The Engadget Podcast How Carvana is trying to fix the broken world of car buying
23 snips
Sep 26, 2025 
Dan Gill, Chief Product Officer at Carvana, shares insights into revolutionizing the car-buying process to eliminate the common frustrations. He discusses the company's transition from flashy marketing to addressing logistical challenges and vehicle registration delays. Gill highlights how COVID-19 sparked a shift towards touchless buying and their commitment to transparency in pricing. He also reveals future plans for AI-powered research tools to enhance customer experience and streamline vehicle searches.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Why Carvana Built End-To-End Systems
- Carvana built a nationwide vertically integrated system to bring car buying online and solve financing, trade-ins and fulfillment.
- The company invested billions and iterated for years to replace the traditional dealership funnel.
From Laughed-At Startup To Nationwide Reach
- Dan says Carvana was laughed at early and gained room to experiment while incumbents ignored them.
- The company scaled from local hubs to a network reaching about 91% of U.S. driveways.
Measure Failures And Build Systems
- Track and measure failure rates at every handoff in a complex fulfillment chain to root-cause issues.
- Use automation and systems to eliminate reliance on manual work and drive down exception volumes.