Need to buy a car quickly? Carvana now delivers cars to your doorstep within hours.
The online used car dealership already offered next day delivery in the Philadelphia area, but is expanding its service to deliver cars directly to buyers' homes within a few hours.
Same-day delivery is for more than just Amazon orders. Philly shoppers can now order a car and have it delivered to their door within hours through a pilot program from Carvana, an online used-car retailer known for its giant car-vending machines.
The new service offers customers “the selection and convenience of the Carvana shopping experience plus the nearly instant gratification” of having a car delivered to their doorstep on the same day, Alan Kibler, Carvana’s associate director of strategy and analytics said in a statement.
Carvana came to Philadelphia in 2017, offering next-day delivery of vehicles purchased online to customers within 50 miles of Center City. In 2018, the company opened its ”vending machine” in Fishtown, a glass tower filled with cars for sale, where customers can retrieve a car they’ve purchased online.
The same-day delivery program launched on Jan. 10 in the Philadelphia area and is available to customers within about 100 miles of Center City. On the first day of service, the company sold two vehicles, which were delivered to homes within seven hours, said Kibler.
Same-day delivery has allowed Carvana to compete with traditional dealerships, he says.
“One of few remaining competitive gaps between a brick-and-mortar dealership and the online experience … is that you can go to a dealership and get your car the same day,” he said.
Carvana’s model allows customers to shop for a car all in one place instead of having to visit different dealerships, he adds.
“If you need a car and you have to drive from dealer to dealer to find one that’s the one you like and in your affordability range … that’s so much of your time invested vs. sitting somewhere comfortable and searching online,” said Kibler.
To offer cars so quickly to customers in the Philadelphia area, Carvana is sourcing cars from a reconditioning hub in Delanco, N.J., where the company prepares used cars for resale.
Customers can choose from about 2,000 cars for the same-day delivery service. If a customer wants a car that isn’t in the local hub, Carvana can get it delivered from another hub across the country, though that adds time to the delivery window.
Carvana’s same-day delivery launched in Arizona last year and has expanded to states including Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas.
Since launching in January, the most popular vehicles sold through the same-day delivery service in Philadelphia have been the Chevrolet Malibu, the Nissan Rogue, and the Jeep Compass.