I recently purchased a Jeep from Carvana. Overall it has been a great experience, and I would likely do it again, and recommend it for others. I enjoyed having the ability to take my time viewing vehicles of all makes and models while reading reviews and performing thorough research. For me, going to a dealership is time intensive and usually high pressure. I enjoyed not having to deal with that. The customer advocates at Carvana have been attentive, friendly, courteous, and helpful, as was the driver that delivered the vehicle and picked up my trade-in.
Acquiring financing was simple. Carvana offered several options for financing, and I chose to go through their lender. After registering for their website and providing a few minor details, I received a financing quote within minutes. My credit has some blemishes, so it's not stellar, yet I was easily able to acquire financing at what I felt was a decent rate. After purchasing the vehicle, I received a call from a representative from the lender, GO financial, to review the terms. She too was friendly and helpful.
I had a trade-in vehicle that was in fair condition with a couple of mechanical issues. I entered all of the details through their website, and again, it was relatively painless. While the website states that you can receive a quote in two minutes, it took a couple of days for me to receive my quote. I didn't really mind the delay as I wasn't in a major rush to make my purchase. I would imagine that the delay was a result of the fact that I had started the process on a Saturday and had entered some notes about the mechanical issues with the vehicle, so it probably needed human review. On Monday morning an advocate emailed or called to check in with me, and I mentioned that I was still waiting for my quote. The quote was received minutes later. It was relatively painless, but the delay is worth noting for those with similar circumstances.
As to finding my jeep, and as previously stated, I wasn't in a rush to make my purchase and enjoyed taking the time to check out all of my options and do research on my purchase. I was working from an iPhone, which of course gave me a slightly more limited mobile site to work with. Even still, I found it to be loaded with features, and useful filters to narrow my options down. There were some minor bugs in the interface (e.g. at one point I had to resign my documents and, after doing so, the site didn't show it as being done and the problem was easily resolved by an advocate over the phone), but nothing that necessarily made my experience unpleasant or hindered my usage greatly. Overall, I thought it worked fine for my needs.
The actual purchase (signing the paperwork) was great. It's mostly all done through electronic signatures in a very intuitive and user-friendly interface. As previously mentioned, I did have to resign my documents as I failed to advise Carvana that I wanted to transfer my registration from my trade-in to my new jeep. Doing so was no major ordeal. There was some additional paperwork that needed to be filled out at the time of delivery, which took all of about five minutes. Again, no major ordeal.
I scheduled delivery of my Jeep to my driveway for the following Saturday. It was supposed to be done in the afternoon, but the delivery driver contacted me the day before and offered to come out earlier than scheduled. Of course, I didn't mind getting my new toy early, so I accepted. The delivery driver showed up exactly on time and was a pleasure to work with. She gave us the opportunity to test drive the new Jeep, which I took, while she looked over our old one to ensure that it was in line with what I stated. Upon our return, we spent a few minutes with the driver, confirming details and signing paperwork. The experience was so quick and pleasant that my wife and I were joking with each other about feeling like it was too good to be true and our expectation that someone would be showing up shortly to take the jeep that they had mistakenly left at our house back! Haha.
The driver noted that the new Jeep was missing its floor mats and had thus found some that would work in the short-term and threw them in prior to leaving. She ordered the proper mats, which were delivered to the house within days.
The Jeep was detailed that morning, and was spotless when it arrived.
Overall the entire purchase experience exceeded my expectations.
And now for the bad part, and reason that I didn't give a 5-star rating. While test driving the new Jeep, my wife and I noticed a sound coming from the rear of the vehicle, but as our old Jeep made similar noises, we chalked it up to being a "Jeep thing" and blew it off. We also noticed that there was a faulty tire pressure sensor, but again didn't really think of it as a major issue.
Carvana gives a seven-day trial period for their purchases. Unfortunately, I was busy through that seven-day period and didn't have the opportunity to take the vehicle to a mechanic to check it out. I would highly recommend that, even if one thinks the vehicle is immaculate, they take advantage of that trial period and take their purchase to a qualified mechanic or dealership to have it thoroughly looked over. My wife took our Jeep to a local dealership, who determined that the noise we were hearing was a rusted out rear differential. Fortunately, it was covered under the 100-day warranty provided with Carvana vehicles, and it was replaced at no cost. They reset the tire pressure sensor, which cleared the initial error, but it returned the following day. We haven't taken the time to get that sorted out yet.
When purchasing a used vehicle, of course, I expect there to be some issues, but I certainly didn't expect to be replacing something so major immediately after purchasing it, especially considering the thorough inspection and repair process that Carvana touts. I find it hard to believe that anyone else that drove the vehicle wouldn't have noticed the same problems. That part was disappointing. I probably should've realized something that was up when I saw on the inspection paperwork that a rust treatment had been performed by Carvana. Hopefully, additional internal rust damage won't be found at some later, out-of-warranty time.
As stated, overall I am pleased with the entire experience, and would recommend Carvana to others, just make sure to be a smart buyer and take advantage of that seven-day trial period.
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
