Bruce, Thank you for the news on Carvana. I am happy with the used Fiat 500e I purchased from them and financed with business partner Bridgecrest. The vehicle's condition and performance will determine if a customer is happy. I am close to setting up 240 volt charging that should make the car a tad more useful. And I will get to a dealer soon and address the fidgety nature of the computer, maybe the heat, contactors, software update needed, etc. is giving an intermittent problem code. Some days are fine, sometimes -check drive train - is the warning. Alan
On Mon, Sep 9, 2019, 3:37 AM brucedp5 via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > https://www.dailybulletin.com/2019/09/06/what-is-that-tower-next-to-the-10-freeway-in-ontario-a-car-vending-machine-of-course/ > What is that tower next to the 10 Freeway in Ontario? A car vending > machine, > of course > September 6, 2019 Steve Scauzillo > > [images > > https://www.dailybulletin.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IDB-L-CARVENDING-0906-05-WL.jpg > > > https://www.dailybulletin.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IDB-L-CARVENDING-0906-06-WL.jpg > > > https://www.dailybulletin.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/IDB-L-CARVENDING-0906-03-WL-1.jpg > Carvana, an 8-story glass car vending machine, as seen in Ontario Friday > Sept. 6, 2019, is the companys second facility in California, the other is > located in Westminster. Carvana has approximately 50,000 used vehicles > available online which can be shipped to any location. (Photo by Will > Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) > ] > > Online sales site opens vehicle-delivery tower > > Vending machines typically dispense coffee, soft drinks, chips, candy — and > some at airports can drop a smart phone or a pair of earbuds. > > Now, an e-commerce car company based in Phoenix has super-sized the > concept, > taking it to a whole new level. > > On Friday, Sept. 6, Carvana unveiled a car vending machine in Ontario, the > first one in the Inland Empire and the second in California. That’s right, > a > machine that spits out automobiles. > > [image] Carvana employees Amy OÕHara demonstrate how a purchased vehicle > is > lowered to the ground floor in Ontario Friday Sept. 6, 2019. The 8-story > glass outlet is the companys second car vending machine in California, the > other is located in Westminster. Carvana has approximately 50,000 used > vehicles available online which can be shipped to any location. (Photo by > Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) > > This gleaming glass tower that stands eight stories tall opened for > business > Friday, a week after the grand opening of the one in Westminster off the > 405 > Freeway. The Ontario edifice looms over the busy eastbound 10 Freeway just > west of the 15 Freeway. As drivers gazed up at the magic machine loaded > with > 27 cars, they wouldn’t be able to exit and buy one. The cars are reserved > for those who’ve already pressed “buy” on their computer or mobile device. > > “Well, those cars driving by can see the cars in the tower but all of the > vehicles will already be spoken for,” said Amy O’Hara, associate director > of > communications for Carvana, during a vending machine demonstration on > Friday, Sept. 6. > > Car buyers don’t show up with rolls of quarters. Carvana requires shoppers > to pore through the approximately 15,000 used cars for sale pictured on its > website (carvana.com), where the customer buys a car sight unseen. The > customer meets a Carvana employee at the nearest vending machine at an > appointed time. The rest is like a delivery side show that puts an > exclamation point on this non-traditional way of buying a car. > > “The customer advocate will hand you a commemorative coin that is about the > size of a hockey puck. You drop the coin in the slot. A lift will go up in > the tower and grab your vehicle and bring it down into a delivery bay,” > O’Hara explained. > > The customer can drive the car for up to seven days. If he doesn’t like it, > he can return it, she said, although mileage restrictions apply. Buyers get > a 100-day warranty. > > When O’Hara dropped a coin into the machine’s lighted pedestal, the > hydraulic lift found a blue Subaru WRX, put the hooks into the elevated > cargo bay and pulled it into the center, then lowered it down to the ground > floor. The demo was repeated for the red, 2017 Nissan Leaf, an electric > vehicle. > > “It is fun, memorable, unique,” O’Hara said. “The other option is to have > your car delivered to your home. You can have the bragging rights to say > you > bought your car from a vending machine.” > > Online car-buying is a growing business. Carvana, which started in 2012 and > went public in 2017, is one of more than a dozen similar companies. Using > the symbol CVNA, stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Carvana > joins a host of other online companies such as cars.com, cargurus.com, > ebaymotors.com, vroom.com, carsoup.com and others, including CarMax, which > has both online and physical sites. > > Carvana claims its prices are set $1,000 below Kelley Blue Book values. “We > don’t have sales reps or a large overhead,” O’Hara said. A car can be > purchased in as little as 30 minutes, that includes time online buying the > car and picking it up at the vending machine, she said. Prices are fixed. > Haggling and negotiating are a thing of the past. > > But there is some fine print. > > First, Carvana sells used cars only. The company is picky about what cars > get listed on its site. Usually, the cars are no more than 3 or 4 years > old. > Often, they are cars given back to banks when the lease runs out. > > Second, the buyer doesn’t get to drive the car until the deal is > consummated. When asked if that’s a problem, O’Hara said that’s what the > seven-day return policy is for. “You have the time to take it on your > commute or install the child car seats to make sure it fits your life,” she > said. > > When not dispensing cars, the tower can become a light display. In > Nashville, Carvana lit up the vending machine during Halloween to resemble > a > giant bag of candy. In Tempe, Arizona, the company honored the Major League > Soccer team Phoenix Rising Football Club with an animated display matching > the team’s colors — brick red, said David Briggs, vending machine service > manager. > > One day, Carvana may light up the Ontario machine in Dodger blue or Laker > purple. But Briggs was keeping those design plans under his hat. Perhaps > the > car vending machine can honor the Ontario Reign, the minor league hockey > team playing in the nearby Toyota Arena, someone suggested. > > Even without the concert lighting, the tower — a curiosity to freeway > gawkers for months — resembled for the first time a car storage or delivery > system, albeit eight floors in height. Some say it looks like a life-sized > Hot Wheels set. > > “We’ve had people coming in and looking,” Briggs said. “We even had people > circling our parking lot wondering what that thing is.” > [© dailybulletin.com] > > > + > > https://www.djournal.com/news/nation-world/for-the-second-time-ever-zero-labs-has-transformed-one/article_94302db2-afda-53fd-b67b-3f292bcc4f30.html > For the Second Time Ever, Zero Labs Has Transformed One of the World's Most > Legendary Off-Road Vehicles Into a Fully Premium, Classic Electric Vehicle > Sep 4, 2019 Zero Labs Automotive, the first to transform a > first-generation > (1966-77) Ford Bronco into a premium classic electric vehicle ... > > https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/djournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/1/7b/17b65106-8ba2-5b32-bfbf-5584859c98cb/5d6ff8691f4d7.image.jpg > ... > > http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=%22Zero+Labs%22&days=0 > search evdl on "Zero Labs" zerolabs.com > > > > > For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: > http://evdl.org/archive/ > > > {brucedp.neocities.org} > > -- > Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/ > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html > INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA ( > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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