(03-27-2023, 10:43 AM)NYC4jags Wrote: I bought a car online once many years ago when it was very uncommon.
Folks were just becoming comfortable with sites like "Travelocity" and "Priceline" had just entered the fray.

Yet, a startup auto sales site had some backing and wanted to let buyers "bid" on what they'd pay for a car. And their business model allowed them to undercut dealers to build their reputation in their first year of business.

I needed a cheap commuter for a job that had me going back and forth to and from St Augustine > Jax > Sea Island GA often.
So I found a new Honda Civic on the lot for about $13.8K (2000 model/year) - another dealer had the same one for 13.6.

I went to the site and bid 11K and they called me the next day from Coggin Honda and said "your civic is here ready for pickup"

I scrambled to get a loan approved and a check cut and they handed me the keys for 11K.
I asked the salesman how they could do this and he told me the site was paying them $1800 so they could sell me the car. I thought, this is never going to work out for this website.

The site (I think it was greenlight.com or something) went out of business a year later.

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(03-27-2023, 10:26 AM)NewJagsCity Wrote: Carvana is in dire financial straits at the moment.  They probably wont be around much longer.  Too bad; I was looking forward to having the hot tattooed chick hand me a check for my used car.  Maybe I can sell it to a junk yard and get the same level of service.

What the heck will they do with the 30+ stupid car tower/vending machines they've built all over the place? LOL
That will be a weird thing to repurpose.

Yes, same here! It was an auto buyers club that allowed you to buy directly from the factory and then have it shipped to a local dealer to pay for all the taxes, title, etc. Bought a 96 Dodge Caravan in late 1995. Got a lot of upgrades at a substantial discount. As for those Carvana vending machines, I'm thinking they could turn those into some sort of a funky version of Wet and Wild, but all indoors. Or perhaps a multi-level Police or Fire Station. Or a multi-level adult Entertainment complex. Just re-train the tattooed chicks.

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