Lots of things belong in vending machines. Candy bars, soda, and maybe even sandwiches. But cars? We aren’t so sure. This is our final installment of “Should You Buy a Car from a Vending Machine.” If you haven’t read Part 1 & Part 2 yet, we suggest you do. There’s lots of great information contained in those articles including vehicle pricing, the purchase process, & financing. Today we will explore trade-ins, out of area delivery, negotiating your best price, and referrals.   

Trade-ins: In order to remain fair and completely unbiased (I don’t want you to think I got a better trade-in allowance because I am writing this article), I went to KBB.com & carvana.com to get the trade-in value of my car. Now my car is good shape, I would say very good shape mechanically speaking and it has a little minor cosmetic damage (it’s a 12-year-old car so that is expected). Here are the trade-in values that I received:  
  • KBB.com with very good condition had an average trade-in value of $3,726 
  • KBB.com with good condition had an average trade-in value of $3,325 
  • Carvana.com gave me an offer of $2,426 for my car 
That's quite a difference in trade-in value between KBB.com and carvana.com (between $900 – $1300 difference!) depending on the condition of the vehicle.   

Out of Area Delivery: This information was a taken straight off www.carvana.com. And while Fort Wayne is a local delivery market, we would like to note that there are only 4 delivery markets in the whole state of Indiana. Here are the Carvana options if you DON’T live within these 4 cities:  
  • Update your delivery address to an address of your choice within the Local Delivery Market. We assume by this statement we can have a car delivered a Pizza Hut and do the paperwork there while having lunch? Seems like our privacy is bit invaded with other people around on this one.  
  • Fly and Drive option. Carvana will subsize $200 of your flight & Uber charge to fly to one of their vending machines. But you only receive the $200 once your 7-day money back guarantee period has expired. This option seems a bit pricey. I didn’t look up flight pricing; but I am going to guess that it’s going to cost me a lot more than $200 for a flight and Uber ride from the airport to get my car.     
  • Hire a 3rd party transport company to deliver the vehicle directly to you. This option seems the best to me; but I am responsible for the full cost of delivery. So, is it worth it?       
After looking up this information, it just seems that Carvana does not have the network in place to deliver cars across the country like their advertising claims. It all just seems a bit misleading.   

Negotiating your best price: Again, this is straight from www.carvana.com, “We don’t negotiate on pricing; our vehicles are priced as competitively as possible and we don’t add on any dealer or doc fees.” If you read “Should You Buy a Car from a Vending Machine Part 1”, you already know that Big City Cars beats Carvana’s pricing on the 3 vehicles that we compared. If you haven’t read that article yet, please do!   

Referrals: Currently Carvana’s referral program is ONLY offered in Texas. But here is the good news. Big City Cars DOES have a referral program. And pays a $100 referral bonus for each customer that you send in who buys a car from them. So, if you want some extra cash in your pocket send in your friends, family, or that stranger off the street (the guest must tell their sales person about the referral during the delivery).  

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.