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The going rate for a Fiesta ST is about $21K, or what the car retailed for when new. I think they are great cars, but find it hard to believe that they have not depreciated at all. Maybe I should trade mine in?
Nothing for all the mods that are on the car, and that assumes they see the dings and dents as minor. I could trade it in and pay $5 to get a stock FiST with 54,000 more miles. The car world is a weird place sometimes.
I'm guessing they operate similar to CarMax in that if they have sufficient inventory, they give low-ball trade-in offers. I've found a huge disconnect between KBB private party values and values on FB Marketplace and Craigslist. The private party values seem to reflect the pre-COVID market, and everything else reflects reality.
I've noticed they seem to have a fixed cost that's baked into every transaction, too. The same tow truck burning the same gas driving the same distance carrying the same employee with the same paperwork picks up your car whether it's worth $20k or $200k, and it takes the same amount of time and effort to list/store/clean/sell/etc. as a more valuable car, too.
All this seems to mean that trade in vs. sale price are 20% apart for a $50k car, and 50% apart for a $20k car.
Tom Suddard said:All this seems to mean that trade in vs. sale price are 20% apart for a $50k car, and 50% apart for a $20k car.
People are selling carvana their 2 year old Civic Sis for basically what they paid.
I sold them my Veloster for only slightly less than I paid.
OP's offer does seem really low.
I'll bet Carvana is very shy of the manual trans. Notoriously, manual trans cars are slow to sell.
Here's a fun game...
Go out to somewhere like auto trader and find a used car listed with VIN. Then,plug that VIN into Carvana and see what they offer on the same car.
Carvana is a financing model less than a car selling model. You must use their in-house financing. The company was founded by the same people who are Drive Time. If your not familiar with them they are a high-rate financing retailer of used cars like JD Byrider.
John Welsh said:I'll bet Carvana is very shy of the manual trans. Notoriously, manual trans cars are slow to sell.
Here's a fun game...
Go out to somewhere like auto trader and find a used car listed with VIN. Then,plug that VIN into Carvana and see what they offer on the same car.
Carvana is a financing model less than a car selling model. You must use their in-house financing. The company was founded by the same people who are Drive Time. If your not familiar with them they are a high-rate financing retailer of used cars like JD Byrider.
Unless something has changed, the last paragraph is false.
In reply to tuna55 :
Can you finance through others than Carvana Direct?
I stand corrected. Copied from Carvana website:
Can I use my bank or credit union to finance my purchase?
Yes, you can! We work with most US-based banks and credit unions so you can choose the financing and payment options that work best for you. When placing an order, you will be asked to provide the name of your bank, the amount of your loan, and your loan officer's information, if applicable.
Currently we do not work with the following Banks and Credit Unions:
dj06482 (Forum Supporter) said:I'm guessing they operate similar to CarMax in that if they have sufficient inventory, they give low-ball trade-in offers. I've found a huge disconnect between KBB private party values and values on FB Marketplace and Craigslist. The private party values seem to reflect the pre-COVID market, and everything else reflects reality.
Agreed. I had a car w/ a KBB very good value of 11.5k. Listed it yesterday and it insta-sold for 14k. COVID aside, I've still never found KBB to be remotely close for enthusiast vehicles.
John Welsh said:I'll bet Carvana is very shy of the manual trans. Notoriously, manual trans cars are slow to sell.
Here's a fun game...
Go out to somewhere like auto trader and find a used car listed with VIN. Then,plug that VIN into Carvana and see what they offer on the same car.
Carvana is a financing model less than a car selling model. You must use their in-house financing. The company was founded by the same people who are Drive Time. If your not familiar with them they are a high-rate financing retailer of used cars like JD Byrider.
They offered me almost what I paid for my '19 R, 6MT. Honestly if I didn't need the car as my winter DD I'd sell it. When my wife was initially thinking about getting a new car I was going to use their offer to leverage the dealer for trade value on the R...
John Welsh said:I'll bet Carvana is very shy of the manual trans. Notoriously, manual trans cars are slow to sell.
Here's a fun game...
Go out to somewhere like auto trader and find a used car listed with VIN. Then,plug that VIN into Carvana and see what they offer on the same car.
Carvana is a financing model less than a car selling model. You must use their in-house financing. The company was founded by the same people who are Drive Time. If your not familiar with them they are a high-rate financing retailer of used cars like JD Byrider.
Who is JD Byrider? It sounds like a private detective show from the 80s with a lot of car crash action. 
Holy cow. Carvana offered $200 more than my out the door price (w/tax&tags) on my '19 VW SportWagen w/15k miles.
That's not the 'real' price, as I lied and said no modifications (at this point, the radio and wipers are about the only thing under warranty) but it was interesting to see.
My wife's '19 Cooper S 'vert came back with "contact us for an appraisal". The closest car they have in stock is the same price we paid out the door for the car in April 2019.
The kind of cars I have get offers of $500 from those places.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
I think we're simply seeing just how much markup Carvana actually does.
I don't see anything 'weird' there. Just basic business economics. You sell at a price per volume ratio that the market will bear. You also buy at a price per volume ratio that the market will bear. Even if there is more supply than demand, lowering the price will not necessarily increase sales volume enough to offset the reduction in profit margin... Especially on a niche product.
If you noted that it was modified, they may be deducting for that. You almost never get any money for mods on resale, and for a place like Carvana who's attempting to make buying cars like buying TP, it's a disadvantage for them if a car deviates from expected. They also have to discount heavily if you list damage. I wouldn't be surprised to see their offer increased by many thousands of dollars for the same car unmodified and without "minor" damage.
I have been offended by a Carmax offer on a stick shift car. I sold it to a private party for a good bit more. They have to make money to stay in business and manual shift vehicles appeal to a MUCH smaller number of buyers.
Another thing to keep in mind regarding prices on all used vehicles: Many dealerships have NO new car inventory. They are in the business of selling cars, so they are buying and selling used cars. Demand (and pricing) for virtually every used car is currently very high because new vehicles simply aren't being produced.
John Welsh said:In reply to tuna55 :
Can you finance through others than Carvana Direct?
I stand corrected. Copied from Carvana website:
Can I use my bank or credit union to finance my purchase?
Yes, you can! We work with most US-based banks and credit unions so you can choose the financing and payment options that work best for you. When placing an order, you will be asked to provide the name of your bank, the amount of your loan, and your loan officer's information, if applicable.
Currently we do not work with the following Banks and Credit Unions:
- Road Loans (Citibank and Santander)
- A+ Federal Credit Union
- Metabank
- Carfinance.com/Car Finance Capital
- Ally Bank
- Wells Fargo
- Chrysler Capital
- Ford Motor Credit
- Honda Financial
- Exeter Finance Corp
yup, I brought my own financing when I bought the Bolt. It was easy and painless. I really enjoyed the buying experience from them.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
I think we're simply seeing just how much markup Carvana actually does.
It could also be the going rate at auction for the manual car, or the going rate at auction minus the sale costs minus the storage costs minus the opportunity cost for the capital.
Wholesale prices and retail prices of cars don't always follow each other as you'd expect.
I just looked at my Cx9 and they are going to give me $1500 more then what I owe....tempting.
The BMW i3 I bought from CarM*x back in April is apparently worth $2000 more to Carvana today...
Wonder if it has to do with inventory of specific models?
I just plugged in the Touareg TDI and they're offering me about 1/3 the value of the cheapest listed that they have. And they only have 3 in inventory nationwide. Looks like it would be private party on that one...
My Volt they offered more than I paid for it. My Caravan they offered less. Interesting thing is the Volt is a 2014 and the Caravan is a 2016, but they're offering less on the Caravan. Must be a demand thing. I also have a project Volt right now that has hail damage and they offered basically nothing for it. ($1500) I think they discount heavily for any damage as they know people will minimize the damage when selling - and do the opposite when buying.
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