[echelon]

Even if so, I would feel somewhat guilted into buying a car that I waited for them to drive to me on a flatbed truck. Even if I know that's their trick. Maybe that's just me? It's why I avoid getting into setups like this.

At a dealership I can hop into dozens of different cars and look at different configuration packages. Or walk next door to the other neighboring dealerships. There's not only no contractual commitment, there's no emotional commitment either.

I'd feel exhausted in waiting for Carvana and it would probably make me willing to overlook minor grievances with whatever car they brought. Not so with a dealership.

[bee_rider]

I get the very real social instinct there.

Looking at it objectively — the delivery guy gets paid either way, right? And the extent to which their business model exploited that feeling of guilt, is the extent to which it is kind of… unethical feels like not quite the right word, but it is bad to expect people to take a worse deal because they feel guilty.

[encryptluks2]

Yeah, sometimes that guilty feeling is pretty obvious too and people will exploit it substantially. The price of people saying no is built into the business model.

[birdyrooster]

Depending on your market it could make them more money even if you don’t buy the car, as the next buyer might pay a premium over what they would have sold it elsewhere? I don’t know how they would do that arbitrage but in theory it could work.