retail minus trade-in car value - so it saved me money by trading the Tacoma in on the purchase over selling privately.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

I got a cash offer from Carmax for my Tacoma and Carvana allowed me $200 more on trade for the 3 series. Here in GA - you owe tax on the retail minus trade-in car value - so it saved me money by trading the Tacoma in on the purchase over selling privately.

Same as most states. Except that you give up $2k in value to get a $200 credit towards the sales tax for your new car and then you are stuck buying from them.

[MBAtarga]

^^^ nope, I saved 7% on more than 10K of trade in towards the sales tax offset on the BMW 3 series....

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Except that you give up $2k in value to get a $200 credit towards the sales tax for your new car and then you are stuck buying from them.

Except that if you sell the car yourself, versus taking the lower trade offer, you'll receive no tax offset whatsoever on the car you're buying. Depending on the price of the car you choose, the "$2K in value" you gained by selling privately can quickly be offset by the sales tax on your new vehicle. Around here, depending on your specific municipality, the tax burden on a vehicle price of just under $27K will eat up all of the aforementioned $2K "gain". But then again, you'd miss out on the joy of dealing with strokers, deadbeats, scammers, et al.

_

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Norm K

Except that if you sell the car yourself, versus taking the lower trade offer, you'll receive no tax offset whatsoever on the car you're buying. Depending on the price of the car you choose, the "$2K in value" you gained by selling privately can quickly be offset by the sales tax on your new vehicle. Around here, depending on your specific municipality, the tax burden on a vehicle price of just under $27K will eat up all of the aforementioned $2K "gain". But then again, you'd miss out on the joy of dealing with strokers, deadbeats, scammers, et al.

_

Fair enough, but do the math. Very rarely does it actually pencil out, typically you are still better off selling the car yourself. This is coming from someone who used to own a small specialty dealership. Trading in is very convenient but is rarely the best financial decision.

[porsche4life]

Checked in to this thread expecting to see that Matt owned a Jeep. Leaving disappointed.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I love the CarMax / Carvana model. No having to deal with salespeople, play games or negotiate? Hell yes I’ll pay a little more for that - and have! Same goes for dealing with the time-wasting nonsense of having to sell private party. No way. My time is worth more to me than to have to deal with a procession of fools through my driveway who either aren’t serious and just “tire kicking”, looking to chuck lowball “offers”, nitpick over stupid and irrelevant non-issues trying to beat me up on price or worse (I’m always concerned that ANYONE coming onto my property is potentially casing it out to come back later in the dead of night with three buddies wearing black masks and a van - it’s a real risk and something one needs to think about these days unfortunately!). Worse still they might be one of the many people who will stand me up after I rearrange my day go meet them, wasting my time without even an apology.

Nope. Buying sucks and selling sucks even more. Let me look at something online, pick it, pay for it and (ideally) have it delivered without ever having to go to a dealership or deal with some sales schlocker. There’s a reason Amazon has made billions - it’s a really good model. I may very well buy my next that way.

[Chocaholic]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Fair enough, but do the math. Very rarely does it actually pencil out, typically you are still better off selling the car yourself. This is coming from someone who used to own a small specialty dealership. Trading in is very convenient but is rarely the best financial decision.

I agree with Matt. Let’s say you can sell outright for $2k more than the dealer will give you on trade...assuming 10k car....you’d save $700 in sales tax if you trade it in rather than $2k in additional sales revenue if you sell outright. More hassle, but the sales tax savings doesn’t “pencil out”.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Nope. Buying sucks and selling sucks even more. Let me look at something online, pick it, pay for it and (ideally) have it delivered without ever having to go to a dealership or deal with some sales schlocker. There’s a reason Amazon has made billions - it’s a really good model. I may very well buy my next that way.

Just go into it with eyes wide open. Carmax buys cars at the same auctions as every other dealership in the USA. Then they invest a minimal amount of money into refurbishment, just like every other dealership in the USA. So don't expect that the car will be something special just because Carmax is selling it. They are like every other dealership, just with better advertising.