Carvana Is Invading the $655 Billion New-Car Market — And Traditional Dealers Are ‘In an Uproar’
The used-car giant expanded their business to new cars, and its online, hassle-free policy is attracting buyers.
Joshua Higginbotham swore off buying new cars from his local Jeep dealerships after spending entire days going back and forth on price. Then he used Carvana to buy a brand-new $51,000 Jeep Wrangler without leaving his Kansas City couch. He ordered it online from a Carvana dealership over 1,000 miles away in Arizona, paid $1,290 for shipping, and skipped the negotiation entirely, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Carvana has quietly spent over $160 million acquiring seven Stellantis dealerships in the past year, bringing its digital-first, no-haggle model to the new-car business. The results are impressive: its Casa Grande, Arizona, location, in the middle of the desert, went from selling 30-50 vehicles monthly to 350 — making it the top-selling Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, and Dodge dealer in America as of April.
“Stellantis dealers are in an uproar over this,” a Jeep-Ram dealer told WSJ. At a February closed-door meeting, tensions over Carvana’s expansion brought discussions to an abrupt close. The backlash prompted Stellantis to impose a new rule limiting dealers to one acquisition per year.
Joshua Higginbotham swore off buying new cars from his local Jeep dealerships after spending entire days going back and forth on price. Then he used Carvana to buy a brand-new $51,000 Jeep Wrangler without leaving his Kansas City couch. He ordered it online from a Carvana dealership over 1,000 miles away in Arizona, paid $1,290 for shipping, and skipped the negotiation entirely, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Carvana has quietly spent over $160 million acquiring seven Stellantis dealerships in the past year, bringing its digital-first, no-haggle model to the new-car business. The results are impressive: its Casa Grande, Arizona, location, in the middle of the desert, went from selling 30-50 vehicles monthly to 350 — making it the top-selling Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, and Dodge dealer in America as of April.
“Stellantis dealers are in an uproar over this,” a Jeep-Ram dealer told WSJ. At a February closed-door meeting, tensions over Carvana’s expansion brought discussions to an abrupt close. The backlash prompted Stellantis to impose a new rule limiting dealers to one acquisition per year.
