# The Carvana experience (2 months later.... no kidding)



## kimchi_burrito

Hey everyone,

I just took delivery of my 2018 Tesla Model 3 LR in Silver from my local Carvana vending machine in the DC area. I figure I would share my thoughts on the process ( which is still ongoing) in case anyone here plans to use Carvana or knows of anyone that is interested.

I had read many reviews and watched lots of Youtube to see how people rated their experiences. There were many reviews warning people to stay away from Carvana, stating that the cars they sell always have more problems then they mention. The customer service is terrible and with Teslas, they show up with a dead or extremely low battery. There also were reviews stating how great the experience was. My personal experience, so far, has been excellent!

To start, I had a 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring that I bought back in January. The car is great and I was averaging 550 miles on a tank and spending around $22 per fill-up. I initially wanted a Tesla Model 3, but at the time, my commute was just too difficult and finding time to charge during the week was going to eat up my evenings. Over the spring, I got a new job and in August I moved much closer to DC. My commute now is only 8 miles a day AND my new job has charge ports in the garage. Out of curiosity, I started browsing thru USAA and found numerous Model 3s that seemed affordable. I reached out to Tesla to get a quote for my car, which they came back with 29k. Carvana quoted my car at almost 31k. I found a Model 3 in Silver on Carvana's website, and after crunching some numbers, decided to move forward with trading in my Honda.

The Carvana site stated the car could be delivered to either my home or to the nearest vending machine (Gaithersburg, MD) by Sept 12th at the earliest. I set my appointment time, chose the vending machine and then had to upload some documents. They ask for a photo of your Driver's License (front and back), your current car's odometer reading, 10-day payoff amount if you have a loan, and proof of loan approval if you plan to finance through someone else. Their initial loan process approved me at 7.7% APR (way too high). I used my bank which dropped it to 3.5%. I called their customer service since their chat-bot is not very useful. The rep was able to bring up all the information about the Silver Model 3 and answer all my questions. I expressed my concern with buying a Tesla through Carvana. He explained that they sell Teslas daily and their technicians have gotten better at dealing with the specifics of EVs. He assured me the car would have atleast a 70% charge and would have all the charging accessories required.

The week leading up to my delivery, I received texts from Carvana assuring me the Tesla was being delivered on-time and reminded me to bring my DL and proof of insurance with the new vehicle. On the 12th I drove up to the vending machine for my 9am appointment. The car was loaded into the tower, which was cool to see as I drove up. I was greeted by a rep and spent about 15 minutes going over the paperwork for my trade-in and the Tesla and handed him my keys for the Honda. He handed me a heavy coin to insert into the vending machine. It was a bit gimmicky but fun at the same time. The Tesla was lowered down and placed into a bay. At that point I was able to do a walk-around and inspect the vehicle to see if there was any other damage then what Carvana had stated on the website (only a little bit of curb rash on two wheels and a very small paint chip on the rear bumper). I did notice the other two wheels had a small amount of curb rash, but it wasn't a deal breaker for me. I didn't see any other paint chips or dents or scratches. The interior was in good shape. They left the center console wrap that the previous owner had installed ( I plan to replace it). During the detail, they did use some greasy cleaners which left streaks all over the dashboard and door panels. A bit of an eye-sore but I'm going to get a better protectant that doesn't leave greasy streaks (any suggestions?). The car was charged and had 250 miles of range. I was satisfied with the state of the car and was ready to leave. The rep reminded me that I have 7 days to "test drive" the car and if anything was wrong or if I just decided I didn't like it, I could return it for a refund and get my car back, or could pick another Tesla from their inventory.

So after 2 days, I absolutely friggin love this car! I haven't found anything wrong with it. It's just a constant source of enjoyment when I drive.

When I said it's an on-going process, Carvana hasn't processed my registration paperwork yet, and they won't until the 7 day test drive is complete. This makes sense, but the only annoyance is that I can't set up my Tesla account until I have the registration. The previous owner still had the car registered to their account, I can see their navigation history, bluetooth devices, and saved WiFi networks. The previous owner's home address was still synced to the Navigation screen. Out of curiosity, I tried to charge at a local supercharger and was successful in charging. It was only a couple of bucks, but when I got in today, I had a notification that supercharging wouldn't work and that it required my account to be synced with payment. I'm guessing the previous owner got a notification about a $4 charge, sorry. I guess if you plan to sell a Tesla to Carvana, remember to factory reset the car and remove all your personal information. So with Carvana registering my car this coming Friday, I imagine that process will take atleast 1 to 2 weeks for me to get the paperwork in the mail, and then sending an email to Tesla with all the required documents, it might take atleast a month before I can use a supercharger. This isn't a problem since I don't plan to take any roadtrips anytime soon and I have a level 2 charger at work. Just a bit annoying. I've been told that you can take your car to a Tesla Service Center and they can handle the account setup much quicker, can anyone here confirm? Luckily there's one just a few miles away from me.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the entire process. It was less painful than going to a dealership and I was happy with my trade-in value. I would definitely recommend Carvana to others with a note for them to do their research and to speak with a rep.


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## GDN

Congrats on the car and welcome to Tesla and to the forum. I believe you'll need to let Carvana finish the registration changes and once you have the car in your name getting it added to your Tesla account shouldn't take much time. The local SC can likely help you, but they are going to want registration papers in your name.


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## Bigriver

Your car looks beautiful!


kimchi_burrito said:


> A bit of an eye-sore but I'm going to get a better protectant that doesn't leave greasy streaks (any suggestions?).


I use this for everything. Windows. Seats. Inside Trim. Outside.
Optimum (NR2010Q) No Rinse Wash & Shine - 32 oz.


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## AutopilotFan

Thank you for this writeup! I've seen the vending machine in Gaithersburg and always wondered how it all worked.

Please let us know how it goes after the week is up, and if you have any questions.


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## kimchi_burrito

GDN said:


> Congrats on the car and welcome to Tesla and to the forum. I believe you'll need to let Carvana finish the registration changes and once you have the car in your name getting it added to your Tesla account shouldn't take much time. The local SC can likely help you, but they are going to want registration papers in your name.


Thanks! Looking forward to using the phone app instead of the keycard.


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## kimchi_burrito

AutopilotFan said:


> Thank you for this writeup! I've seen the vending machine in Gaithersburg and always wondered how it all worked.
> 
> Please let us know how it goes after the week is up, and if you have any questions.


Thanks! I plan to post a follow-up when I get my Tesla account set up.


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## SoFlaModel3

Congrats on the new car! If you don't mind my asking, what did you end up paying for the car? I'm looking to sell mine soon to upgrade and trying to get a feel for what is realistic.


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## kimchi_burrito

SoFlaModel3 said:


> Congrats on the new car! If you don't mind my asking, what did you end up paying for the car? I'm looking to sell mine soon to upgrade and trying to get a feel for what is realistic.


Of course! It was 44,500 for the 2018 LR with 17k miles. About 47k after Tax, Title, Licensing, and Delivery. But I had a trade-in value of 7k and I also put a 5k down payment.

Carvana offered me nearly 31k for my Honda. I believe I paid a little over 32k for it. Only put 8k miles on it.


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## JasonF

I did something somewhat similar with Carmax - they offered $3000 more for my last car than Tesla did, so I sold it to them, and took an Uber across town to pick up the Model 3.


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## GDN

kimchi_burrito said:


> Of course! It was 44,500 for the 2018 LR with 17k miles. About 47k after Tax, Title, Licensing, and Delivery. But I had a trade-in value of 7k and I also put a 5k down payment.
> 
> Carvana offered me nearly 31k for my Honda. I believe I paid a little over 32k for it. Only put 8k miles on it.


Thanks for sharing. It's nice to keep up with some used pricing from different parts of the country. Did you get EAP and or FSD?


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## kimchi_burrito

GDN said:


> Thanks for sharing. It's nice to keep up with some used pricing from different parts of the country. Did you get EAP and or FSD?


It came with EAP, which I've tried out a little bit. Definitely going to be using it for interstate highway travel. I don't have any plans to upgrade to FSD.


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## SP's Tesla

Awesome story! Congrats on the new car! She's a beaut!

Sean


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## Achooo

kimchi_burrito said:


> Thanks! Looking forward to using the phone app instead of the keycard.


The silver liner here is that when you finally get app access it will feel like a new car all over again. 😃


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## kimchi_burrito

So it's been about 1 month since I took ownership of my Silver Model 3 LR.

The car has been running great and I've had ZERO problems with the car itself. It's the best car I've ever owned!

Now with Carvana, on the other hand, I have yet to receive my registration paperwork. My Carvana dashboard, as of yesterday, shows this message: 

_"The Carvana Registration Team is now reviewing your paperwork! Once reviewed and verified, we will then send the paperwork to our partnered 3rd party vendor for an additional review prior to the DMV completing the process. If anything else is required in order for us to complete the review, we will send you a text and email alert with the details!"_

Like I said before, this isn't a huge issue. Yeah I can't use a supercharger or my phone as a key but my daily commute is only 8 miles and I have a level 2 charger at my work's parking garage. My concern is that they didn't start processing my paperwork for registration until after a full month of ownership. Maybe it's because of the pandemic and they are backlogged. Maybe this is just their policy on registration. Either way, I've sent them feedback on my purchasing experience and provided my thoughts on this process. They sell lots of Tesla's so i'm sure they've received feedback from others.

My thoughts on Carvana haven't changed. It's still a better experience than dealing with a traditional dealership salesperson. 2 weeks ago, my girlfriend traded in her RAV4 for a new RAV4 Hybrid at the local Toyota dealership. She found one through their online inventory, called them and told them which exact one she wanted, already had an approved auto loan and insurance. She didn't even need/want to test drive it, yet they ended up keeping her at the dealership for 4-5 hours trying to convince her to buy options and extended warranties. So even though she got the car she wanted, by the time she drove it off the lot, she was in such a bad mood because of the salesperson. Glad there's a better way to do business now.


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## kimchi_burrito

2 month update!

I finally received my registration and plates in the mail. About a week ago, I checked my account on DMV and noticed that my registration had been updated to reflect the Tesla Model 3 and they even listed my plate number. It wasn't until this past Friday that FedEx delivered my plates. I immediately uploaded the necessary documents on Tesla's website and about 1 hour later, my account was updated and now linked to my car. So glad and surprised it only took an hour, since I've heard it taking weeks for other people. Sunday I drove to a local supercharger and was successful in charging. 

It's a bit of a relief now that I don't feel tethered to my local area. 

I STILL would recommend Carvana for anyone looking for an alternative to buying direct from Tesla. Just understand the minor details that may seem like an inconvenience.


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## Needsdecaf

Congrats!

My recommendation for interior cleaner https://www.obsessedgarage.com/coll...esheners/products/p-s-xpress-interior-cleaner


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## tencate

FWIW, my car is very close to being 3 years old now, has nearly 75k miles on it and I've only every used distilled water and a microfiber cloth to wipe down the interior. Coffee spill on seat? No problem, it just wipes away with water. Cheap too


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