Carvana Reviews - How It Works, Warranty, Financing, Returns

This has been an awful, stressful experience. We received our first vehicle and it had SO much damage that was not disclosed on the site. Torn seats, keyed dashboard, body damage, and it was filthy inside and out. I wanted to cry. They said to pick out another you have seven days. We did and again damage that was undisclosed. They tried to talk us into keeping the vehicles by offering us $500! There is easily two thousand dollars worth of damage, probably much more, what a joke. Now we had waited for these vehicles so our car has been sold and we are in a terrible situation forced to make an expensive purchase as quickly as possible. Never would I suggest this or do it ever again.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

First, I tried out a fully electric vehicle. They only charged it to 20%, and I realized that the car did not have a public port to charge it faster than the home port, nor was the cord long enough to reach the outlet in my apartment. I tried to drive it to a friend’s house in order to charge it; however, it did not make it and died on the road. Unable to get it out of the way, I called roadside assistance. They did not know anything about electric vehicles. So, I called a different roadside assistance number to tow the car to a dealership to charge it. At the dealership, the sales rep who helped me did not plug the car in correctly. I waited 3 hours at the dealership for the vehicle to charge, not knowing it was not correctly charging. Once another sales rep who fixed the issue. A friend picked me up and I had to get the car the next day.

So, I called Carvana thinking it was entirely my fault that I had not researched the electric vehicle enough and wanted another vehicle (as I traded in mine, which needed thousands of dollars of work) and had to borrow a car from a friend.

I then purchased another vehicle, a 2013 Subaru. It seemed fine during the 7-day trial period, and needing a vehicle badly to get to and from work, I let the 7 days expire.

A few weeks later, I’m driving home on a Monday evening, and the transmission goes out. I leave the car in a parking lot overnight and have it towed to my private mechanic in the morning. I have no way to work, so I take a personal day.

SilverRock will not approve a car rental or Uber until a claim has been started on the vehicle. My mechanic indicated the diagnostic said it was transmission failure, and since the car had a factory warranty, I would need to have it towed to a dealership.

However, SilverRock would not approve of the tow since I was at work and did not have the VIN number. I called AAA as well, and they would it tow it since I could not meet the driver. Finally, I found a company who would tow the car and take my debit card over the phone (so, at this point, I’ve paid almost $70 for a diagnostic and $80 for a tow - both out of pocket).

At this point, it was Thursday, and I’d been without a vehicle since Monday night. The dealership then calls me to say that the transmission has been worked on recently and parts were improperly placed on the transmission.

Note: There was nothing about this in the CarFax, and apparently not all repairs are reported either. Carvana denied making these repairs as well.

There is nothing in place if this happens to you. My life has been seriously disrupted in multiple ways because of my decision to go with this company.

I’ve talked to several people at Carvana as well as SilverRock, and it looks like, despite what they initially told me, they will now reimburse me for the $150 I incurred last week; however, because I did not have a vehicle, I missed work and crucial appointments.

Not everyone has disposable income to pay for Ubers or car rentals on their own. Not everyone lives in a place where they have friends or family that can lend them rides or a car.

Because the dealership did not create a claim until Saturday, I was told by SilverRock that I could not be reimbursed for a car rental.

Extremely disappointed and frustrated with Carvana and SilverRock. Still waiting for my car to be fixed at the dealership. People depend on their vehicles to maintain their livelihoods; without reliable transportation, many of us cannot make it to our work, doctor, and other appointments.

This decision has impacted my life for the worse. I’d strongly caution against using this company for your next car. It may sound more convenient to but online, and it is a good idea in theory, but knowing what I know now, I’d go with a salesperson at a dealership - hands down.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I attempted to buy a car from Carvana. Went through all of the steps, did all the legwork. Got my insurance changed, financing taking care of, downpayment authorized, etc. Even after the car was advertised as free delivery but then they said they had to charge me $199 and there was no way they could remove that charge. And "what's the big deal, it'll be rolled into the financing." One manager even had the nerve to tell me that it wasn't a delivery charge, it was a transport charge. Really?!

Well, they agreed to and promised me 2-day delivery but once they received the check from the bank, that changed. They said the car had a dead battery and they couldn't deliver it for over a week. Again, really?! A week to replace a battery? I don't think so! Once they realized I was not happy, all of a sudden, there was nobody available to speak to me! They would reach out to me in 24 to 48 hours. Ya, I don't think so! What, just long enough to cash the check? I canceled the check and the order! Too many lies! Do yourself a favor, go spend a couple of hours at a dealership for your next car purchase, way easier!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

This was probably the most epic fail of any major transaction I have had the displeasure of being subjected to. Ordered a Toyota on the weekend, scheduled the delivery on Tuesday. Great. I sign everything and purchase an insurance policy, receive emails confirming as much. Monday I receive an EMAIL explaining that I need to call THEM to reschedule due to an error on their end. I sit on hold for about an hour at work, reschedule for the following Saturday, go back online and sign everything a second time, and then proceed to wait 6 days for my car to arrive. Well, it turns out their system interpreted my signing everything again as an indication the entire order should be canceled. That is correct. Without even emailing me or calling me to let me know, they axed the whole deal for no reason I can properly discern.

Come Saturday afternoon whilst waiting for the Carvana truck to pull up, I noticed that it wasn't. No calls or emails alerting me of anything, so once again I had to call THEM and wait another HOUR to talk to a representative (or "advocate" as they like to call it). They said the vehicle was not ready, nor was it in my name or my city. After waiting another hour, I was informed that their system indicated that I had logged in and canceled the transaction myself, at which point another customer had purchased the vehicle. Nothing could have been further from the truth, of course, and yet Carvana stood by their own flawed, bug-ridden system's logs and refused to return the car to my name. Telling the new owner about the mistake and making them upset was off the table. I called and begged them to reconsider, but they stonewalled me for about 40 minutes with empty apologies. I would never even consider using this hideously broken system again. The dealer would have been so much easier. I'd give a negative number of stars if I could.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Everything seemed OK until I checked around and realized their offer on my trade was $1300 below local dealers. Then they did not complete registration correctly and delayed the delivery date, even though it was their fault. I had to run around and do the job normally covered by the dealership. Stay away from this the prices are high, the trade value abysmal and they do not work with you. A real take it or leave it attitude. Far worse than any dealer I have encountered.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I am pleased with the car and the politeness of all with whom I dealt. Whenever the vehicle was delivered the representative had a lot of information and one item was that I was to receive a check in the mail for a refund of some overpayment. Not only did I not get a refund, they debited my checking with no prior notification for doc stamps. This, I was told, was included in the finance charges. After speaking to numerous representatives who told me there was nothing they could do, I spoke with Charles, a manager in Tempe, Arizona who promised to refund my money, which had been earmarked for my rent, putting me in a precarious position. Although they debited my account they had many nebulous excuses as to why they could not credit the money back. "The check is in the mail." Charles said it would be mailed that very day, 04/23/2019. Now on 5/02, I still have not received it. Seems, they say, it was rejected for some reason, and resent on the 30th, a Sunday, so it still didn't go out till yesterday. And I keep telling my landlord I'll probably have the rest of the rent money tomorrow. Somebody needs to get their stories straight, then I can get mine straight.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The car that was sent did not have the features that were listed on the Carvana profile. With Carvana, you have to go through the buying process even before you get to look at the car, so it is important to have the car listed correctly.

We went through with financing and insurance just to find out that the car without the features would not work for us. We had to send the car back. We did not even receive a call let alone an apology for wasting our time and energy.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

From locating and selecting a car, financing, purchasing, I’m going to the claims process, I can’t say enough good things about Carvana. Do your research, and you should be able to purchase with a high degree of comfort knowing that you got a good deal.

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I wasn't looking to buy a car really, just looking at cars and wondering about costs. I found the car I wanted, and put in an application. Everything was better than expected, so I continued the process, still not 100% sure I wanted it. Each day I went deeper in the process and researching other options for same type of car, and after 5 days I had decided Carvana had the best prices and options after looking at financing and fees.

Everything was super easy, I went at my own speed and finally I decided to hit the purchase button. Step by step what was needed (and completed) was easy to follow, I set date for pickup and on said date went to the vending machine to get my car.

They actually had the date as the day before, but didn't matter, I was able to do it right then.

Car was brand new looking, perfectly clean and as I test drove it, it was everything I expected, down to the two imperfections. The only problem was it was listed as SR trim level and actually was an SV. When I told the agent, they said they would find out what they could do. She called while I had it out for a test drive and when I came back they had a monetary offer for the difference. There were only two things I really might have wanted with the SR and I decided they weren't worth the going back and finding another car and such, so I took the money offer and am fine with the SV.

After I finished signing papers etc., I took it to my mechanic who had previously told me he had checked out about 20 Carvana cars and never found a problem. He went over my car and said it had been well-maintained and he found no problems or evidence there had been any major problems previously.

I am at my 6th day, and Carvana called to make sure I liked the car and let me know after today my 7 days were up and they would be sending in the registration and license info and I would receive that in due course.

So far I couldn't be happier with everything about the car and the website and ordering process.

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

So let me start by saying I was really excited to go through the process of getting my car through Carvana. It seemed to be simple process with little to no hassle. I selected the car I wanted at the time, my down payment was only $600 so that was more than affordable for me. Well, the process started in buying the car. My first issue encountered was the many times I had to upload my documentation because of minor errors that were being made. That should’ve been a red flag but I continued the process.

Fast forward to getting the car, it drove fine, of course, no issues. I got the car on 3/2/19, I started having problems with the car 4/16/19, the car ran hot on me while I was sitting in a Sonic drive-through. It freaked me out because I hadn’t had any issues. So I turned it off, called my husband and then once it cooled off I went ahead and drove it home. I told him the next day I would go and get the car looked at. So on my way to work, everything was fine until I got into the parking lot of my job. I parked and was just sitting there and I watched the thermostat on the car just rise until it got to Hot. I was concerned at that point and decided to take the car across the way to let the mechanic take a look. Carvana insisted that the car would be covered until warranty if anything were to happen. So the man there immediately let me know that there was a leak in the water pump and it was causing the car to run hot. He suggested for me to not drive the car. And since the warranty company wanted a printed diagnostic sheet, he was unable to provide that and directed me to firestone.

So I left work, had AAA tow my car to Firestone. Firestone looked at the car and told me it took at least 30 minutes to see what the issue was but that it was a leak in the water pump and whatever fluids were coming out where getting on the belt. So ok, they were getting ready to fix it when we found out the power train warranty was still active on the car and Ford would have to fix it. So Carvana was "nice" enough to get a tow for me to ford in Arlington, Texas. The car got there and they were given the precious diagnostic on the car from Firestone. But they needed to run their own test on the car, which was fair.

In between all of this I’ve worked with Joseph, Jared, Jacob the ops manager and honestly, nothing had been solved. Other than Jacob getting me a rental car for almost 8 days now. That’s the only real compensation that I’ve recieved this far. So Ford has had the car for about a week now and claims that they are not able to recreate the issue prior to the mechanic's diagnosis.

This has been the most disgusting process I’ve been through. Worst part is, Carvana will accept the car as a trade-in but only if I put $800 down. Which is not fair, I should not have to put anything down when the car LITERALLY has paper tags on it. Carvana does not feel as if they are responsible for any of this. And I am in the process of filing a dispute against them for this. Nobody seems to have real answers for me. So NO, I do not recommend you get a car through Carvana. Even with the 7-day trial. REAL car problems will not come up that quick. It takes a while before you will know about the car. Such a waste of time!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

We had a vehicle delivered on February 15th. It was falsely advertised as an automatic transmission, and when it arrived, it was manual transmission. There was also a crack in the windshield and the airbag light was on.

After contacting customer service multiple times, we were told to take it to a repair shop. The repair shop referred us to the dealership. This process took two weeks to be resolved, with another handful of calls to Carvana to get the issues resolved. I spoke with a supervisor who offered me compensation for the aggravation and promised a check would be mailed. That was on February 28th. In the meantime, we were told to have an emissions and state inspection completed. Then, using the FedEx mailing label, ship the receipts back to Carvana. We would receive reimbursement for these inspections, along with Carvana submitting the documents to the DMV for the registration and tags, since it was already included in the price of the car.

We mailed that paperwork on February 22nd, and it was received by Carvana, confirmed with the FedEx tracking number on February 25th. On March 20th, I called customer service again. We had not received the reimbursement for the inspections, our registration or tags from the DMV or the compensation for all this aggravation. Our temporary tags were expiring on March 31st and we had not received any sort of deliveries as promised. After speaking to a representative, it appears that only then, almost a MONTH after we had mailed in our receipts for inspections, the process to register the vehicle began. We received a text message notification after the customer service call later that day as proof of the initiated process. However, based on the estimated processing time, we were not going to receive our license plates and registration in time! After contacting customer service again on March 27th, we arranged for a rental car once the tags were expired, meaning we could not legally operate the car. It is ridiculous that multiple hours were spent on the phone trying to negotiate a convenient option for this problem. Again, it is still unclear what happened, when we submitted the appropriate documentation with more than 30 days for processing time.

Furthermore, I also asked about the $250 "aggravation" check I had not received, which was supposedly issued on February 28th. I was promised that check would be canceled, a new one reissued and sent FedEx overnight. When I did not receive it within three days, I called again and was promised the same thing again. I spoke to two different supervisors about the delay with this check and I still did not receive a check after being promised an overnight delivery TWICE. Then I was told, after calling a third time in two weeks, that the check had been sent on March 29th, but through the postal service and would take another 10-15 business days to arrive. Even though I was promised the check to arrive overnight by two different supervisors.

From the delivery of the vehicle to the time it took to process all the paperwork, receive reimbursements, repair all the damaged items and contact customer service approximately 20 times, two months passed. Next time, we will spend the three hours at a dealership and not have to deal with such inconsistencies and shady business practices. Interestingly enough, each time I called, their automated system stated that the calls were being recorded for quality assurance. If I were Carvana, I would use these exact situations to train their employees to follow the necessary customer service and quality control guidelines. Our experience with Carvana was absolutely horrendous.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend