• 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

hunt
CommentaryMedia
OpenAI’s TBPN deal shows how talent, media, and influence are collapsing into one
By Jonathan HuntApril 11, 2026
42 minutes ago
pandu
CommentaryIndonesia
Danantara CIO: Indonesia can anchor the AI and energy economy—if governance keeps pace
By Pandu SjahrirApril 11, 2026
42 minutes ago
AI promises to free workers from grunt work, but psychologists say those mindless tasks are exactly what our brains need to recover
AIworker productivity
AI promises to free workers from grunt work, but psychologists say those mindless tasks are exactly what our brains need to recover
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezApril 11, 2026
2 hours ago
The ‘affordability economy’ has created a housing market nobody predicted: Prices collapsing in the Sun Belt, soaring in the Rust Belt
Real EstateHousing
The ‘affordability economy’ has created a housing market nobody predicted: Prices collapsing in the Sun Belt, soaring in the Rust Belt
By Shawn TullyApril 11, 2026
2 hours ago
crew aboard artemis II
Innovationspace
‘It’s 13 minutes of things that have to go right’: Artemis II splashes down despite faulty heat shield
By Catherina GioinoApril 10, 2026
10 hours ago
Fed seeks details on U.S. banks’ exposure to private credit firms
BankingBanks
Fed seeks details on U.S. banks’ exposure to private credit firms
By Katanga Johnson, Dawn Lim, Silla Brush, Lydia Beyoud and BloombergApril 10, 2026
10 hours ago

Most Popular

Scottie Scheffler joined Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in golf's $100M club—and donated his entire Ryder Cup stipend to charity
Success
Scottie Scheffler joined Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in golf's $100M club—and donated his entire Ryder Cup stipend to charity
By Fortune EditorsApril 10, 2026
18 hours ago
Mark Cuban admits he made a mistake letting go of the Mavericks: 'I don't regret selling. I regret who I sold to'
Investing
Mark Cuban admits he made a mistake letting go of the Mavericks: 'I don't regret selling. I regret who I sold to'
By Fortune EditorsApril 9, 2026
2 days ago
Schools across America are quietly admitting that screens in classrooms made students worse off and are reversing years of tech-first policies
Innovation
Schools across America are quietly admitting that screens in classrooms made students worse off and are reversing years of tech-first policies
By Fortune EditorsApril 10, 2026
1 day ago
The U.S. government is spending $88 billion a month in interest on national debt—equal to spending on defense and education combined
Economy
The U.S. government is spending $88 billion a month in interest on national debt—equal to spending on defense and education combined
By Fortune EditorsApril 9, 2026
2 days ago
A Meta employee created a dashboard so coworkers can compete to be the company's No. 1 AI token user—and Zuckerberg doesn't even rank in the top 250
AI
A Meta employee created a dashboard so coworkers can compete to be the company's No. 1 AI token user—and Zuckerberg doesn't even rank in the top 250
By Fortune EditorsApril 9, 2026
2 days ago
The Navy confirmed an ‘abundant amount’ of Uncrustables when the Artemis II crew lands. Smucker’s just offered them a lifetime supply
Politics
The Navy confirmed an ‘abundant amount’ of Uncrustables when the Artemis II crew lands. Smucker’s just offered them a lifetime supply
By Fortune EditorsApril 10, 2026
12 hours 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.