Sold my car to Carvana

[JSH]

Well the deal is done, I sold my 2014 Sportwagen TDI to Carvana and the process was a painless as promised.

If you don’t know - Carvana is a tech company that buys and sell cars online. You can pick out a car on their website, they will bring it to you on a car carrier or rollback, take away your car as trade-in and boom – the deal is done with no dealership hassle. They also just buy cars sight unseen – just fill out a form and they send a locked in price.

Getting a quote for my car took about 5 minutes. Carvana offered $16,400 for a car I paid $14,000 for 4 years and 36,000 miles ago. With that offer I had to confirm I owned the car by taking a picture of the title and my driver’s license. Then I selected a pick up appointment for them to come get the car.

Today was that day. The Carvana rep showed up, took about 10 pictures of the car, drove it a block at 10 mph and that was the inspection. We did 5 minutes of paperwork and he took the keys and handed me a check.

I would never buy a car from Carvana as their prices are WAY high but I was happy to sell them my car at an inflated price.


The VW dealer offered $12,000 as a trade-in. I said that was low and showed them the Carvana price. They just say – sell it to Carvana because that is what we will sell it for on our lot. Car Guru confirms that similar cars are selling for about $16K at dealers within a 200 mile radius of me. Carvana will sell my car for about $20K and people we pay that just so they don’t have to go to a dealer. Crazy world.

[Gasoline Fumes]

When I got a quote for my Insight, just for fun, they offered $244.

[oil pan 4]

The vw dealer straight up lied to you.
Should have been like "show me these, $12,000 clean title 2014 tdi sportwagons you speak of and you can have mine or 10k".
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than at the VW dealership.
Unless your vehicle is in the greater than about the $12,000 don't sell on caravana.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

The vw dealer straight up lied to you.
Should have been like "show me these, $12,000 clean title 2014 tdi sportwagons you speak of and you can have mine or 10k".
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than at the VW dealership.
Unless your vehicle is in the greater than about the $12,000 don't sell on caravana.

The VW dealer said Carvana's purchase offer of $16,400 is about what they (the VW Dealer) would sell the car for on their lot. That checks out for cars with similar miles and trim

[oil pan 4]

I say it's a trap.
Don't believe anything you see or hear on a vw ad.
And I used to like vw.

[freebeard]

It was all downhill from here:


https://imgur.com/1k1yDOh

[ksa8907]

Dealer advertised price is always with ttl and "processing fee", (i.e., straight up profit) not included.

[Isaac Zachary]

I was thinking of selling the Prius. But Carvana offered $475. And I'd have to meet them in the next state over (Utah). But I was honest about the damaged front end online. If I repaired it to 100% then it would probably be worth a lot more.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

I was thinking of selling the Prius. But Carvana offered $475. And I'd have to meet them in the next state over (Utah). But I was honest about the damaged front end online. If I repaired it to 100% then it would probably be worth a lot more.

Your Prius is likely too old or too high mileage for Carvana to be interested. The oldest car for sale on their site is a 2009. The highest mileage is 118K miles. The least expensive is $8990 for a 2009 Smart ForTwo Pure with 77K miles. (It had an MSRP of $12,500 new)

If they bought your car they would send it straight to auction.

[freebeard]

How does Carvana compare with NADA book values?

The vehicle I want to liquidate to get an FUV is the 1971 Superbeetle. NADA says

MSRP $1,985
Low $4,325
mid $10,050
high $23,200

It will never hit the high, but it's probably above mid. With two replacement fenders (on hand) and an engine refresh, it might be worth $12K > $17K.