Skip to main content

How much is your ride worth? Carvana’s new Cardian Angel can help with that

In the last 50 years, nearly everything about the automobile has changed. Automakers are as focused on connectivity and efficiency today as they are on performance and comfort, and the industry shows no signs of slowing. That said, the art of actually buying a car is pretty similar to how it’s always been — you go to a dealership, pick the ride you like, haggle over prices, sign some papers, and you’re on your way.

Carvana, a technology start-up based in Arizona, launched in 2013 to make the process simpler. The world’s first online auto retailer, the brand allows prospective buyers to research, inspect, finance, and purchase vehicles from the comfort of their homes, and late last year, it expanded its portfolio by opening the world’s first automated, coin-operated car vending machine in Tennessee. Now, the company is turning its focus toward vehicle valuation.

Recommended Videos

Carvana has officially announced Cardian Angel, an online tool that provides personalized vehicle appraisals to customers in less than two minutes. To start, interested parties log on to www.CardianAngel.com and enter their car’s VIN, then answer some questions about its history. After that, the group’s proprietary algorithms go to work, confirming vehicle details through wholesale and retail value databases to generate an exact trade-in amount. From there, customers receive a personalized video to help them visualize the data, with a focus on explaining exactly why the car carries the value that it does.

Carvana Cardian Angel
Image used with permission by copyright holder

“Knowing what your car is worth and, even more importantly, the reasons why it’s worth that much, is an incredibly empowering piece of knowledge to possess,” said Ernie Garcia, CEO of Carvana. “To date, consumers have had to go through an opaque dealership-driven process that leaves them feeling less informed about the true value of their car. Carvana’s mission is to create a better car buying and car selling experience, and we are excited to launch a vehicle valuation tool that, for the first time ever, is efficient and simple to use, fun and engaging and, best of all, fully transparent.”

Buyers can opt to use their trade-in value as a down payment on Carvana.com, sell the car to Carvana, or simply use the information to become better educated when it’s time to try something new.

Andrew Hard
Andrew first started writing in middle school and hasn't put the pen down since. Whether it's technology, music, sports, or…
How NASA’s amazing Super Guppy is helping the Artemis moon missions
NASA's Super Guppy aircraft.

NASA’s Super Guppy is one extraordinary-looking aircraft.

The enormous wide-bodied plane is used by the space agency to transport components that are too large to fit on a conventional cargo plane.

Read more
Huawei’s new plan may help it circumvent U.S. sanctions
Huawei logo seen on a banner at MWC.

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei, which has been badly hit by U.S.-imposed sanctions, is reportedly working on a new plan that could potentially help it circumvent those restrictions, Bloomberg reports. The plan involves the company licensing smartphone designs to some of its existing partners, which would then source parts and technology from entities that Huawei itself is barred from dealing with.

The companies that Huawei intends to work with include a little-known firm called Xnova and another company called TD Tech Ltd. Interestingly, Xnova is the subsidiary of a larger Chinese state-owned company called China National Postal and Telecommunications Appliances Co. (PTAC), which already sells Huawei’s existing Nova series devices on its own e-commerce platform. Both these companies aim to license smartphone designs from Huawei, but will most likely sell these devices under their own brand names.

Read more
Which of Apple’s new iPhone 13 models is kindest to your wallet?
New iPhone 13 Colors: Pink, Blue, Midnight, Starlight, & Product RED.

In case you somehow missed the news, Apple unveiled the latest iteration of the iPhone on Tuesday.

Design-wise, the new iPhone 13 looks pretty much the same as last year's iPhone 12, which reintroduced the squared-off edges that were first seen with the iPhone 4, but later dropped for the curvier iPhone 6.

Read more