Have a decent offer from Carvana on selling my vehicle.

Couple of questions:

How in depth do they inspect the car?

Is the offer you receive over email pretty consistent to what you see when you get there?

Should I consider buying a car from them or just take the cash and find something elsewhere?

If they have a car you want, the advantage of buying from them if you trade your vehicle in is the sales tax savings.

If they value the trade at $30,000 and the vehicle you purchase is more than $30,000, you pay sales tax on the difference instead of the entire amount. In this example, you'd save $1875 in sales tax (6.25% assuming you're in Texas).

Appreciate that. Yes, I am aware of tax savings. Was curious if the quality of their cars is worth it.

They have multiple lawsuits against them currently for deceptive trade practices, failure to register cars, failure to pay off trades, and even selling stolen cars.

I wouldn't do business with them.

https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2025-press-releases/attorney-general-tong-announces-settlement-with-carvana-following-hundreds-of-consumer-complaints

https://foldenauerlaw.com/carvana-settles-lawsuit-with-four-california-counties/

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/carvana-class-action-lawsuit-moving-forward-maryland/60298084

https://www.nizniklaw.com/carvanaclassaction

CuriousAg said:

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Have a decent offer from Carvana on selling my vehicle.

Couple of questions:

How in depth do they inspect the car?

Is the offer you receive over email pretty consistent to what you see when you get there?

Should I consider buying a car from them or just take the cash and find something elsewhere?

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Recently sold a car and got a better offer from givemethevin compared to Carvana

We have now bought two cars from Carvana and it was quick and painless both times. These are used cars, so each one will be unique in terms of condition. Way better than buying from a regular dealer. No add ons, defects are disclosed, they offer a short warranty, they have photos of all the dings and defects, no haggling, and they show the final driveout price on their website without a bunch of BS games. We bought a truck from them last week and it took 6 minutes online, went to see it in person two days later and had another 10 minutes of signatures after we inspected, test drove and accepted the truck.

It's very easy to sell a car to Carvana.

They came to the house, did a cursory review of the car, handed us a check and put the car on a trailer and left in 20 minutes

I thought they went out of business. Or was that some other online dealership?

They had a rough time financially a while back but are still in business. If you hate haggling and dealer add-ons, you might consider them the next time you are looking for a used car.

I just got a bus from Carvana to use, if needed, when I traded in my f-150. Surprisingly the dealer was right in the ballpark so didn't use them

Do they scan the car for mechanical issues or go and test drive it? I have a bad sensor that I rather not replace at Porsche dealership for the thousands they want.

Completed a sale with Carvana today.

- received the offer on Saturday
- uploaded their requested info. DL, unsigned title, picture of the odometer
- scheduled a pickup. There was a fee since I was a little further from a location to drop off.
- guy arrived with their signature looking flatbed. Verified our IDs (since my name and wife's name were on the title). And we both had to be present. Going forward planning to only have one name on the title of our vehicles.
- he jumped into the vehicle, started it up, plugged in I believe an ODB 2 scanner and let it run for a few minutes while making sure the sunroof worked
- came back and said we are good to go after a quick walk around that didn't seem thorough.
- completed the docusign and he handed us a check for the amount less the pickup fee
- he spent more time loading the vehicle than inspecting it.
- would say it was maybe 20-30 minutes and the guy was gone.

Also, a few things to note about the vehicle
- 10.5 years old with 158k miles. I bought with 6 miles on the clock
- it went through a hail storm about 5 years ago. We thought damage was minor, however the insurance company didn't think so and gave us a pretty good check. We pocketed the money. This was disclosed and believe the value they gave me reflected that.
- transmission was working but started to notice some signs that it was about to go, however still shifting fine.
- the motor was running fine with no warning lights illuminated on the dash

Not excited to hear that he hooked up an obd reader. I'm sure I will get flagged for that. They are coming to pick mine up on Thursday night.

Can't you disconnect the battery and the code shouldn't read for a while?

You could do that, but most computers require ~50 miles or X hours of runtime before the ODB timer goes off.

There will be the 'unknown' in the computer.

~egon

That's the thing with used cars. Unless you get a factory certified preowned, I'd say the majority do very little regarding a thoroughlook through or maintenance before reselling.

Dr. Doctor said:

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You could do that, but most computers require ~50 miles or X hours of runtime before the ODB timer goes off.

There will be the 'unknown' in the computer.

~egon

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This. Or "not ready" under the system that was not cleared yet. Will immediately red flag. Their scanner is part of their tablet that can also read miles since the code was reset.

Carvana scanned mine, drove it around the parking lot and took some preliminary photos, then hooked up the OBD dongle and looked under the hood.