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by wilsonnb3 1309 days ago
The concept is great but I never really saw the point of Carvana when CarMax already exists.

Unless your plan is just to leverage easy capital to push CarMax and traditional dealers out of the business like Uber and taxis.

3 comments

Carvana came to my house and picked up the car I was selling. It was all done in a few minutes. I didn't have to take any pictures, just describe it on the web form, and sign some papers when they showed up.
Certainly shocking that they are struggling with excess inventory and need to cut jobs.
Have you looked to see if they followed through with the paperwork with the state to ensure the state no longer thinks you own the car? One of the complaints I've seen is that they are woefully behind in areas like this so that the new "owner" isn't really the legal owner because some paperwork hadn't been completed by Carvana
I filed it myself in California. Doesn't matter who I'm selling to, I file the release of liability immediately. I don't want to pay for someone else's parking tickets or other much worse crimes.
I am sure it was but that is a ridiculous business model when the secret sauce of the whole operation is economy of scale along with no ability to improve margins much.

I am sure they could cut the lawn and feed the dog while there also but none of this sounds profitable in the long term.

It almost sounds like we were in a giant bubble...

Getting a quote just by entering your license plate was also brilliant.
Carvana did deliveries to your home (apparently), while CarMax would deliver to their nearest lot, which might be a long way away.
I scrolled through Carvana inventory, picked a used car, purchased it, and it was delivered to my driveway like a week later. I live very far from any decent-sized car dealership.

I did all this laying in bed on my phone.

I have some complaints about the quality of their service, but the value prop is pretty amazing.

Did you get the real/legit title of the car signed over to you?
I purchased a car from CarMax earlier this spring online and it was an easy process. Filled out some forms online, went through some questions on the phone and then had a car dropped off in my driveway a few day later.
Carmax is an Amazing operator. Shift has now cut test drives at home.