Middle Tennessee residents may have noticed a unique new structure while commuting on Interstate 65: a five-story glass tower filled with used cars.
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One of the many highlights during my first trip to Las Vegas for CES many moons ago was a vending machine that sold electronics (iPods, headphones, speaker docks and so forth).
Of course, it’s not a real coin: you don’t pay the company a dime until after you’ve tested your new ride from the vending machine for a week.
Customers begin the buying process online, where they go through the standard steps: choosing a vehicle, getting approved for a particular financing option, and signing a contract.
Carvana makes its money the same way any used auto dealer does, by purchasing used cars at a low cost then reselling them for a slight mark up, but what makes Carvana special, according to Garcia, is that not having a permanent dealership helps cut costs for both the company and its customers. “Our new vending machine is a state-of-the-art, multistory structure that delivers our customers’ cars by merely inserting a custom coin”, he says. “I would say you’re more likely to see these popping up in our larger markets than in our smaller markets, but it is our model going forward”. The savings are passed on to the consumer as the company claims it sells cars for an average of $2,000 less than the competition. Additional vending machine locations are being considered, but Nashville is now the only one available. Carvana wants them to have access to the vending machine, too.
But Carvana hopes Americans can avoid the salespeople found at dealerships once and for all. Officially opened today in Nashville Tennessee, the vehicle vending machine is Carvana’s most recent addition. “They feel like it’s easier to walk away probably, so I think we didn’t really anticipate that because we knew we wouldn’t be giving customers that experience, but that is real”.
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As life events go, purchasing a vehicle is slightly more significant than opening a bag of pretzels, so the Carvana process involves a bit more than putting a coin in a slot.
