For a while, it was easy to believe Carvana wouldn’t make it into 2025 alive, but the online used auto retailer isn’t done yet. It recently announced a deal to acquire a franchise Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram (CDJR) dealership in its home state of Arizona, a move that gives it access to new car financing and other benefits.
A Carvana spokesperson told Automotive News, “We’re always experimenting and this is a small test in a single market. We are excited to join the Stellantis network and our focus in this test will be learning how to provide great customer experiences at a franchise dealership – we don’t expect it to have any noticeable impact to our results for the foreseeable future.”
Carvana will rename the store Casa Grande CDJR and said it would reopen the store today with all 41 of the previous employees retained. Details of the deal, including the purchase price, were not disclosed. That said, Stellantis hasn’t been on the most stable footing lately, so the company could have gotten a good deal on the store.
While the company has only sold used cars to date, the move to buy a franchise dealership could expand its reach. CarMax tried a similar approach a few years ago before giving up, saying it only wanted to focus on used cars. Carvana’s eventual success or failure from the experiment will take a while to uncover, but the acquisition shows that the company isn’t dead yet.
[Images: Robert Reppert/Shutterstock.com, Evgenia Parajanian/Shutterstock.com, Around the World Photos/Shutterstock.com]
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