I Purchased My Dream Car From Carvana-A Surprisingly Positive Experience
If you buy from Carvana, take the car to the dealership for a pre-purchase inspection immediately. They’ll do a full inspection, give you a repair list, and then you can decide whether to use that dealership or one of SilverRock’s preferred shops. Once you choose, the shop contacts SilverRock to start the claims process.
Most importantly: once you get the repair list and SilverRock’s decision on what they will and won’t cover, THEN decide whether you want to keep the car or return it.
One thing to know: if you use an out-of-network repair shop or dealership, you’ll typically pay for the inspection yourself plus an increased deductible of $350.
I recently bought my dream car from Carvana, and it became very obvious that either their inspection process is weak or mine didn’t actually happen. I took it straight to the Mercedes-Benz dealership because it made the most sense for this type of car.
The inspection itself was completed within the return window, but the SilverRock claim approval process was not. To Carvana’s credit, they were actually very easy to work with. They extended my return window so I could decide whether I wanted to keep the car after finding out the repair costs and coverage decisions.
After some back-and-forth between MB and SilverRock, most of the repairs were approved and completed. The frustrating part was SilverRock nickel-and-diming the dealership on labor and costs. Thankfully, the dealership was already familiar with working with them, so they handled most of the fighting for me.
I’ve seen a lot of Carvana horror stories online, but my experience ended up okay overall. Before delivery, they delayed my car because they found the turbo exhaust needed repair. They were upfront about it. I later learned that after purchase, the car may go through a second Carvana inspection, which is apparently when they caught that issue.
The process was time-consuming, but after about 3 weeks, I picked my car up from Mercedes fully repaired with warranty coverage backing the work. Out of pocket, I paid:
• $240 for the MB inspection
• $350 SilverRock deductible for using an out-of-network service center
My total repair bill at Mercedes was around $12k. SilverRock covered roughly $10k worth of repairs, although they negotiated the actual payout amounts down heavily. The only thing left for me to handle myself was a transmission flush since the car had just over 50k miles and there was no record of it being done.
Honestly, I’ll take it. It’s my dream car, and in the end, it worked out.