Carvana brings its unique, ‘very visual’ car-buying experience to Las Vegas

Traffic on Interstate 15 passes by the Carvana Las Vegas “vending machine” near Spring Mountain Road Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Carvana, an online used car retailer, has 29 such multistory glass towers around the country.

Las Vegas now has a car vending machine.

Carvana, an online used car retailer, will debut its glass-encased, 11-story car vending machine structure just off Interstate 15 near the Strip this morning.

The building, which lights up at dusk, has garnered the attention of passersby on the highway for weeks, though today marks the first time that customers can take advantage of the vending machine car-buying experience.

A customer buys and finances a vehicle through Carvana’s online marketplace, then can choose to be present at the building as the vehicle is retrieved from one of nearly 40 stalls inside the transparent structure. There is no extra fee with the vending machine pickup option.

Carvana has more than two-dozen car vending machines nationwide, but the Las Vegas location — nestled just west of the I-15 between Spring Mountain Road and Twain Avenue — has a unique spin.

Carvana Vehicle Vending Machine

The moon rises behind Carvana's Las Vegas Vending Machine near Spring Mountain Road and I-15 Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Carvana is an online used car retailer. The company has 29 vehicle vending machines around the country. Launch slideshow »

Customers can insert a commemorative coin into a slot-like machine, which is complete with an old-school lever, to begin the car retrieval process. It’s like buying a soda out of a machine, only it’s a much bigger machine and the product costs much more than $2.

The process — in which an attendant navigates the robotic system to retrieve the car and lower it into a delivery bay for a waiting customer — takes 15 minutes or less.

“We’re known for our car vending machines around the country, but we wanted to customize the experience in Las Vegas to go along with the fun experience that Las Vegas is known for,” said Amy O’Hara, a spokeswoman for the Arizona-based company.

All the purchases are handled online, meaning residents can’t show up at the structure to shop for a vehicle. Most of the cars in the structure are already spoken for. And there’s no test driving, although the company says it offers free returns up to seven days.

Buyers can also elect to have the vehicle delivered to their home — the company has been doing home delivery in the Las Vegas market for a couple of years — but O’Hara said the vending machine retrievals have been popular for Carvana, especially for the social media opportunities they present.

“It’s a very visual experience,” O’Hara said. “It’s fun to tell your friends you got your car out of a vending machine. Before the pandemic, we found that people would often make a day of it. People would bring friends and family and post on social media. It’s a bit of a different experience now with CDC guidelines and social distancing, but people still like to record the experience and take selfies.”

Carvana also purchases used vehicles, offers deals on trade-ins, and provides financing. The company, though, will only purchase vehicles that have no “frame damage and that have never been in a reported accident,” according to Carvana’s website.

Founded in Arizona in 2012, Carvana’s goal was to disrupt the auto sales industry by offering a buy-from-home experience, similar to how consumers purchase goods on Amazon or any other major online retailer.

On its website, Carvana boasts of being a car sales company with no salespeople, thereby cutting out “the middlemen” and allowing for more affordable purchase prices.

Since the onset of the pandemic, O’Hara said, the idea of buying a vehicle without having to go to a dealership — the company even offers a “touchless” buying experience — has only grown in popularity.

Now a billion-dollar company, Carvana sold more than 64,400 vehicles during the third quarter of 2020, an increase of nearly 40% from its third quarter 2019 figure.

Still, the company reported a net loss of $18 million during the third quarter last year, though Carvana’s leadership expects it to become profitable in the near future. The company will release its fourth quarter 2020 earnings report on Thursday.

Though down slightly in recent days, the company’s stock has been on a growth trajectory during the past year.

At the end of the trading day on the New York Stock Exchange on March 1, one share of Carvana stock was valued at just over $55.

At the end of trading on Tuesday, that same stock was valued at over $280.

Located at 3720 Morgan Cashmans Way, the Las Vegas car vending machine is open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

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