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Comment by mattw2121 | Hacker News Reader

I've purchased 2 vehicles through Carvana, and honestly the process was fantastic. I feel I got a fair deal on both vehicles, the quality was good, and everything as advertised. I did all the paperwork online and when I showed up to pick the car up was in and out in just a few minutes.

The only problem I had was that the delivery tower didn't work when I dropped the coin in both times. First time the car was for me and I didn't really care. The second time it was for my son I would have really liked their gimmick to work.

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This is completely anecdotal but there's been a couple of times during COVID when I was stuck at a light next to a Caravana truck on it's way to drop off a car and I noticed what appeared to be non-trivial issues underneath the car.

I just don't get how people can buy a used car without seeing it or sending over a professional to look at it first.

I bought a Nissan Rogue two months ago with Carvana - it had a 7 day no questions refund, free repairs for a year, and we got to test drive for 30 mins before they signed it over to us. Overall I felt very comfortable with this purchase, much more than a small local dealership or even worse a stranger on some FB group.

I buy older cars than Carvana seems to deal in, but I love the Craigslist and FB cars.

I get to the meetup point early (better if it's at their house where I can make judgments from that), and then I watch them drive up. Talk to them for a while, see if they're knowledgeable, etc. Then inevitably you get a name over the course of messaging/texting/email, and you can get more insight about their background. You get to talk to them for a while and find out why they're getting rid of it. If you've gotten to the point of trusting them (otherwise, you're long gone), ask specific questions about car history, and you can have reasonable hopes that they'll tell the truth.

Anyway, the car's been great, and he told me some problems that I would have taken 6 months to discover on my own.

It's been a while since I bought a car, but this approach has worked out very well for me as well with every vehicle I've bought from a private party. Meet the previous owner, talk enough to decide if you trust them (walk if you don't), and learn about what the car's gone through. I'm much more nervous to buy a car from a dealer who usually has no idea what the car's been like aside from the state in which they brought it in.

If there's a specific model or models I'm shopping for, I do some research (reviews and forums) to try to get to know their quirks and pitfalls so I can check for them when I go to see the car. I tend to over-research big decisions but with cars it's useful to know what I'm getting into and what to watch for in the future.

How did your best and worst story go when it comes to this?

30 minutes and 7 days is not a lot of time to find out if something is wrong.

You can return the car in within first 7 days for any reason.

Doesn't it feel a bit insane to do things in that order though?

Most car sellers I've encountered will allow a prospective buyer to take a car to their mechanic to to be looked over BEFORE purchase.

The biggest downside here is if you trade your existing car into Carvana. Sure you've got 7 days to get that newly-purchased car inspected, but what happens when you get the inspection results back and decide you want to unwind the transaction - Carvana will take back the car you purchased but they will not bring your trade-in back to you. Not to mention the general paperwork hassle and the hit to your credit score (if you're financing), all for a car you're not keeping.

Is there any way to actually know that was a car out for delivery, and not being picked up? When you sell your vehicle to Carvana they come to you with the same flatbed truck and haul it away.

Not that I don't doubt the cars they sell are sometimes (often?) trash. I sold a 370z to them this summer and the amount of due diligence they performed before paying was practically nil. They didn't even open the hood, or drive it more than the half mile around the block staying <20mph and probably <20% throttle too. It was mildly horrifying to this ex-gearhead who's bought and sold over a dozen cars/bikes in my time.

Great way to sell your car, awful way to buy your car.

non-trivial issues?

When I was shopping for a used car in late Summer 2020, Carvana was priced 10-20% above traditional dealerships in the area for same make/model/trim/year/mileage. The traditional dealership process sucks so some people will pay the premium for a better experience, but as everyone's financial calculus has changed recently it may be that the number of customers who want to pay for that experience is receding.

I hate traditional dealerships, I usually would take an entire day off work to do the silly price/trade-in/finance dance because without exception it takes the better part of a day. The cost of using a vacation day (for a SW person) is close to a wash with the overhead cost of Carvana, Vroom, etc. They have much more selection on colors, trims, mileage, etc. than any local dealership and decent used cars have been scarce the past couple years.

With the 7day/100day cushion (100 days or some # miles for mechanical/safety repairs like brakes) I thought they might be losing money because the car had issues which their repair firm had to take care of. Not many local used car lots are going to do that. Maybe they were scooping up less than ideal inventory and its eating away their profits with the repairs.

Just buy directly from a private seller. I've never haggled more than 10 minutes over the price of a car (hint, most of them don't like it any more than you do). Make a fair offer, hand over the cash, and drive home. It's the only way I do it now.

As an aside, it's kinda sad that you need to cost your vacation days (unless you're a contractor). One of the better EU laws is that you must take your holidays and can't just cash them out, which is better overall, I think.

I've had numerous heavily subsidized Lyft and Uber rides, and it was pretty great. I'm currently a member of WeWork All Access, and it is pretty great.

Edit: I think I misinterpreted your review as glowing, but it was just stating your experience. The towers not working is pretty sad. It reflects the company operating in la-la land though.

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