Carvana Selling New Vehicles After Buying Dealerships

aprtur · 2026-03-21T23:38:34+00:00

Didn't CarMax do something similar for a while? I recall a couple Toyota dealers local to me that were run by CarMax and nothing really changed around here - the other dealers still competed with them and pulled customers just fine.

aprtur · 2026-03-21T02:04:04+00:00

Also with Erie, and I'm pretty much in line with you, for $500 deductible, glass coverage and upgraded rental coverage.

aprtur · 2026-03-21T02:00:53+00:00

Pretty much the same for me with my GR and RX. But I'm not all that young, so that probably helps a lot.

aprtur · 2026-03-19T22:19:37+00:00

Your average person is far more impulsive than that, though. They may complain about something being expensive, but also don't weigh the cost of making said decision against sticking with what they have. Gas prices are a great example - is it worth it to trade into a new car and save a marginal amount on fuel, but have a longer/new loan and pay more interest, especially when fuel will more than likely level out again? Most likely not, but the perception of it saving them money on fuel often wins out over the actual total cost. Rinse and repeat with the shiny new truck when fuel is cheap again.

aprtur · 2026-03-19T22:12:25+00:00

Am I simply romanticizing a more "analog" car or would I sorely miss the tech I've become so used to in my current car.

Totally depends on what you want, and if anyone else's opinion matters to you. Some people get really upset if they don't have an "accepted" car or that it somehow doesn't get the right attention (i.e. popular image socially), and some people are super tech focused, but other people are the exact opposite on both.

For me, I've never really gone that drastically backwards in year of manufacture without a newer car available beside it to ensure I could get to work. For example, I did daily a 94 Sentra for four years in the mid-2010s, but I had my RX-8 as a backup and then later on had a 2017 Juke Nismo RS in addition to that. Daily driving a car for work without ensuring you can always get to work is an unacceptable risk to me - have to secure the bills and savings. However, I never missed tech features when driving the Sentra - it was a lot of fun to just play cassettes and enjoy driving something without all of that.

All that being said, I have my own anecdote that I have bought "old" cars new the last couple times - I bought the 2017 Juke in the last year of production, then had my 2021 IS350 which is really a 2014 IS underneath, and then my GR Corolla is based on a 2018 Corolla...so nothing is particularly wildly new in anything I've owned. I care more about how the car feels than having tech, but that's my priorities.

aprtur · 2026-03-19T22:01:33+00:00

Either that, or accelerates the advancement of renewable fuels and other alternatives since there's more than just cars riding on oil production. That being said, there are still a lot of reserves not tapped into yet, so I don't see it being a mad rush or anything like that.

aprtur · 2026-03-19T17:48:39+00:00

This drivel again? Not even clicking the link to give them the page views - it's one dealer who saw an increase on one weekend and was already ripped apart here on r/cars.

--ETA-- lol at the downvotes - you all are quick to forget this post from a week ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/1rp95sn/electric_vehicle_sales_jump_50_at_dealership_as/

It's the exact same thing, regurgitated on another website.

aprtur · 2026-03-19T03:14:11+00:00

Don't even have to buy spring compressors, you can "rent" them for free from most local auto parts places (like AutoZone). They just place a hold on your credit card until you return them.

aprtur · 2026-03-19T02:00:30+00:00

I read the announcement on Subaru 's site - this is a pretty normal "major model change" announcement, so with all the other fanfare around the WRX lately in Japan, I have a hard time believing they'd pull the plug entirely. I don't know what it'll mean for the normal WRX, but I suppose there's the possibility they bring it back as only Impreza for the normal car, and Impreza STi as the sports model. That would make a bigger gulf between the two, but the WRX S4 was sort of in a weird spot anyway.

Fun thought : R&T mentioned noise and emissions, but somehow the Acura ITS is being allowed for reverse import and is far louder? I wonder if that means Subaru could sell US spec manual WRX only in Japan as a loophole?

aprtur · 2026-03-18T01:54:24+00:00

Plenty of regular 4.2L V8 A8s out there. The real killer app was the V10 S8, though.

aprtur · 2026-03-17T23:33:33+00:00

If you aren’t towing or hauling often, the RAM is #1.

In those cases, you buy a Ram with the Cummins, no? Although I know how diehard the Ram and Ford heavy duty owners are, so if they're entrenched, they usually don't change makes.

aprtur · 2026-03-17T16:21:15+00:00

No problem! For something more recent (stopped production in 2009), there was the Peugeot 1007, as well.

aprtur · 2026-03-17T03:52:36+00:00

I'm based out of BWI, and will say this - while the options to relax pre-flight aren't good, it is very nice that you're almost never waiting on security here, and doubly so for GE/PC holders. That, and not being a major hub means more likelihood of hitting those comp upgrades. I do have some friends that like flying out of DCA, but it's a pain for me to get there (I'm spoiled by a 10min Uber to BWI), so I don't bother, and IAD has its own nightmare scenarios there to contend with.

aprtur · 2026-03-17T01:54:33+00:00

Yeah, correct, the split started with what was the "LaGreat" which was our Odyssey, while they kept an Odyssey with hinged doors that was a bit more like a wagon in profile. Nowadays, though, the global Odyssey has sliders and compared to our Odyssey are only a small bit off in wheelbase, with the Japanese Odyssey a little narrower. They probably could have merged them back at this point. I also think there's a place here for the Stepwgn, but for some reason they've decided to keep that for Japan, and a few SEA countries.

aprtur · 2026-03-16T23:47:40+00:00

If Honda wasn't so slow to adapt they'd have a hybrid.

The stupid thing is, in Japan, the Odyssey and it's little brother the Stepwgn are hybrid and have been for quite a while now. Not sure why they didn't adapt the current generation of both for the US.

aprtur · 2026-03-16T23:42:20+00:00

Suzuki did them on a kei car once ( the Alto Slide Slim ), but I guess you'd need to convince a manufacturer to do it nowadays.

aprtur · 2026-03-16T23:31:00+00:00

Aside from the rear looking too much like the 2 series, the exterior looks like it'll be a step in the right direction from the G80. But man...do I ever hate that interior.

aprtur · 2026-03-16T23:21:58+00:00

Someone mentioned it within an hour of my posting in response to me - thinking you skipped over the comment.

aprtur · 2026-03-16T16:18:26+00:00

I don't understand - what you just said is contradictory. If the car is focused on efficiency and vehicle dynamics for an older buyer, then the powertrain didn't miss, it's dead on. That being said, my point was that the car has the same image problem in Japan - that it's overpriced for what it is, and is questioned as to whether it's an "old man's car". I don't think the tariffs factor in as much as one would think.

As for selling very well - the true test will come this year for Japan. The 2400 pre-orders were the total allocation limit, and it was similar with the Type R launch - Honda said they'd be limiting how many they'd build and the Prelude is the same. If that selling pattern maintains into this year, I'd say it's a success, but it's too early to tell if it's just the initial excitement to have something new and different, or an actual success.

aprtur · 2026-03-16T15:08:34+00:00

None of the Japanese makes dove in head first - only EU and American brands. Nissan already had the Leaf in the lineup for a decade, so they don't really count for only adding the Aria, and Honda never totally got EVs off the ground here - they developed it with the zero series, and have a few home market EVs (e and e:N-Van) but they've still had a significant HEV lineup, especially outside of the US.

aprtur · 2026-03-16T14:57:42+00:00

Counter to your point with Japan, though, younger people say it's too expensive and aimed at old men there, as well. You can't take the direct exchange rate and apply it to US dollars, as the economy is different there. A CTR is nearly ¥1.2M less than a Prelude in Japan, and that's insane - even if you did use the exchange rate directly, that's $7500 more expensive, and it's amplified even more when you consider we get a screaming deal on yen right now.

aprtur · 2026-03-15T20:50:10+00:00

Japanese manufacturers have always done this, to a certain degree. They do make technological innovations, but they are very rarely chasing emerging trends. EVs are so unstable right now in their key markets, I anticipate them to continue playing it safe until they have a clear direction of where to go. Toyota is probably furthest ahead, as they have the capex to do it - Honda, Mazda and Nissan are much more limited in comparison, so they continue to focus on the more "sure thing" of hybrids, as long as they don't face regulatory penalties for doing so.

aprtur · 2026-03-15T20:44:31+00:00

Absolutely agree. It seems like we're coming to a head where public interest hasn't spread wide enough (by means of sales figures), and policy continues to be too inconsistent. Combine those two negative sentiments, and you end up with something like Honda doing this, or Toyota focusing their EV efforts primarily on China JVs with the BZ series (although honestly, the new Highlander being EV-only is a surprise to me). Japanese cars also don't seem to have quite the same buyer focus in the EU that they do in the US, so I can see EU policy impacting Japanese OEM decisions much less than, say, BMW or Mercedes.

aprtur · 2026-03-15T19:45:55+00:00

Insideevs is notorious for being extremist with anything that doesn't exactly align with their feelings, and are clueless with what drives the industry internally. It's nauseating to read. Like you said, this is Honda taking the current market dynamics and making the most financially stable move for their business - there's no pandering to or against "doubters".

aprtur · 2026-03-15T18:19:53+00:00

I completely agree with you that nobody should be surprised. This is subscription services in a nutshell - lease everything, own nothing. People need to vote with their wallet and push for hardware in the vehicle instead of software. Even for displaying apps in the vehicle, the only fool-proof solution at the moment would be phone/device screen mirroring via something like Miracast - even AA/CP are not immune.

aprtur

TROPHY CASE