An online dealership, Vroom’s basic model is almost identical to that of Carvana. It’s also much the same when it comes to submitting vehicle information—although you’ll need to submit photos of your car or truck. Unlike Carvana, however, Vroom is available nationwide. And Vroom also came back with some of the most compelling offers. We noticed that the company is actively seeking inventory, as a Vroom representative also responded to our Spark owner’s Craigslist ad, offering to buy the vehicle. Upon accepting Vroom’s offer, the company will pick up your vehicle from your residence and perform a quick visual inspection to make sure everything is as represented.
The Results
Although we received estimates for our two cars from all seven online vehicle sales tools we tried, we found that our Michigan location limited us to three options: AutoNation We’ll Buy Your Car, TrueCar Sell, and Vroom. For our Camaro-owning editor, this worked out for the best: Vroom’s $18,000 offer was by far the highest received. While it fell short of Kelley Blue Book’s private-party value by $1973, it did best KBB’s mean trade-in value by $222 and was $1397 above the average of all estimates received.
Our Spark-owning editor fared less well. Although Beepi came up with an impressive mean offer of $7994 for the diminutive hatchback, our Michigan location resulted in limited options that were significantly less lucrative. While Beepi did not inspect our Spark, we’re confident it would have passed the company’s scrutiny with flying colors and would have received top dollar. Nevertheless, the owner had no interest in driving across the country in the 84-hp minicar. Plus, with Beepi estimates lasting only approximately 24 hours, there was no guarantee that the little Spark actually would be valued so high by the time we made it to a far-flung hub with more miles on the odometer.
The complete, original article can be found here, on Car and Driver’s Blog.