Lots of things belong in vending machines. Candy bars, soda, and maybe even sandwiches. But cars? We aren’t so sure. We decided to compare prices of 3 vehicles (a car, a truck, & an SUV) on 07/16/2020; so, some of these vehicles might have been sold at the time this article was written. All prices were found on either cars.com or on carvana.com (so it’s not like we got some special deal or anything). Here is what we discovered on the price difference and any associated shipping fees.     

2018 Ford F-150 XL Super Crew 5.5ft bed with 4-wheel drive 
  • Big City Cars had this vehicle listed on cars.com for $36,995 with 38,485 miles. We found this same vehicle on carvana.com with a listed price of $37,990 with 41,899 miles and it includes an additional $390 shipping fee. So, to get the same Ford F-150 XL Super Crew from Carvana instead of from Big City Cars, you would pay about $1400 more (including the shipping fee) & it has 3,000 more miles on it.   
2019 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L 
  • Big City Cars had this vehicle listed on cars.com for $20,993 with 44,813 miles. We found this same vehicle on carvana.com with a listed price of $22,990 with 45,813. This vehicle did have free shipping from Carvana. So, if you were to buy this Chrysler Pacifica Touring L from Carvana instead of Big City Cars, you would pay almost $2,000 MORE for the same vehicle with the same options & miles.   
2019 Hyundai Sonata SE 
  • Big City Cars had this vehicle listed on cars.com for $16,695 with 20,427 miles. We found this same vehicle on carvana.com with a listed price of $16,990 with 20,835 miles. Again, this vehicle had a $390 shipping fee associated with it. This was the closest price match we found in our searches with only a difference of around $300 in price … that is until you add the shipping charge which pushes the price for the vehicle from Carvana to about $700 more for the exact same vehicle. 
So, in the case of these 3 vehicles, buying a vehicle from Carvana where “Car buying shouldn’t suck” (www.carvana.com) instead of Big City Cars doesn’t make much sense. And in our opinion, paying more than you should for a preowned vehicle does “suck.”  But let’s look at some other reasons why we don’t think buying a car from a vending machine makes sense to us. We all know that buying a car, in most cases, is the 2nd biggest purchase a consumer will make (after the decision to be a homeowner). Would you buy a home sight unseen? If the answer is no, why would you purchase a car that way? Most of us also like to test drive a car before purchasing it. You know, to make sure that we are comfortable in it and it handles the way we expect it to. What about service after the sale? Financing? Warranty work? 

Next week in “Should you buy a car from a vending machine” part 2 we will take a deeper look at these aspects so that you can make a well-informed decision when purchasing a quality preowned vehicle.   

Big City Cars is located at 4910 Lima Road. Or give us a call today at (260) 212-1111. We look forward to helping you get into a quality preowned vehicle that fits your lifestyle & budget.