I’m looking for a good used car, and I found a Prius I like. The only problem is, it’s Carvana. I’m a little wary of using the online dealers, and I don’t know what kind of problems I might run into. Has anyone had any experiences with Carvana? Are they shady and scammy, or do they give a fair deal? Should I go with a Mustang from a local dealer instead? 
Thanks for any advice!
I have a friend who bought a car from Carvana and said it wasn’t a horrible experience, especially compared to dealing with a car dealership. He did, though, say you have to read the fine print on everything you sign so you know what you’ve agreed to.
Most online dealers have guarantees with a full money-back guarantee if you choose to return it within a certain number of days. I don’t know if Carvana has that, but I would want some way to back out of the deal if it turns out to not be what I expected.
I purchased a 2 year old Toyota Avalon from them and it was a very smooth and painless experience.
The car that I bought had some fairly minor cosmetic blemishes, and one scrape was bad enough that I pointed it out and Carvana’s insurance company paid to fix it.
I would use Carvana again.
They do. 7 days with caveats.
Be aware that several online car sales outfits have had issues getting paperwork (ie title) to the new owners in a timely fashion. Carvana just laid off 2000 people.
I bought a car from Carvana last year. Totally painless experience, and the car was just as advertised. They weren’t able to schedule delivery on the day I wanted, so I went down to the vending machine it was in and they gave me a giant coin to put in the slot and start the delivery. It was a gimmick, but a fun one.
I no longer remember the details of their guarantees, but I recall that I could return the car for a refund or to get a different car for any reason in the first 7 days, then they had an additional 3-ish months of warranty after that.
Their in-house financing had crap rates, but no early payment penalty, so I went with that and took my time finding the best possible loan later, since the car I was looking for would have a very rare combo of options, and the one Carvana had was close by and had less than 10k miles.
There was a story on one of the auto-oriented sites about someone who bought a car from Carvana or a similar service. They would only let him test drive it in the parking lot and he was too excited to properly inspect it, so he missed obvious flaws. And then he had all kinds of problems getting them to correct the issues.
So to avoid that, I recommend bringing a disinterested friend to go with you, ideally someone with enough experience to inspect the car properly.
Thanks for the quick responses! The title issues are a red flag. The big issue for me is, you have to pay a fee for Carvana to bring the car to you, and if you end up not liking the car, you’re out that money. I don’t have enough money to waste it like that, which is why I’m buying a cheap car. 
If anyone else is buying a car and needs a support group, please feel free to post here! I like cars, but I don’t like the shady side of the used car business, so I’ll be glad when I find a car and this can all be over. Also, it’s May in North Carolina, and the AC in my current car is very broken, so I need a car with working AC now.
Is the air conditioning the only real problem with your current car? If so, getting it fixed might be the best option. Right now, you’re not going to find bargains in used or new cars, so if you can wait a year or two, you might just live with what you have.
The most important thing is, I want a backup camera. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I don’t want to wait a long time for that. The air conditioner is probably going to cost a lot to fix. They did the leak test and didn’t find anything, so it’s not a quick and cheap repair. For a car this old (2010/118K miles), at this point I’d rather put the money into a new car. It has a big scrape down the side, the trunk is leaking, and the trim is starting to come off, so it’s looking really sad. I want a car that’s quieter and has a smoother ride. It’s a little rough on the highway. I have a few long trips planned this summer, and it would be nice to have a more comfortable car. And premium sound! 
Well, I certainly do not want to come across as a Carvana fanboi, and no doubt their star has fallen in the past few months. I chatted with a lot of people online last year about their purchase experience when I was buying though, and I couldn’t find anything that indicated that they weren’t dead serious about their 1 week return policy, and their three month warranty was through a reputable 3rd party.
Yeah, my only beef with Carvana has been that I can’t afford them. But I’ve always loved finding “diamonds in the (very) rough” on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or sites like Autotrader.
I’ve never paid more than $3000 for some really fun cars (like the very first hybrid, for less than $2k). Everything I’ve seen on Car-Wanna is too recent, and ten times what I’ve paid…
digs, I have to pay someone else to do car maintenance, so I can’t buy those really cheap cars. I’m a little jealous of people who can do that! I don’t have an expensive car, but I still end up spending too much money on car expenses. I can’t go car-free, because where I live, it’s hard to get where you need to go without a car.
You need a boatload of quarters to use that car vending machine. Don’t tell anyone, but If you shake it when you put the last quarter in sometimes two cars come out!
Backup camera can be done easily for $75. This is a horrible time to be buying a car.
This is hilarious…you think I know the SLIGHTEST thing about fixing cars!
No, I just found a great “car guy”. When I find a car on Craigslist, I show him the listing. If he doesn’t veto it on the spot, I ask the seller if I can get a quick inspection done. Car Guy will usually say “Ok, this is a great car, and here are the things you’ll be fixing in the next year, but here are two things you need to fix before you drive it out of town.”
On the hybrid I mentioned (2000 Honda Insight), it was $1800 for the car, $700 for the “rightaways” (brakes, a hose, and front tires), and another $500 in the first year (a bearing and the other two tires). Oh, and my wife wanted a backup camera ($95).
The car was well worth it… it’s cute!
The property management company I work for recently bought a pickup through Carvana for our maintenance guy. The whole experience from start to finish was easy, and every employee I dealt with was friendly. We got the title fast. We didn’t have a trade-in, and we paid cash. The battery died in about a week, and Carvana paid for a new one. I’d absolutely use them again.
As an aside, I have a 2017 Prius. Also highly recommended! It may be a terrible time to buy a car, but it’s a wonderful time to buy a hybrid!
Not directly related to the OP, but I sold my used to car to Carvana one year ago and it was very quick and easy, they came to pick up the car, and they paid me 40% more than the dealership offered me on a trade in. 10/10 would sell to them again.
This is a story from The Verge about someone who sold a seven-year-old car to Carvana in December for slightly more than he paid for it in 2014. The reason is the shortage of new and used cars and also the algorithms that these online services use to price offers to purchase cars.