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Comment by jeffwask | Hacker News Reader

I know Carvana has issues but this is why I love using it. I have bought and sold without all the slime of entering a dealership

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I know some people have had good experiences with Carvana (especially when they already know what they want, and said car that is configured just-so is halfway across the country) - but I hate the idea of online shopping for the test-drive phase of car shopping. Seeing a panoramic view of the car's interior isn't enough, I need to feel it.

"Oh, don't worry, Carvana has a 7-day money back guarantee" - yeah, I don't want to have to unwind a major transaction just to test-drive a car. Especially if I'm trading in a car as part of the transaction - from what I've read if you trade in a car to Carvana and then decide to return the car you've purchased, they don't bring your old car back.

I wish there was a service where you could give them say a hundred bucks and they'd deliver maybe your top 5 cars to your house to poke around and test drive. The Zappos experience (they encourage people to order multiple sizes to try on and make the returns easy) but for cars instead of shoes.

> I wish there was a service where you could give them say a hundred bucks and they'd deliver maybe your top 5 cars to your house to poke around and test drive.

Trying to imagine the logistics of getting this done - profitably - within a Carvana-like model for anything close to $100 just broke my brain.

I live fairly close to the cluster of car dealerships in my area so maybe my perception is skewed, but it doesn't seem crazy to me that 2 sales guys from the Honda dealer would drive 5 minutes to my house to drop off an Accord (and then go back in 1 car), 2 sales guys from the Toyota dealer would drive 5 minutes to my house to drop off a Camry, etc... Seems like they're constantly making little trips to pick up cars from satellite lots, drop off cars for maintenance, fuel up cars, etc.

This might only work for dealerships within a certain distance of course.

But right, the part about doing it profitably would probably require a dealership that gets a successful sales lead to pay a fee to such a service.

Hertz has (or used to have) a "rent to own" deal with cars.

You go to their lot of used cars, you poke and prod them, then you rent one you think you'll like for a week for a couple bills.

If you decide to keep it, the rental cost is put against the purchase and you keep the car, if you don't like it you return and try again.

Is this what you're referring to?

https://www.hertzcarsales.com/rent2buy.htm

Yep, that's the one! Seems it's 3 days now, or 2 hours free.

Not all locations offered it, however, but it can be nice.

Even if you don't use it, renting the car or type of car you're thinking of buying can be a good strategy.

They'll tend to be low-end trim models but a lot of what you're evaluating in a test drive isn't how the heated seats work. I informally did that before my recent purchase but mostly in terms of what I didn't what to buy. One vehicle I knew I didn't care much for. And another, which was the same as I owned, I got hadn't really improved in 11 years, infotainment unit notwithstanding.

The problem with buying from Hertz or any rental car dealership is that many people (myself included) take rental cars on the highway and immediately press the pedal to the floor to see what it can do (or how loud it gets). People have zero incentive to drive rental cars nicely and Hertz has no incentive than to do the bare minimum of maintenance to keep the car on the road. They're gonna wear out faster than a privately owned car.

See Jeremy Clarkson of former Top Gear glory describe it: https://youtu.be/NYt9DO5WXr8?t=65

Really?! Am I unusual for not being even a little bit tempted to drive like an asshole just because I don't own the car I'm driving and have a damage waiver through my credit card?

The worse maintenance a rental agency does, the more likely customers experience problems, never rent from them again, and trash them in reviews. I'd say there's plenty of incentive to do more than the bare minimum of maintenance.

I think a lot of people end up using Turo for evaluation purposes. I'm a little surprised that no one has attempted to disintermediate/democratize car sales as well as rentals. If I had the option to buy the car I rent on Turo, that would scratch the itch you're referring to, wouldn't it... at least for the used market?

That's not a bad idea. I've used lensrentals.com to rent camera gear before, and they generally also have a price to keep the particular item you're renting: https://www.lensrentals.com/keeper

That'd be a neat option on Turo - "ok, I'm looking at buying a Jeep - I want to test-drive one to validate this desire, but ideally one I could buy if I fall in love with".

Oh... I used dealerships for the test drives. I had a price from Carvana on each of the models I wanted to try and I went around and tried them. Once, I landed on make and model. I gave the sales guy a chance to beat the Carvana price he didn't.

Additionally, if the old car is paid off and you don't need it for down payment you could hold on to it for the break in period where you can return the purchased car then just sell the old one on Carvana and they will just come pick it up.

I don't personally understand the appeal. While some dealerships are certainly sketchy, I've found high-volume traditional dealerships to be pretty straightforward. They price them to sell, you pay the price that's posted on the sticker/website.

for me it's the archaic 'sales practices' they go through. The bait and switching in advertising, the us vs them dynamic they try to create with the sale managers, finalizing a price with sales and then having finance try to wring more out of you, or saying the price isn't possible unless x y z. I'll never go through that again.

I've never had an issue with an a dealer honoring an ad. I always print it out and bring it with me. It's pretty illegal if they don't.

Financing is financing. It's not the car. If you show up without knowing how you're going to pay for the car, well... you showed up without knowing how you're going to pay for the car.

Yeah, they'll ask about extended warranties and such, but it's just a matter of saying "no" a couple of times while signing paperwork.

I had a wild experience on Carvana. Bought the car (used, with 14k miles), they were going to ship it to my local Carvana pickup and the day before I get a message to effect of, "Hey we just tried to start your car and it's not starting so we don't recommend you buy this car" . All fees refunded, I was confused but grateful, no one followed up to try and get me to buy another car (other than garden variety email list marketing). Ended up buying a friend of a friends old car for way less two weeks later.

They may have sold your car for more money to another buyer locally.

This is exactly what happened. Or some employee decided they wanted it themselves.

If you still had the VIN you could probably search what happened, heh.

Wish they would stop clogging all the local Craigslist boards but at least they correctly mark them as "by dealer," making them easy to filter out

Which issues have you experienced, or know about?

Here's one(two?)

https://www.autoblog.com/2022/07/20/carvana-illinois-license...

PS - they've been reinstated again. Maybe.

https://seekingalpha.com/instablog/767332-clastic/5659699-ca...

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