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Driveway trade in review

Mcfly Rivian

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Just wanted to do a quick write up for some who are considering other trade in options than selling to Rivian. I ended up going with Driveway. If they are available in your area I highly recommend them. Process was super easy. You do a mobile appraisal thru your smart phone. From there they confirm the amount. Mine ended up being exactly what they quoted me. After that you make an appointment and they come to you check in hand or wire and pick up your vehicle. As for the amounts offered, they are listed below. Driveway ended up being the highest. 6k over what Rivian offered me.

Edit: forgot to mention driveways offer was high kelly blue book at the time.

2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD OR 4x4

Carvana 25k
Rivian 28k
Local dealer 32k
Carmax 33k
Driveway 34k
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Aag12

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Don't forget algo and givemethevin.

Also, those 2 places (and probably driveway) will negotiate with you too. I sold 1 car and got my other one priced out and both times got another 3 to 4k more than the initial offer
 

PNWRIV

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Wow Rivian low balled you. They gave me 32k for my ‘17 Trd OR! Driveway offered me $35.4k but went with Rivian due to the sales tax credit and ease of trade in.
 

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I also got the highest offer through Driveway for my vehicle. It took a month for them to mail me the paperwork. Once paperwork was done I received the ACH in 2 days and then 2 days later they picked up the vehicle and drove it to a local dealer.

It sat there for 2 weeks and then transported to another dealer 300 miles away and it's been there for 3 weeks and still not listed for sale.

For how long it took them since the initial offer, and the decline of truck prices, I'm not sure if they're going to have any margin left.
 

RWerksman

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My experience with Driveway was largely similar. Largest offer with a fast, pain free process.

That said, they apparently screwed up my paperwork and I needed to sign off again (and get it notarized) for them about 45 days after I sold the vehicle to them.
 

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Mcfly Rivian

Mcfly Rivian

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Wow Rivian low balled you. They gave me 32k for my ‘17 Trd OR! Driveway offered me $35.4k but went with Rivian due to the sales tax credit and ease of trade in.
Wow they really did. Unfortunately I'm in CA and like all things here regarding money they don't give you a tax break on your trade in.
 

the long way downunder

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Just wanted to do a quick write up for some who are considering other trade in options than selling to Rivian. I ended up going with Driveway. If they are available in your area I highly recommend them. Process was super easy. You do a mobile appraisal thru your smart phone. From there they confirm the amount. Mine ended up being exactly what they quoted me. After that you make an appointment and they come to you check in hand or wire and pick up your vehicle. As for the amounts offered, they are listed below. Driveway ended up being the highest. 6k over what Rivian offered me.

2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD OR 4x4

Carvana 25k
Rivian 28k
Local dealer 32k
Carmax 33k
Driveway 34k
I just went through this three times (one family member, two friends) … used car prices are nuts … all were sellers of vehicles that would be "trade-in's" (none of them ended up being for EV purchases.)

The reports I've read of buyers using these services … not good, but from the perspective of someone who is not interested in selling privately and figuring out that whole process of responding to enquiries and receiving interested buyers and dealing with test drives … it's great to have an alternative to the stereotypical "used car salesman" experience.

In short, each case:
(1) the dealer trade-in valuation started out overstated (a Mercedes dealer, fwiw) and came down below Carvana … when pressed, the dealer came up to Carvana (which was higher than Driveway, iiuc, highest of all online offers.)

(2) tedious delays with Tesla (not Rivian) and whatever "send photos of your car from all sides" third party valuation rigmarole became never-ending … ended up taking the dealer (Porsche) price rather than F about trying to trade-in the Tesla or buy the Tesla outright … Tesla has stretched the plausibility of the "supplier costs" price hikes fubar (beyond all recognition.)

(3) using cars.com – it now seems all the online sites have all the same listings? – buying from a dealer trying to arrange trade-in and delivery without visiting the (out of state) dealership, ended up with a last minute "oh yeah, your trade-in price is 'only' $2500 less than expected (about a 2% change, but $2500 is not chump change and when did "offer" mean "expected"?) probably should "trust but verify" with at least one on-line alternative to close the deal (online offers were obtained and were within $5K, so still lower than the "oh yeah" price) but the loss of trust became what I think was a sound decision to walk away.

Overall, no clear "best" way … still a horse trading caveat emptor world to buy or sell a car. From other personal experiences including buying two Teslas with trade-ins that both resulted in keeping the trade-in and just buying the Tesla, the trade-in valuation from Tesla was rubbish. I didn't ask Rivian for a trade-in valuation and they said they were not set up to take trade-ins when my R1T was ready, but their insurance quote was rubbish, so I think it's necessary to separate the vehicle purchase into separate transactions.

My impression from reading 6 months of people posting about their purchase of a Rivian is to assume that Rivian and Tesla are not going to be the best trade-in offer so it's a better total cost to separate the transactions and get top dollar for the trade-in vehicle.
 

Rousie13

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I got prices from vroom, Carvana and driveway for my wife’s XC40 Recharge when it came time for the R1T to arrive. Driveway and Carvana were the same at $54,000 while vroom was $51,000. Rivian came in at $52,500. However, in Ohio, we don’t have to pay sales tax on the trade in amount and just pay it in the difference between your trade and the new vehicle low. With that said, it was actually like we got $56,175 for my wife’s XC40 Recharge by trading it in to Rivian.
 

NashvilleR1S

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I just tried driveway and their offer for my '16 4runner was $21k...that's the lowest I've seen so far.
 
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Mcfly Rivian

Mcfly Rivian

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I just tried driveway and their offer for my '16 4runner was $21k...that's the lowest I've seen so far.
Wow, I think like others have said values probably depend on location. I noticed numbers would vary day to day as well. I think the used car market is in the midst of a shift at the moment. My quite was from a few weeks back. It was 2k lower when I ran it recently.
 

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Wow, I think like others have said values probably depend on location. I noticed numbers would vary day to day as well. I think the used car market is in the midst of a shift at the moment. My quite was from a few weeks back. It was 2k lower when I ran it recently.
This depends on a ton of factors...we can give a little bit of "peek behind the curtain" info here, because we have our own instant offer program.

First off, all of the offer websites whether it be Carvana, Driveway, us, or someone else--all do things differently and weight different factors.

And despite what anyone says, NO one is the highest 100% of the time. We think (based on a range of data), that for EVs, we are the highest more often than anyone else (but again, no one buyer is the highest 100% of the time; it's simply not possible).

Carvana is allegedly very algorithmically biased. For Teslas, they also allegedly have an optimal ratio of S:3:X:Y and if their inventory falls outside of that ratio, they will vastly overpay to balance it.

Or if that ratio is optimized, their offers may be quite low. Beyond that, it's also rumored that they own the bank that finances the cars on their site, so they can overpay and make up some margin on the back-end.

There is another popular instant offer "sell your car now" site that is actually the business-facing end of one of the largest public auction houses in the US.

They will allegedly make you a high "up to" offer right away, and then auction your vehicle at a special, "conditional" auction without purchasing it yet. Dealers bidding on your vehicle at this conditional auction know that it may not ultimately be available, but they bid anyway.

This company will then also allegedly determine what to offer you in the end based on what your vehicle fetches in this conditional auction. If it's high, then they'll pay you close to the original offer. If it's not, they'll reduce their offer to be in line with that your vehicle fetched at the conditional auction. This may happen at inspection and they will find a "reason" to reduce this value.

It's a brilliant (but, in our opinion, unethical) business model--they can sell inventory they don't have, and find out what it's worth without acquiring it or putting out any capital...

It's also horrible for customers. People are often left angry and frustrated when what they thought was an awesome offer is reduced at the last minute. Unfortunately, a fair percentage of people reportedly still sell their car to this company because at that point, they've invested a fair bit of time and other offers from competitors may have expired or are no longer available.

There are also a lot of dynamic factors that go into offers in general like seasonality, weekly valuation and economic trends, dealer inventory, and other things.

-----

Now, what makes our instant offer program different is this:
  • You don't deal with an algorithm, you deal with real people
  • We built a system where EV dealers (not gas dealers) make offers
  • These EV dealers understand what rare features are worth better than gas dealers or algos
  • These EV dealers bid against each other to give you the best offer
  • All inspections are virtual (no randomly driving your car somewhere else)
  • Offers are NOT reduced after the initial offer is made
  • We carefully curated our EV dealer network and hold them to our incredibly high standards of customer service

If you're interested, feel free to get an offer here!
 
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Sgt Beavis

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Don't forget algo and givemethevin.

Also, those 2 places (and probably driveway) will negotiate with you too. I sold 1 car and got my other one priced out and both times got another 3 to 4k more than the initial offer
I endorse GiveMeTheVin.com as well. I’ve sold two vehicles through them. I got a fair price for my Porsche Cayenne and last year I got an exceptional price for my Ford Raptor. The process is also very smooth.

The only thing to be aware of is that they hold back $1000 until you complete the transaction paperwork with your state. Some states, like Colorado will require extra actions from you. Once you complete this, GiveMeTheVin will send you a check for the last $1000. They were very prompt in doing this for me. I have every intention of using them again when the time comes.
 

manitou202

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I just received quotes for our 2019 E-tron.

Rivian: $48,750
Carvana: $49,424
Local Dealer: $55,000
Driveway: $54,700

I'm still waiting for our truck to be delivered, and will probably sell it back to the local Audi dealer, but Driveway was really good compared to the other options.

It sucked Rivian offered so little because I get to offset my 9.03% sales tax with a trade in. But it wasn't enough to justify the difference.
 

FindMyElectric

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I just received quotes for our 2019 E-tron.

Rivian: $48,750
Carvana: $49,424
Local Dealer: $55,000
Driveway: $54,700

I'm still waiting for our truck to be delivered, and will probably sell it back to the local Audi dealer, but Driveway was really good compared to the other options.

It sucked Rivian offered so little because I get to offset my 9.03% sales tax with a trade in. But it wasn't enough to justify the difference.
That's an interesting spread. Generally speaking, the OEMs (Tesla, Rivian, etc.) are almost always the lowest from what we've seen.

BUT, if you live in a state where there is sales tax on EVs, and a trade offsets that tax, trading into the OEM can sometimes be the best play even with a lower offer number comparatively.
 

milliemc

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I just went through this three times (one family member, two friends) … used car prices are nuts … all were sellers of vehicles that would be "trade-in's" (none of them ended up being for EV purchases.)

The reports I've read of buyers using these services … not good, but from the perspective of someone who is not interested in selling privately and figuring out that whole process of responding to enquiries and receiving interested buyers and dealing with test drives … it's great to have an alternative to the stereotypical "used car salesman" experience.

In short, each case:
(1) the dealer trade-in valuation started out overstated (a Mercedes dealer, fwiw) and came down below Carvana … when pressed, the dealer came up to Carvana (which was higher than Driveway, iiuc, highest of all online offers.)

(2) tedious delays with Tesla (not Rivian) and whatever "send photos of your car from all sides" third party valuation rigmarole became never-ending … ended up taking the dealer (Porsche) price rather than F about trying to trade-in the Tesla or buy the Tesla outright … Tesla has stretched the plausibility of the "supplier costs" price hikes fubar (beyond all recognition.)

(3) using cars.com – it now seems all the online sites have all the same listings? – buying from a dealer trying to arrange trade-in and delivery without visiting the (out of state) dealership, ended up with a last minute "oh yeah, your trade-in price is 'only' $2500 less than expected (about a 2% change, but $2500 is not chump change and when did "offer" mean "expected"?) probably should "trust but verify" with at least one on-line alternative to close the deal (online offers were obtained and were within $5K, so still lower than the "oh yeah" price) but the loss of trust became what I think was a sound decision to walk away.

Overall, no clear "best" way … still a horse trading caveat emptor world to buy or sell a car. From other personal experiences including buying two Teslas with trade-ins that both resulted in keeping the trade-in and just buying the Tesla, the trade-in valuation from Tesla was rubbish. I didn't ask Rivian for a trade-in valuation and they said they were not set up to take trade-ins when my R1T was ready, but their insurance quote was rubbish, so I think it's necessary to separate the vehicle purchase into separate transactions.

My impression from reading 6 months of people posting about their purchase of a Rivian is to assume that Rivian and Tesla are not going to be the best trade-in offer so it's a better total cost to separate the transactions and get top dollar for the trade-in vehicle.
When we bought our Tesla, back in 2020, we had a pretty easy time trading in our Subaru with them and got the full suggested value (Kelly Blue Book). But that was then--and things change. Plus, they picked up the Subaru when they delivered the Tesla at our doorstep.
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