Carvana buying – Carvana has spent $171 million to buy six Stellantis dealerships in late 2025 and early 2026, then added a seventh in April—an expansion that reflects how many shoppers still want a physical dealership to finish the sale, even as online browsing dominates.
For Carvana, the surprise isn’t that it sells cars online. It’s that it keeps expanding beyond the screen.
The online used-car retailer has purchased at least six physical dealerships from Stellantis. spending a total of $171 million on acquisitions in late 2025 and early 2026. according to Carvana’s regulatory filings with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. Carvana also purchased a seventh Stellantis dealership in April, based on multiple published reports.
Carvana and Stellantis declined to comment on the purchases.
Ernest Garcia, Carvana’s co-founder and also its president, CEO and chairman, didn’t offer much detail when investors asked about the dealership buying on a call in April. “It’s still early,” he said. “So stay tuned. We’ll share more when it’s time to share more.”
The move lands at a time when consumers are doing more of the shopping online—but still not always finishing the deal that way.
Carvana is among the largest online car detailers in the United States. competing with companies including CarGurus. CarMax. Autotrader and DriveTime. In 2025, the company sold 596,641 cars, based on sales figures it reported in January. Its website says its mission is to change the way people buy and sell cars.
Carvana was founded in 2012 by Garcia and two partners. The company marked another milestone in October 2024, when it celebrated selling its four millionth car.
CarMax is often the comparison point because it combines a strong digital presence with a broad physical footprint. CarMax has 261 dealerships with locations in 41 states, according to its website. Carvana. by contrast. operates 39 car vending machines in various states. and it has also bought seven Stellantis dealerships in recent months. according to a post on its website.
The stakes are tied to how many customers actually want to go all-in online.
A study released by Cox Automotive in January 2026 found that only 30% of car buyers said they were interested in buying new cars completely online. The share fell even lower among buyers of new cars, with 18% saying they want to make such a purchase completely online.
Those survey results map onto how people shop once they’re ready to move from browsing to buying. Cox Automotive’s breakdown of preferred shopping tools showed: third-party website at 75%. physical dealership at 59%. search engines at 41%. and used online retailer at 30%. Social media ranked at 26% and automaker website at 25%, while an AI site was at 12%.
For Carvana, the attraction of adding physical dealerships may be twofold: meeting customers where they are when they want to complete the purchase, and strengthening access to inventory.
Erin Keating. an executive analyst for Cox Automotive. said the statistics explain why online retailers like Carvana may feel it’s the right moment to experiment with brick-and-mortar. In an interview. Keating said shoppers want the online experience for much of the process—shopping and getting quotes—while still leaning on dealerships when the transaction is ready to close.
“At the end of the day. the statistics show that most people want to be able to shop online. and they may be comfortable taking it to the point of getting a quote online. but they want to go to dealerships when it’s time to complete the sale. ” Keating said. “Carvana has a certain used car business, but the new car business is a different breed.”.
Keating also pointed to a potential inventory advantage tied to dealership trade-ins. By owning dealerships. Carvana could capture used cars that arrive through the traditional dealership pipeline—vehicles shoppers trade in at those locations—and then route them back into its existing online marketplace.
“Tying up with a manufacturer gets them access to used cars as they come in, so it could help with acquisitions,” Keating said.
Even so, she cautioned that there’s likely a gap between where shopping happens and where buying feels comfortable.
“I still think we’re a ways off from people feeling comfortable buying cars online without seeing and testing them out,” Keating said.
The sequence of Carvana’s dealership purchases and Cox Automotive’s survey results both point to a similar reality: online car buying has expanded. but the final step still often happens in a showroom—at least for many shoppers. Carvana may be betting that owning some of those doors will help it compete with rivals like CarMax while keeping its online engine running.
Carvana Stellantis dealerships used car retailers online car buying Cox Automotive study Ernest Garcia CarMax U.S. SEC filings automotive retail