Hello. I thought I would share my personal experience with carvana. I also hope anyone reading this takes my experience and learns from it. I got really lucky today.
I own a 2025 Mazda 3 carbon Edition. I wasn't the biggest fan of the car, and I wanted something different. Ideally I was going to trade it and put cash down on top on a used car to lower my monthly payments significantly and lower my insurance cost. As a side benefit I could also get something I really enjoyed driving. I settled on a 2020 Subaru WRX. This Subaru WRX had 25,000 miles. It was one owner and had no modifications whatsoever. It was a fair price and a car that I've wanted since high school. What made the Subaru so special was it was from the generation that I liked and had the factory performance package with the big brembo brakes, bigger wheels, Recaro Interior, and a handful of other goodies. So I went and test drove a couple locally and really loved the car, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this 2020 Subaru WRX.
I've read the horror stories about carvana. So I did my due diligence, I actually had an appointment set up for tomorrow to get the car inspected. You know just in case before I was outside that 7-Day window. The car on the website said there were zero issues and it looks like a pristine car in the photos. However when it showed up today it was far from that. There was body damage that was not visible in the pictures, there was also some wheel curb rash. This was stuff I was willing to let go and the tow truck driver noted it before I even said anything, and he had already set up a claim to get it fixed for free. Nothing crazy. However I insisted before I signed anything that I test drive the car. And man am I glad that I did.
When I took the car for a test drive I immediately noticed the clunk coming from the front driver side. When I drove it down the road, it didn't drive straight. The steering wheel was off to the right and the car was pulling to the left. Then every time I hit a bump it was entirely unstable. The way it drove was different too, the power band was different than the cars that had driven previously. On top of that the mirror just was completely broken and the heated seat on the driver side didn't work. After this 10-15 minute test drive the temperature gauge was starting to climb, and you could smell something burning at the front of the car. It could have been coolant, but it almost smells like brakes or clutch. The tow truck driver could smell it too and I wasn't even driving the car hard. Luckily the tow truck driver realized how much of a disaster this card was and I was able to get a full refund and a refund for the non-refundable shipping.
This could have been a lot worse. If I had signed those papers and taken the car without doing a thorough inspection, even if I returned to the car I would not get my Mazda back. Not to say that all vehicles on carvana are bad, but I definitely see where the horror stories come from. Luckily I decided to give the car a real good look before signing anything. If any of you plan to buy from them, I suggest you do the same, and take the car on a test drive.
I'm pretty disappointed because I really loved that Subaru. Especially since it was one of the only ones in the country that I could find that had this package that I wanted. What a shame. Luckily in my case I'm out nothing but time.