• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

This Startup’s Answer to Avoiding Dealers: A Car Vending Machine

By
Kirsten Korosec
Kirsten Korosec
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kirsten Korosec
Kirsten Korosec
Down Arrow Button Icon
November 12, 2015, 1:00 PM ET
Courtesy of Carvana

Vending machines aren’t just for buying soda, salty snacks, and scary-looking egg salad sandwiches. In Nashville, you can now roll up to a five-story vending machine and buy a car.

Carvana, a Phoenix-based online-car-buying startup that describes itself as the “Amazon of cars,” opened the vending machine Thursday in Nashville. The five-story glass building, which is equipped with three customer delivery bays, can store up to 20 cars. The vending machine is open Monday through Saturday and vehicle pickup is free for all Carvana customers. The company says it will subsidize $200 in airfare and arrange transportation from the Nashville airport for customers who live outside Tennessee, but who want to pick up their car at the vending machine.

CEO and founder Ernie Garcia says the vending machine concept is a brick-and-mortar extension of its online business model that was built for customers who still want to pick up their vehicle in person. The vending machine “serves as a metaphor for Carvana’s business principles: easy and efficient with the customer in complete control,” Garcia told Fortune.

Once a customer has shopped and purchased the car online, they head over to the vending machine. The customer selects their name from a kiosk inside the building and inserts a Carvana-branded coin to start up the vending machine. The car is automatically retrieved from the tower and ushered into a delivery bay, where the customer can take possession, and begin their seven-day test ownership period. The vehicles undergo a 150-point inspection and come with a 100-day or 4,189-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, and a seven-day test drive. Carvana also touts a “no questions asked” return policy.

MORE: You Could Be Driving This 3D-Printed Car Next Year

In the past, Carvana has advertised that customers save an average of $1,681 on their purchase. Garcia says that won’t change. “The machine itself costs almost nothing to run once it’s operational,” Garcia says.

Carvana, which allows buyers to shop for, finance, buy, and trade in a car online, plans to expand its vending machine concept into other cities, Garcia says. The company launched in 2013 in Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., and Nashville, and has since expanded into several new markets, including Birmingham, Ala., and Dallas in early 2015. In the past month, the company has expanded into Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Raleigh, N.C. Carvana has warehouse facilities in Atlanta and Dallas, which store about 600 cars.

Carvana, which has raised $300 million in funding, does have competition in online car sales market. Beepi Inc., Carlypso, Shift Technologies, and Vroom are raising capital and expanding staff. And each startup offers its own spin on white-glove or concierge-style service. In July, New York startup Vroom raised $54 million and previously raised $19 million in equity from between 15 and 20 wealthy investors, including former pro football player John Elway and former Autonation and Blockbuster CEO Steve Berrard. In September, Shift Technologies, an online marketplace for used cars in San Francisco and Los Angeles, raised $50 million in new funding.

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about the business of technology.

For more Fortune coverage of cool new ways to buy cars, watch this video:

About the Author
By Kirsten Korosec
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Current price of silver as of Thursday, April 2, 2026
Personal Financesilver
Current price of silver as of Thursday, April 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerApril 2, 2026
3 minutes ago
‘This administration’s goal is to instill fear into people’: immigrants seeking asylum are sent to countries they’ve never been to
PoliticsImmigration
‘This administration’s goal is to instill fear into people’: immigrants seeking asylum are sent to countries they’ve never been to
By The Associated Press, Tim Sullivan, Garance Burke, Joshua Goodman, Molly A. Wallace and Rodney MuhumuzaApril 2, 2026
39 minutes ago
Ed Bastian took Delta from bankrupt to billions by putting employees first. He refuses to let AI disrupt that
C-SuiteFortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry
Ed Bastian took Delta from bankrupt to billions by putting employees first. He refuses to let AI disrupt that
By Fortune EditorsApril 2, 2026
46 minutes ago
wyle
CommentaryTV
What HBO’s ‘The Pitt’ gets right—and wrong—about treating alcohol use disorder
By Jonathan Hunt-GlassmanApril 2, 2026
46 minutes ago
Ed Bastian
SuccessCareers
12 Fortune 500 CEOs worked for Pepsi. Delta’s Ed Bastian explains why it’s a leadership factory
By Preston ForeApril 2, 2026
55 minutes ago
nic
CommentaryInsider trading
Prediction markets caught insider traders in real time. Congress wants to shut them down anyway
By Nic PuckrinApril 2, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they're turning 'welcomer cities' into the next big tech towns
Real Estate
Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they're turning 'welcomer cities' into the next big tech towns
By Fortune EditorsApril 2, 2026
7 hours ago
Current price of gold as of April 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of April 1, 2026
By Fortune EditorsApril 1, 2026
1 day ago
Two-thirds of parents say their adult Gen Z kids still rely on them financially  for support—even though it's putting them under strain
Success
Two-thirds of parents say their adult Gen Z kids still rely on them financially  for support—even though it's putting them under strain
By Fortune EditorsMarch 31, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of April 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of April 1, 2026
By Fortune EditorsApril 1, 2026
1 day ago
Jerome Powell says the $39 trillion national debt is ‘not unsustainable,’ but warns the trajectory ‘will not end well’
Economy
Jerome Powell says the $39 trillion national debt is ‘not unsustainable,’ but warns the trajectory ‘will not end well’
By Fortune EditorsMarch 30, 2026
3 days ago
2 years after Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match, they were texting about DOGE and a joint OpenAI bid, court records reveal
Law
2 years after Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match, they were texting about DOGE and a joint OpenAI bid, court records reveal
By Fortune EditorsMarch 31, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.