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Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

bloomberg.com

11–20 of 94 posts

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#11

Why does an online car webpage need 18k+ employees? I don't get why they are so huge in employees.

Carvana likely has very few engineers. Most of the employees are in operations facilitating car purchasing, inspecting, pricing, etc.

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#12
They've been shut down in Illinois twice and they're still in legal hot water. Blame interest rates and inventory yadda yadda but they've been moving fast and breaking things too long. Their VP is facing 50+ criminal charges in this state alone.

https://jalopnik.com/carvanas-legal-counsel-ordered-to-appea...

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#13
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.

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#15

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 a…

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.

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#17

They've been shut down in Illinois twice and they're still in legal hot water. Blame interest rates and inventory yadda yadda but they've been moving fast and breaking things too long. Their VP is facing 50+ criminal charges in this state alone. https://jalopnik.com/carvanas-legal-counsel-ordered-to-appea...

Meh, looks like a bunch of regulatory capture by existing auto-dealerships.

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#18
post #3

This is less of a tech layoff story and more of an overlevered business with crashing asset values against very difficult short term liabilities and no ability to refinance in a rising interest rate market. The real question for normal people is if Carvana sells off a huge chunk of its inventory at fire-sale prices, does that accelerate the crash in used car prices? Is March of 2023 the right time to pick up that fun…

If that was the case, why isn't the same thing happening to Carmax and Vroom and the other Carvana-style used-car dealers?

Used car prices are falling and I assume it would hurt all of them, but it seems to be hurting Carvana more than the others.

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#19
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably more like July. It's going to take a long time for these loans to get liquidated, and then processed through the repo markets. And likely the lenders will hold the repo'd asset longer if they can to not create a glut of vehicles. The way this really get's great for buying repo'd sports cars is if we get forced liquidations from the lenders. It's going to be a bloodbath.

According to some video I saw on YouTube, there's already a large number of repossessed vehicles that banks are being very slow to release to the market, because they want to keep the prices high.

That's something that works when repossessions are still relatively low. Right now, most people are still employed and car payments are pretty high on the list of must pay bills, right behind mortgages. It's the same thing hedge funds do when taking or exiting a big position, move slowly to avoid spooking the market.

If someone like Carvana has to liquidate cars at a loss to keep the lights on, you're going to see a FLOOD of cars hit the market as you'll have a rapidly depreciating asset and nobody will want to hold.

Re: Carvana to cut 1,500 jobs as online auto dealer’s troubles mount

#20
post #17

They've been shut down in Illinois twice and they're still in legal hot water. Blame interest rates and inventory yadda yadda but they've been moving fast and breaking things too long. Their VP is facing 50+ criminal charges in this state alone. https://jalopnik.com/carvanas-legal-counsel-ordered-to-appea...

Meh, looks like a bunch of regulatory capture by existing auto-dealerships.

Failure to transfer title would make me extremely mad as a customer
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