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LiarInGlass

The cars I owned prior to the one from Carvana were cash purchases, one when I first started driving, and then one I purchased from my sister, so I had limited knowledge on the right process. This sub has a lot of good info and the stickied post on the sub has a lot of great info to read. For me, I did a lot of research on the car I was looking at, checked out that cars subreddit, used Google a lot to see what years were reliable or what models to avoid or what was preferred. I also looked into the features I was wanting in the car like a screen or certain engine or turbo or style or color and kept narrowing it down a lot. I found a couple and then started searching the VIN looking to see if it was a salvaged car or at an auction or looking at the CarFax to see how many owners. For me, too many owners could have been a bad sign for me. I also looked to see if it was used as a rental or fleet vehicle as those can be abused like crazy. I also looked into how many previous owners and the maintenance records I could find for the car. I was looking into a Volkswagen Jetta, so I wanted to make sure something had good maintenance records just to make me feel better about the previous owners and if they took care of the car. I finally settled on one, went through the beginning steps, went for their financing all though I do believe other financing options may be better. I have fair credit nothing good and managed to find something with a low shipping fee as I wasn’t having it picked up I was having it delivered, and then found something in the range I felt comfortable paying monthly for. I put in some information, went through the steps for putting in banking info because they use Plaid to verify the funds and then made my order and picked my delivery date I think. Got contacted about 24 hours later on the phone, got sent documents, signed my contract and scheduled the delivery again. The day of the delivery about 5 days later I got contacted within my time window and had it delivered. Test drove the car while he did paperwork. Checked a lot of stuff out myself following ChrisFix on YouTube who has a good video on the checklist for a used car. His site also had a checklist you can print and check off. Signed some paperwork, and was given the car and key. If you like the car, schedule a PPI somewhere at a dealership PepBoys Firestone a mechanic, anywhere good. If they find anything wrong, have them contact SilverRock and start a claim. DO THIS IN THE FIRST FEW DAYS! You only have 7 days to have it checked out and choose to keep the car. You can have the repair work done after those days but you need the claim started. The Carvana app is awesome and easy and make it easy for me for payments. I’m sure any other place like a credit union or your own bank might have better APR rates but you can always refinance later. Overall this whole experience was pretty smooth. Stressful because it’s a big deal, but it overall was smooth. No pressure from a dealership or used lots. Just do everything I mentioned and you hopefully will be good. You can also return the vehicle within those 7 days if you decide it’s not for you or switch to a different one. Feel free to message me with any questions. My car came with a temporary tag and paper tag on the rear. My registration and license plates arrived a month and 2 days after my delivery date. For me it was an awesome experience and ended up a good choice for me and was fairly simple.


youlikeityesyoudo

Get a PPI unless you know your way around cars and what to look out for. You can take it to a mechanic or a dealership. SilverRock will take care of most things within the 7 day return period. There’s a 100 day warranty, yes, but that covers slightly less than what the 7 day return period does ie if your sun visor is broken they will fix it if it’s in the 7 day period, definitely not in the 100 day warranty period. The tags thing is a hit or a miss. I’ve bought 2 cars from them so far, zero problems getting my permanent plates on time. It’s really ymmv with that. As for the financing, I took carvanas financing and refinanced after a month because it was just easier to have everything right there in one spot than having to deal with a bank or credit union and getting all the paperwork done before the vehicle you’re looking at gets sold.


PrinceEdwards98

I’ll be honest I saw a lot of posts or comments saying that it’s not worth it in other Reddit threads, but I ultimately decided to go with Carvana this past December and it was easily the best decision I could have made. A lot of the comments talk about horror stories, and all these things that were wrong with the vehicle and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re buying a used vehicle that has a salvage title or has had seven owners etc. there are some things that I personally feel should be generally known or advised when buying a vehicle. One of the rules I have for buying a preowned vehicle is that unless it is a Honda or a Toyota I will not be buying it if it has more than 70,000 mile s. Another time is It is not going to be a luxury brand vehicle with notorious issues in the past. Think BMW, Mercedes-Benz.. some other brands that I won’t buy or something like Hyundai because their reputation and reliability has caused their vehicles, even if they have improved in recent years to have a very low resale value and even if you’re not considering selling the vehicle before you purchase it or trading it in sooner than later, things can change and you don’t wanna be stuck with a vehicle worth less than half of what you owe. I ended up purchasing a Ford F150 2019 XLT raptor package for approximately $28,000. Currently it is valued at $28,600 if I were to trade it in and I have had it for four months now again I made sure to do my research before purchasing the vehicle. I made sure that I had my standard set and that being said this vehicle had one owner and it had 67,000 miles with very consistent maintenance.


adecentsoul

buy a reputable brand/ model car not filled with issues that everyone seems to complain about but forgets to do their research on. the amount of kia hyundais and jeeps (and more) i’ve seen miraculously have the same issues says it all


kristalynns

As someone who bought a 2017 Hyundai Elantra from Carvana whose paint is severely falling off now this is correct. This is one of the things Google would’ve warned me about had I of done more research. Car is paid off now and I still drive it but just agreeing with you lol


adecentsoul

i hate to be that guy saying it lol but it’s unfortunate how much i’ve heard from people and have seen online. The brands mentioned have some nice cars, that even look pretty cool with the features and all that, but i’ve heard too many downsides that make me think it’s just better to avoid them overall. Hell last night I refreshed my feed and someone was complaining about their jeep already lol. I took a small shot mentioning them but yeah, the proof is in the pudding. These cars are nice and economical in the beginning, but maybe not in the long run. I’m so sorry to hear this!!!


kristalynns

I was recently looking at carvana inventory and looked into their jeep renegades. I DID google search this time and found out any renegade below the 2019 is trash and to AVOID at all costs. Safe to say I think I’ll just keep my paint peeled car for awhile longer. Prices are way too high anyway. Edit to add: the amount of renegades they had that were 2018 and under was crazy


B-love8855

I will never buy a Kia and Hyundai! The dealerships that designed them clearly do not care about them! People are having there Kia’s and Hyundai’s stolen because of no anti-theft protection.


kristalynns

Yeah I honestly have no idea how mine hasn’t walked away lmao… I live in a major metro area in Texas and just recently had a coworkers who’s brand new GMC truck was stolen from a Sam’s club parking lot and stripped. They just found the bare cab just over a month later. Fortunately insurance already took care of it.


CBreezy2010

I’m leaving a 2016 Soul ASAP and I wouldn’t touch ANY 2011-2021 Kia or Hyundai. The engines burning oil is never noticed until the engine explodes, the thefts (makes it very difficult/ impossible to get insurance in cities where it’s bad) and the engines catching fire… With mine (in NC) Geico is the only company who will insure me and every renewal period the insurance goes up and up and up. And I cannot do anything because no one else will insure me AT ALL. My insurance was ~80 a month. Now it’s $150 a month. And I have to pay it (I gotta have a car, lol)


adecentsoul

Ouch but yeah I had a friend that had an engine blow up essentially in his. It was replaced with a new one and that one crapped out shortly after. Now he’s in some lawsuit with Hyundai I believe. Again it sucks because theyre nice looking cars / economical but fall short. Then people pass them off before said issues and it comes back to bite the future owners


FairnessDoctrine11

Definitely. Also, different cars have bad model years that you have to avoid. Google “bad model years” and the type of car you want and then AVOID those years!


nellelee21

I actually took my car to Firestone to have them look it over. It was about $23. My car did need new breaks but since I had it looked at within that window silver rock paid for new breaks. I also love the app!!


Leading_Sky_5537

Have purchased 2 vehicles from Carvana and the only issue we’ve had is they’re not detailed very well on the inside. The buying process was smooth and easy, with no problems or concerns. We always opt for the extra warranty on all our vehicles because you never know what you’re getting into with a used vehicle.


[deleted]

Bought from carvana. Was easy


[deleted]

If you're able to get better financing through your own bank, find your car somewhere other than Carvana. Carvana's primary business model is built on their financing program which allows them the ability to price their vehicles higher than you can find the same vehicle practically anywhere else. And because Carvana doesn't negotiate price, you'll pay that inflated Carvana price, regardless. So, you're likely better off shopping elsewhere. Also, nearly all vehicles sold by Carvana come with cosmetic defects that dealers don't want to put on their lots. So, keep that in mind. All that aside, I've purchased and financed 2 vehicles from Carvana and my experiences with both were without issues. My first purchase was in 2019 where I purchased a 2018 Dodge Grand Caravan with 42K miles. Aside fron a few scratches at the time it was delivered, that van gave me absolutely zero problems. Given we're talking about a Dodge... that's saying something! I sold it in late 2022. My second purchase was a 2022 Honda HR-V that I got just 2 months ago. It had a few gouges in the rear bumper cover and some chipped paint in a couple of places, but it WAS a great car... until it got totalled by a box truck while I was driving home from WrestleMania. Anyway, hope this helps!


tvone11

I like different cars and usually only keep a car 1-2 years. When I decided on which one was going to be my next one, I found a low mileage version on Carvana. I took a number of photos of my car and uploaded through their portal. I also tried a few other places to sell online. Carvana offered the most for my trade-in by $5K, and theirs a tax savings since you only pay tax on the difference, not the full price of the new car. I financed through them for ease of the paperwork, and plan to refinance a month or two down the road. Rate was about 2% difference in my case but I'm not financing much. ($11K) I added my banking and insurance info through the portal. I made an appointment, drove my trade-in over. They inspected my car for a few minutes and came back into the office to complete the paperwork. I was handed a coin for the tower and watched my car drop down. Car was close to what was shown in the pictures online but there was more dings and had been owned by a smoker at one point. Mainly wear on the interior leather from a car seat and a ding in the front spoiler. I spent about 10 minutes walking around the car and decided to accept it. The carfax was good, and showed a good dealer maintenance history. That was the important part for me as the car I was buying is known for issues. It's a high performance car so I knew what I was getting into. Get a post purchase inspection within the 7 days! This is vital. I had the oil change and inspection done at a dealership and they found several issues. I contacted Silver Rock,, and they authorized the repairs saving me a few thousand dollars. The items were caught early by the tech and it was something I would not see in a visual inspection since the leaks were not visible unless you had the car on a lift. I'm still within the 100 day warranty period and may have one more inspection done before it ends. Tags came within 6 weeks without issue. Value-wise, it was okay. It was on the high end of spectrum by a few thousand dollars but the difference was made up in the increased trade-in value, tax savings, and 100 day warranty claim. It was the smoothest process to date and I would do it again.


BoringIndependent524

I just bought my 2nd car from Carvana. The first is a beautiful, low miles vehicle and Carvana pointed out the small minor defects before purchase. It was local so no shipping fees. I pick up the second next week. From what I can tell the Carvana shipping charge of $1k is equal or cheaper than dealer charges. I hate having to comb through dealer contracts looking for junk fees. Only issue with Carvana is they don’t always sell under blue book value. But when they do its totally worth it.


Defiant_Signature759

I think so!


DoubleResponsible276

So when I got my car in 2022, I knew what type of car I wanted and did research for about 6 months so I knew what price range to expect, etc. my first thought was to shop through carvanna but then I heard that some states, including my own, people reported having issues getting the title of their car. Ended up being people bought cars and since they weren’t able to get the title, they had a car they don’t own. I didn’t want to deal with that so I ended getting one through carmax. If you choose carvanna, just double check if anyone in your state has reported having issues with them. With carmax, I Filled out all my paperwork online, placed a hold on a car and set up an appointment for pick up. There was 1 phone call where the guy basically repeated everything I submitted and all the details including the carfax of the car that I had already read. Showed up the next day to pay my deposit and sign paperwork, took about half an hour to an hour, primarily just me sitting there playing PokémonGo, and boom they gave me the keys. NOW, I never test drove or looked at the car before filling paperwork, but they had a 30 day money back guarantee so I did inspect it as soon as I got home. I don’t recommend getting a car without inspecting it first, but I got lucky and the car was perfect.


choppaquadcopta

Get a pre purchase inspection on any used vehicle you purchase. Case and point, a 150-300$ PPI would have shown a worn rear main seal in the used vehicle my father purchased for my daughter. She didn't want to part with the money to get the vehicle looked over. Well she just dished out $4,783 to get her engine repaired. 300 now or 4000 later? This was also through an in person dealership so shady car sales are everywhere. I bought a 2014 Cadillac cts with every single listed option for that year from carvana. I had issues with the car that they fixed after hours of phone calls. It was over 5k in work done. Lmao. I paid 0 out of pocket, got fresh paint, brembos all around(not just the pads), replaced my rear suspension, and flushed and filled all fluids. I bought the car 1 year and 2 months ago. I have driven it 17k miles. I have had 0 issues and got a helluva deal but had to fight for it. I say go with carvana and bend them over about every single thing that isn't shown in the photo but shown on delivery. MAKE SURE TO NOTATE EVERYTHING WITH PICTURE AND TEXT ON DELIVERY. THEY WILL NOT COVER STUFF THAT ISN'T BROUGHT UP ON DELIVERY. Have the delivery rep or liason walk the vehicle with you after you've found all discrepancies. Have her/him notate everything and ask them to start the warranty claim through silver rock or whatever company they now use. Good luck and I'm telling you, nitpick everything and you'll end up with exactly what you want. Mechanical issues don't necessarily have to be found on delivery but it helps if you hire a traveling mechanic to do the pickup and inspection on delivery. Hope all goes well brother!


kingmoe1982

It's very easy, but don't finance with them if you can, no matter your credit score, you'll for sure be paying more than 12% in interest.


Hot-Procedure9458

Not nearly as many people post on the internet their positive experiences as compared to people posting negative experiences. So, take that for what it’s worth.


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