If it’s time to say bye-bye to your current set of wheels, you could be looking at a couple of options here. You could put the car up on CarMax or try to get a hold of a buyer privately – think Facebook or Craigslist. But in this article, I’m going to review Carvana and our recent experience. Buying or selling a car can be a difficult process and we recently knocked out both using Carvana.
But have you heard of Carvana? Is Carvana Legit? It’s a site that my wife and I recently used to sell her car. I have to say that the experience was unlike my past experiences with car dealerships, and I mean that in a good way. It’s the best car sale and purchase experience we’ve ever had.
With Carvana, I was able to sell the car in a stress-free way. Right off the bat, I knew that it was the right choice for me financially. If you’re curious about how my experience went, I’ll detail the entire process of selling my car on Carvana in this post.
And to make the story even crazier, we also made our purchase through Carvana. And we handled these transactions on the very same day! We were in their office for less than 30 minutes – insane.
There are plenty of reviews for Carvana online, but this guide might have some information that you can’t find elsewhere. This guide will also serve as my Carvana review.
How Much Will Carvana Pay?
A lot. Carvana pays at competitive prices for used cars. How can they do so? Understand that Carvana is a massive publicly traded company. They have to impress their investors by growing the company rapidly.
The only way they can progress as a company is to sell more cars. The only way they can sell more cars is to expand their inventory. Because this is their primary goal, Carvana will pay top dollar for used vehicles.
They’re also able to pay higher prices because they’re playing the volume game. They take less profit on each car sold, but they ramp up the number of cars that they sell.
I would say the bulk of their inventory comes from wholesale auctions. However, buying from auctions is not the most economical choice because of many associated fees. So Carvana’s solution is the willingness to pay ordinary folk, like you and me, premium prices for our old cars. By buying privately, they don’t have to worry about paying all the associated costs with buying a car at auction.
If your primary concern is to get as much money for your car, I would say Carvana is the best option for you.
Related Reading: Get Paid To Put Ads on Your Car
Why Shouldn’t I sell My Car to CarMax or Vroom?
I looked at putting the car for sale on Carvana, CarMax, and Vroom. The only reason I chose Carvana is that they gave me the highest offer. I did some digging around and found out that this is not always the case.
I also valued the car to see what I could sell it for locally in a private sale. Our gut told us that the Carvana offer was within $500 of what we’d be able to sell it for locally. After I had just sold my personal truck and had to show it like 25 times to finally find a buyer (a first for me) I decided that was well worth the $500 price difference. We were actually quite impressed to be offered the $10,300 for our 2015 Nissan Rogue. The offer seemed totally fair.
I read many reviews and comments of people saying that they got offered more money on other platforms. Some say that they got thousands of dollars more by selling to a private buyer.
So I suggest you do the same thing I did and get quotes from various places and see which dealer will offer you the most money. Not only did Carvana offer me the most money, but the process was extremely straightforward.
I’ve heard nightmares about selling privately, and it’s common knowledge that it takes a lot of work. If your goal is to avoid any kind of hassle, I suggest you go for Carvana.
Does Carvan’s Quote Change During the Sales Process?
No! Please note, though, that Carvana’s offer is only good for seven days and 1,000 miles. Make sure you stay within this guideline when you sell your car to them. I even sold my car five days over the allotted time using their online scheduling tool. I was surprised at how incredibly flexible they were.
How does it go? First, you send texts back and forth with your rep. They’re usually very accommodating to any changes you may want to make.
For instance, we were pumped about having a car delivered directly to us and dropped off at our doorstep. Unfortunately, Carvana doesn’t have an office in our city yet, so we needed to drive 3 hours to make the sale/purchase.
All of the paperwork and financing details were handled via email and their online portal. When we showed up for our appointment, there was only a handful of docs for us to sign and we were in and out in less than 30 minutes. Craziest car buying experience of my life. No test drives. No worries. Just swap it out within 7 days if you don’t like it. It’s wild.
We had to snap a picture of the odometer when selling the vehicle (part of their process). So the mileage had to be within the allowed amount for their offer. They also do no purchase vehicles that have been in a wreck, no exceptions. I think this is smart for them to do. But as you can see, Carvana didn’t change their offer during the process, and they were flexible in terms of the changes I saw fit to make.
How Long Does Carvana’s Offer Last?
The offer Carvana gives you is good for seven days or 1,000 miles. As far as I know, this is the most generous policy around. If you look at CarMax, their policy only covers 500 miles. Vroom’s policy is only two days and 250 miles. This is solid for Carvana Reviews and folks looking for a gracious time period.
How Long did it Take me to Sell my Car to Carvana?
It didn’t take me more than an hour, including all the stuff you need to fill out online. You can then drop off your car or have it picked up for you. The online part is quick and easy. The drop-off at Carvana took me less than 30 minutes (including the purchase!) Is Carvana Legit? In this regard, heck yeah.
Does Carvana Inspect Cars?
I thought they would inspect my car, but they really didn’t. When I dropped off my car, I was expecting someone to check it out thoroughly, but that didn’t happen. Our sales guy took photos of my car from different angles and he hopped in and started the car up. But that was really the extent of it.
This doesn’t mean that Carvana will take cars in horrible condition. In fact, you get plenty of messages from them indicating that your car should be in good driving condition, including the battery and the tires.
Aside from the quick little photoshoot (seen up above with the Nissan Rogue), nothing else was done to my car in terms of inspection.
Carvana Warranty on Purchases
Carvana’s warranty deal is pretty sweet. It’s about as simple as their 7-day swap policy on the vehicle that you purchase. If anything goes wrong with the vehicle in the first 100 days or 4,189 miles (don’t ask, I did – no rhyme or reason to it) then you just take it to a certified repair shop and they’ll handle the claim with the warranty company.
We actually had to replace our AC air compressor within the first week of ownership. This is usually like a $1,000+ repair. It costs us $100 (for the part tax and the deductible). We were extremely pleased. Carvana Review is an A+ on this front.
Carvana 7 Day Return Policy
Another way that they make the purchase seamless. They are 100% fine for you to swap out the car for any other vehicle within 7 days. Our sales guy made that clear to us. “No problem. Drive it. If you don’t like it, pick out another car.” I’ve never had an experience like that before in a purchase. We even called and they extended this for us while we were having our recent purchase looked at to just confirm that it wasn’t a larger issue (it was just the AC compressor and their warranty covered it!)
How does Carvana handle negative equity?
If you owe more on your car than it’s worth, you’ll have to get a check from the bank for the difference between their offer price and what’s remaining on your loan. Before you hand this check to Carvana, you’ll have to upload an image of it online.
Should You Buy or Sell Your Car Using Carvana?
Should you use Carvana and is Carvana Legit? Yes. If you want a stress-free selling experience, Caravana can’t be beaten. They pay a lot, the process is breezy, and you can get rid of your car without looking for a private buyer. It’s a pretty sweet deal.
If you don’t want to take my word for it, there are plenty of other Carvana Reviews from happy Carvana customers. Good luck!
