Carvana Co.

What does Carvana own?
Carvana owns its e-commerce retail platform, a national network of inspection and reconditioning centers, car vending machines, delivery logistics, and the ADESA wholesale auction business acquired in 2022.

Is Carvana publicly traded?
Yes. Class A shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker CVNA. The company joined the S&P 500 in 2025.

Who founded Carvana?
Ernest Garcia III founded Carvana in 2012 with Ryan Keeton and Ben Huston, incubating it inside DriveTime, the used-car company founded by his father, Ernest Garcia II.

Did Carvana almost go bankrupt?
The company faced severe distress in 2022 and 2023 as used-car prices fell and rates rose, restructuring debt with bondholders in 2023. It has since produced record profitability, with $1.9 billion net income in FY2025.

How does Carvana's vending machine work?
Customers who buy online can collect the vehicle from a multi-story glass tower that mechanically delivers it to a retrieval bay, or choose home delivery instead.

How much revenue does Carvana generate?
A record $20.3 billion in FY2025, up 49 percent, on 596,641 retail units sold.

Where is Carvana headquartered?
Tempe, Arizona, USA.

Ernest Garcia III founded Carvana in 2012 inside DriveTime, the used-car chain and subprime auto lender founded by his father, Ernest Garcia II, who remains a major shareholder. Garcia III spun the e-commerce concept out with co-founders Ryan Keeton and Ben Huston, launching to consumers in 2013.

The early pitch was theatrical and substantive at once: buy a car entirely online, pick it up from a giant glass vending machine, return it within seven days. The company went public on the NYSE in 2017 and spent the next several years in aggressive, loss-making expansion, building reconditioning centers, delivery logistics, and vending towers across dozens of markets.

The pandemic used-car boom made Carvana look prescient: demand surged, volumes more than doubled, and the stock peaked above $370 in 2021. Then the market turned violently. Rising rates, falling used-car prices, and an expensive debt load from the 2022 ADESA acquisition pushed the stock below $4 and the company toward restructuring.

The 2023 turnaround, debt restructuring with bondholders, inventory discipline, and per-unit cost cuts, is now a business-school case study. Profitability arrived in 2023 and compounded through 2024 and 2025, culminating in the record FY2025 results and S&P 500 inclusion.

The company's model extends vehicle lifecycles through reconditioning and remarketing, and its online delivery model reduces dealership physical footprint, though logistics emissions partly offset that.

Carvana publishes ESG reporting covering workforce and community metrics, and was recognized by Forbes as one of its Best Large Employers for 2026. No independent sustainability certification applies to the core business.

Title and registration failures: Multiple states suspended or restricted Carvana operations in earlier years over delayed title transfers and registration failures to customers, with periodic enforcement actions continuing at state level.

Related-party structure: The DriveTime and Garcia family relationships, including financing ties and super-voting control, are a standing governance consideration for minority shareholders.

Short-seller history: The company's heavy debt period attracted prominent short-seller allegations about accounting and related-party dealings; the subsequent recovery largely, though not entirely, answered the financial-distress thesis.