Good riddance. Their shady, shady, practices took full advantage of the trust customers need to have in a full service used car dealer. The execs should face legal penalties
As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
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Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#12A car vending machine . This is why investing in gimmicks/fads is generally not a good idea.
The car vending machine was probably better looked upon as a marketing technique than the core of the business.
Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#13But buying a car from a dealer remains horrible
Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#14Until recently, they've been able to keep expenses relatively low, but selling cars has always been low margin business. Their sales is still pretty strong, so I hope they're able to restructure their debt with creditors.
I wouldn’t believe that. It’s a financial scheme where they were somehow able to get massive collateralized loans to buy lots of inventory whose value is very volatile.
It is reminiscent of an attempt to corner silver or something. I’m sure the insiders cashed out.
Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#15The problem seems to be that they sold too many cars with a negative margin. I've heard stories of people selling their cars sight unseen to Carvana for above market value and it seems they were left holding too many cars as the second hand car market normalized and prices decreased. Like a lot of VC funded companies, they were blinded to market realities by the cash each funding round produced. If they'd had to purc…
Sounds superficially a lot like zillow
Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#16The problem is with buying cars site unseen. I follow some car groups that revolve around tuning BMW engines for lots of power. It became a meme to post before and after pictures of heavily modified, drag strip/race prepped cars and then on the back of Carvana trucks some months later.
I feel really sorry for people who bought some of those 340s and M3s.
It’s just too easy to unload junk cars on companies like Carvana. Dealerships have the tools to sniff this stuff out during trades.
Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#17A car vending machine . This is why investing in gimmicks/fads is generally not a good idea.
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Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#18But buying a car from a dealer remains horrible
This. Car dealerships are some of the most unpleasant places I’ve ever been inside. Pushy, manipulative, sleazy… it drove us to buy our last vehicle on Kijiji
Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#19When I went to buy my car from Carvana, the guy that helped me said that the cost of used cars was incredible. People were buying cars, then trading them in a month or two later for a profit. He suggested I come back in a month or two to do the same to get a newer model.
I'm not sure what the folks at Carvana were thinking, but it seems like even with a wild used car market and high inflation, this shouldn't reasonably be possible. Or at least, their sales associates shouldn't be pushing it.
Re: As Carvana crashes, used car dealers, not buyers, stand to win big
#20The problem is with buying cars site unseen. I follow some car groups that revolve around tuning BMW engines for lots of power. It became a meme to post before and after pictures of heavily modified, drag strip/race prepped cars and then on the back of Carvana trucks some months later. I feel really sorry for people who bought some of those 340s and M3s. It’s just too easy to unload junk cars on companies like Carvan…
Even Carmax does a modicum of due diligence. Carvana just sounds like a terribly run business model that could only operate on hopium.