A used car dealer in Nashville is trying to revolutionize the car buying experience. A few years ago, Carvana followed in the footsteps of CarMax and switched to an online platform.
The company website set up all the necessary paperwork already, including approval, financing options, warranty selection, and contract signing. CEO Ernie Garcia confidently told The Verge that this process would take less than 20 minutes.
This process, though hardly new, certainly made buying a car as simple as it can be. But can it get better? The answer is yes. "We knew that if [customers] chose to pick up the car we would save some money, and so we could invest that money in giving them a really, really great experience, Garcia shares.
The result is a five-story, fully-automatic vending machine for cars outside Nashville, Tennessee. This innovative design is even coin-operated to provide the full experience of buying a car from a machine. See pics here and here.
The vending machine/tower can stash up to 20 cars at a time. Inside, a "welcome center," delivery system, and three delivery bays can be found. Techno Buffalo noted that once you insert the coin, your "car is automatically retrieved from the Tower and is moved through the machine until it reaches a Delivery Bay, where [you] take possession and begin [your] seven-day test ownership period."
ABC reported that, at the moment, the vending machine is one-of-a-kind. Carvana is even willing to "subsidize $200 in airfare and arrange white glove transportation from Nashville airport." But allthat can change as the company is planning on building more car vending machines in the future.
There are many upsides to using a car vending machine. For one, it will prove to have lower overhead costs in the future even if the upfront expense is quite high. The design also allows the car dealer to sell cars up to $2,000 less than other dealers.
Garcia says as a last word, I think if we've got the car that they're looking for, and we're selling it for $1,500 to $2,000 less, and we offer a purchase process that takes 20 minutes, and then you get to go to a vending machine and watch your car moonwalk to you? I think people are going to respond to that."
