I Bought a Car Online and Here is How it Went

I had been driving the same Ford Taurus for nearly a decade and I loved her dearly, but it was time to upgrade. Honestly, it was probably time 2 years ago, but I depise the dealership car buying process so much (and I wasn’t crazy about having a car payment again…) that I put it off. For years. I hate it that much.

When I learned about Carvana’s online car buying process, I was immediately intrigued. I spent months checking the quickly changing inventory and agnozing over whether it was crazy to order a car, unseen, over the internet. But then I started talking to my friends about it and nobody thought I was crazy. When I discussed the idea with my boyfriend, his response really put it into perspective. “We buy everything online, why not buy a car?” he said.

Then I started to get serious about it. Carvana allows you to set specific search parameters for what you are looking for including price (both total and monthly payment), mileage, make, model, year, and a fairly extensive list of options (heated seats, moonroof, color, etc.). I found this process to be so less intimidating than trying to track down a used car through a dealership. Plus the inventory is more expansive since the car doesn’t have to be local.

I scrolled through an endless stream of cars. White, gray, black. White, gray, black. White, gray, black. And then she appeared. A literal yellow ray of sunshine in the form of a Ford Fiesta.

Starting the Process

Carvana has three types of cars of cars listed on the site:

1. Available for Sale
2. Sale in Progress (someone else has started the buying process, but not completed it)
3. Coming Soon

The Fiesta was in the Coming Soon category which meant that it hadn’t yet been inspected by the team. Carvana puts all cars through a 150 point inspection before clearing them to be sold. Fun sidenote: no Carvana cars have ever been in an accident.

Cars in the Coming Soon category can be reserved with a $100 refundable deposit. If the car clears the inspection, and you have reserved it, you get first dibs on buying the car before it released to the website.

To me, the Fiesta was a unique find among the rest of the inventory on the site. It had over $2,000 in upgrades I would have never splurged on if I was buying new, plus I was enchanted by the tri-metallic yellow color. I made the $100 deposit and awaited the results of the inspection. It cleared within 2 days and I had 48 hours to decide if I wanted to start the buying process or release the hold.

Buying the Car

This part of the Carvana process was far superior to going through a dealership. Nobody likes taking an entire day to suffer through a high-pressure sales process where they stick you in a stuffy room and force you to speak with a string of reps hawking upgrades you don’t want. It’s exhausting enough to go through the actual sale process without having to say “no” 12 times before.

You can purchase with cash, provide your own financing, or utilize Carvana’s financing partner, Bridgecrest. I financed with Bridgecrest. Everything is handled online through Carvana’s dashboard and it quite user friendly.

Getting the Car

There are two options to receive the car after your purchase. You can pick it up in-person at one of the Carvana’s “vending machines.” Or you can have it delivered. If you are within Carvana’s local delivery areas, the delivery is free.

For me, I live 3 hours away from the closest Carvana hub. I opted for delivery and had to pay an extra $600 to have the car shipped to my house. This was totally worth it to me to not have to spend a day driving to pick up the car or spend a day in the back of a dealership.

However, this was the part of the process where things started to go awry.

After you have completed all the paperwork, the car delivery process is supposed to go like this:

1. Carvana arranges a third party to ship the car to your agreed upon address.
2. Carvana calls you with a 2-day window to expect the delivery. The window is within 5–15 days from purchase date.
3. The third-party delivery service calls you 12-hours before arrival with a 2-hour window. You have the opportunity to negotiate this if you the timeframe doesn’t work for you.

It actually happened like this:

1. I waited for about 10 days for Carvana to call me. Nobody did, so I called customer service myself. Customer service told me they were still securing a third-party delivery service, but that I would hear soon.
2. I received a text message from Carvana to expect my car on either Friday or Saturday of that week after I called. I got excited!
3. Saturday rolls around and I haven’t heard from the third-party. I’m out running errands and I received another text from Carvana that my car is picked up and on its way. There is no information on where it is coming from, when it will arrive, or who is bringing it. I am confused, but hopefully it will be showing up that day.
4. Nobody shows up on Saturday.
5. Monday I call customer service again and they are unable to tell me where my car is, even though it has been picked up. The rep tells me he has to contact the Logistics Team and get back to me. I receive an email a couple hours later saying he is still waiting to hear back from the team.
6. Later that afternoon, the rep calls back with information from the logistics team that the original third-party vendor cancelled the order. My car was not picked up Saturday, but it had been now and should be arriving on Tuesday. The rep isn’t able to give me a time frame, but says the vendor will be calling me in the morning with an exact time.
7. By noon on Tuesday, I have not received a phone call from anyone and I call Carvana again. They still don’t know where my car is. I ask if I can have the vendor’s number to contact directly and I am told no. When I ask why, the rep says “We have had issues with customers calling the vendor aggressively in the past, so we no longer release that information.” Hmm, I wonder why?
8. At 10 pm Tuesday night, my stepson wakes me up. I have been asleep for at least an hour because I get up at 4 am. He tells me my car is here.
9. I stumbled outside and am greeted by the truck driver and a car already unloaded into my driveway. The driver is apologetic, but I am understandably quite grumpy towards him.
10. The driver explains that it wasn’t communicated to him properly that this was a residential delivery and he normally just drops off at commercial lots. He didn’t realize until he was pulling in that this was a home residence.
11. I’m too sleepy and annoyed to do anything but quickly check the car with a flashlight and sign for the delivery. I go to sleep hoping nothing major is wrong with the car.

The First Drive

At 4 am, I drive the car for the first time and it is making a horrible noise.

My boyfriend finds the paperwork for the 150-point inspection in the glovebox. On the paperwork it expressly says, “Loud noise coming from front, driver-side wheel.” They knew something was wrong with it, and still sent it out to me like that. I’m not sure I have ever been as angry as I was at that moment. I started thinking that maybe buying a car on the internet was too good to be true.

What was extra weird was that they fixed a bunch of other stuff on the paperwork, but not the noise. There were new tires, touched up paint, but they didn’t fix this horrible noise?

Fixing the Issues

Carvana offers a 7-day test drive period if you want to return the car. Additionally, they offer a 100 day warranty for any major issues that arise. I call Carvana as soon as I am able to both make them aware of the delivery mishap and this ridiculous noise.

Carvana promises me to pay for whatever needs fixed and that they will extend by 7-day trial period if I can’t get into the shop before it expires.

In my area, a decent-sized metro with 700,000 people, there is only one autoshop that directly deals with Carvana. One. I’m not confident I will be able to get into the shop in time, but they fit me in one day before my 7-day period expires.

Besides having to take off time from work and arrange transporation to the shop (which is on the opposite side of the metro), the auto shop experience is pleasant. The crew is friendly and knowledgable, they seamlessly worked with Carvana to get payment, and had my car fixed within 24 hours. That’s pretty good turnaround considering it was a 4–5 hour procedure to replace the bearings in both front wheels and the axle.

The End Result

I decided to keep the Fiesta after my 7-day trial and the proper repairs. I really still do feel like it was a great find, a decent value, and worth the headache I endured to not have to go through a dealership. Plus, the car is just so dang cute and zippy.

I really wanted to give a 100% glowing review to Carvana because I think the business model is brillant. Nobody likes high-pressure sales situations and who doesn’t want to be able to browse through available vehicles on their coach?

I’m hopeful that since the business is fairly new that Carvana will continue to improve and work out the kinks with their third-party vendors.

As far as communication goes, Carvana has some room to improve on that as well. Whenever I called, the customer service reps were very pleasant, but it seems like all the departments and vendors need better processes to manage their internal communication. It is very unsettling to purchase a car and then have customer service tell you they do not know where it is. Even more unnerving to then receive that car with known problems.

Carvana did work quickly to fix the problems with no cost to me. I would have preferred to receive the car in perfect condition, but I will give them credit for resolving and admitting to their issues.

Overall, I still found a car that I love, within my budget, and delivered right to my doorstep. That’s still pretty cool.