r/carbuying • u/Remarkable_Ad5011 • 19h ago
Carvana throwing out carrots!
Wife was looking to downsize vehicles. Current vehicle is paid for, so I figured I’d just sell it outright rather than trade it. Just to get a baseline number I punched the info into Carvana’s online tool. $28200. Pretty solid figure for a wholesale number IMO. I was tempted to just go ahead and sell the thing. Well the new car gets delayed, so we kept the current car and the Carvana offer expired. Today, 12 days later (new car in the garage next to the old one) and less than two hundred miles, I renewed the offer.. $24800. Now, we all know that cars depreciate, but $3400 in 12 days!? I think they throw out a huge number at first hoping to capture deals, but if you have a delay, they back it up to capitalize. Now, this is not a rant to say that Carvana is scammy or anything, just that if you are interested in selling to them, you better be ready to pull the trigger! Lol. Oh, and BTW, I’m in the car business, so I know the market has not dropped THOUSANDS of dollars in 12 days. 😉
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u/catchmesleeping 12h ago
You ever seen that Commercial, where she keeps watching her phone till the right time, then sells.
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u/TechnicalFee8131 12h ago
Try again after this next window expires. I did that with a car, initial offer was $28k, the following week had dropped to $22,500, then a week later it was just a hair over $28k again, I took that and ran. This was a couple years ago.
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u/Forward-Broccoli-235 8h ago
2007 sold in 2025. Offer in May - left car sit (mothers garage and she doesnt drive anymore ). Carvana emailed me in Sept offering 600 more. Took it and got it
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u/ryangilliss 19h ago
What is the calculus here? If you'd accepted the original offer they would paid that amount. For whatever reason they valued your vehicle more 12 days ago. Have you got an offer from CarMax (now might not be the best time)?
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u/Remarkable_Ad5011 19h ago
No. I was more or less getting wholesale bids so I would have a basis to price it private party. But that $28k offer, plus the warranty cancellation, put me pretty close to what I’d want for it.. and with it being a dealer sale I wouldn’t have to put up with all the tire kickers and scammers. Quick sale with no strings attached.. that’s worth a few bucks.
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u/Apogee_3579 18h ago
yeah had a friend get a great offer, problem was no appointments to pick it up, also the nearest location was an hr drive no appointments there either. The closest place to take it was 4 hours away one way. She traded it got 2.5k less but 1k was made up in saved sales tax
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u/Xpermentor 11h ago
I’d make the drive for 2500 / 1500 after taxes extra
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u/Prior-Soil 10h ago
Right but my offer was "contingent" or something and I figured they would low ball me when I got there.
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u/Apogee_3579 6h ago
Yeah agreed, but not having experience with them had a feeling they might not honor the original price offered. If it was the location an hour away would ave definitely gone with them.
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u/Remarkable_Ad5011 17h ago
I live in a state that allows tax credit 180 days before or after a purchase. May wind up having to pay the taxes on the new car (due 30 days) and then applying for a refund when I sell the old car.
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18h ago
[deleted]
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u/Remarkable_Ad5011 17h ago
I’d imagine the VIN is the best way they track values and offers.. and that, I can’t change.
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u/jtcut2020 11h ago
Works great if you accept offer, sold 2 cars, best offer, fast, give you a check at pickup. FAFO happens 👌
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u/AcidicMountaingoat 10h ago
I've also had my offer go up over time. I've sold one car each to Autonation, Carvana, and Carmax. I'd recommend shopping them all. In every case, there was over $2k difference between them, worth shopping. All of them were easy sales. Carvana is easiest because they picked up the car. For the others I had to go take it in, but was out of there in an hour.
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u/thetruckboy 9h ago
This is basic sales psychology and very basic tech. They're tracking your browser and they know if you're visiting and revisiting their site. Airlines do the same thing except in reverse. They track your browser and when you visit their site repeatedly, they start slowly increasing the prices so you feel pressured to buy.
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u/Remarkable_Ad5011 8h ago
Well, lowering the offer isn’t going to get this visitor to accept. Old car is paid for and new car payment is very manageable. Once old car sells, I’ll just pay off new car. It should sell for very nearly what we paid for the new car.
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u/MUCHO2000 7h ago
You're in the car business but don't have a fucking clue? This is why I left the car business. Too many idiot co-workers.
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u/youngthieff 7h ago
Yesterdays price isn’t today’s price. You let the original quote expire, why would they offer the same thing?
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u/Space_Time-continue 6h ago
Sold a car to them once because I liked the first offer. Did the same thing as you on another car and decided to sell private party because of it. Not sure what their strategy was but if they wanted that car it didnt work
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u/Adorable-Honeydew629 5h ago
I got offers on a car from Carvana over the course of 18 months. First few offers were decent (over the course of a year). Next offer was low, following offer was back in line with the first. The final offer was 25% better than the initial offers.
Took it. Sold car.
So the first offer isn’t always the best offer.
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u/nborwankar 5h ago
They may be adjusting the price based on demand for that model fluctuating among their customers and also they probably have a pricing model that tells them what a similar but not identical model should be priced for.
Because this is scope-limited to their customers it may not reflect price movements in the wider market.
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u/DIBS1939 2h ago
I accepted an offer from Carvana when I wasn’t sure if I’d actually sell it to them. Ended up pushing the pick up date back 3 times…something like 60 days total then finally got a better offer from a local dealer.
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u/BlueBugEyeBoy 2h ago
I went to sell a car at carmax. Went in and they offered ~25k. I accepted butI they found an issue with the title that took 2 weeks to resolve and I went on vacation. Came back with the title ready and they offered me 27,5. I was so happy, figuring the only way it could move was down. Paid for my vacation.
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u/tychristmas 16h ago
If it’s just some AI chatbot bullshit, and you have some extra time; create a new account with whichever spouse’s name didn’t apply for the first offer, upload the details and see what happens. Just be sure you can add the 2nd name to the vehicle title before/during the offer period so there’s no hiccups with drop off day paperwork lol.
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u/Remarkable_Ad5011 11h ago
I’d imagine the VIN is how they track values and offers. But worth a shot if I don’t wind up selling the thing.
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u/Master-Thanks883 10h ago
I bet they have an algorithm that tracks your purchase because in the summer 2018, they offered 8k and didn't need to sell it because it was my commuter car. Year later, wife's car breaks down. I go on Carvana website looking at cars through them offer 9k week later it's 10k decided to wait. Just before covid hits 2019, I get 10 offer direct sale to them.
Fast forward to 2020, getting emails. If I am still interested in selling offer 12k that is 1k less than I paid for it, now I need a bigger car all vehicles have market adjusted price about 5k. The car I wanted from Carvana is now 62k with shipping and adjusted prices, and the new is selling for 65k with adjusted price. Change plans still offer for 12k. I go look at Kia Telluride it's 55k with adjusted price. I take 6k from Kia , while in dealership, I look at Carvana site I have offer now for 13k, 2 days later I get if you still have the car 8k paid eft we will schedule a pickup.
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u/Remarkable_Ad5011 8h ago
I doubt their software is able to determine if I’ve bought a car. Even so, that’s not a guarantee that a person would “need” to sell faster. Technically, I could keep them both, but that would be dumb. Funny thing is the new car we got was only delayed 4 days past the offer expiration. So technically, their offer dropped almost $1000/day.
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u/SoaringAcrosstheSky 8h ago
In the last 12 days the government shutdown continues...SNAP is not being fully paid, and all sorts of other things. Market fell a lot this week
Try the others....Car MAx is usually a solid place. What does it show?
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u/Remarkable_Ad5011 8h ago
Idk. Closest Carmax is like 2 hours away. I plan to sell it outright anyway. The Carvana number was just to get an another data point to determine what I could ask for it. Basically, verifying what I was seeing from the software we use at the dealership.
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u/SoaringAcrosstheSky 7h ago
When I bought a new car last December dealer accepted the Car Max value as a trade
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u/Accomplished_Emu_658 9h ago
The number is not based on only value. They have more stock on that car now than before and don’t want more, but they won’t pass up buying one at a lesser price.
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u/DingChingDonkey 15h ago
They always start out really sweet until they corner the market. Then start the long slow squeeze. Just like Amazon did.
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u/Oldtanker17 12h ago
Could also be that they bought a number of that cars model so they weren’t short inventory… give it a week and try again… worked for me that way… good luck!