Key Takeaways:
Carvana, the online used-car giant, has spent $171 million buying seven Stellantis dealerships — a move that could reshape how Americans buy new cars.
Carvana has purchased seven new-vehicle franchises from Stellantis since early 2025, spending $171 million on six of them, in a strategic push into new-car sales that industry veterans say could disrupt the century-old franchised dealer system.
"Carvana entering the new vehicle franchise business may be one of the most disruptive forces that auto retailing has seen in the U.S. market in decades," said John Murphy, a longtime Wall Street analyst and automotive consultant.
The company's Casa Grande, Arizona, Stellantis store sold more than 700 new vehicles in a recent month, making it the automaker's highest-volume dealership nationally — compared with the 30 to 50 monthly sales the store averaged before Carvana acquired it. The seven franchises, which sell Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands, are located in Arizona, California, Texas, Georgia, Ohio and Massachusetts.
The expansion gives Carvana access to exclusive dealer-only auctions for used vehicles, a pipeline that could feed its nationwide reconditioning network — which has capacity for about 1.5 million vehicles per year, more than double its 2025 sales of 596,641 cars. It also opens revenue streams from parts, service and finance that the company's online-only model had not captured.
Carvana disclosed the purchases in SEC filings, reporting $171 million in total consideration for six dealerships acquired in late 2025 and early 2026. A seventh store was purchased in April, according to published reports. The company has declined to comment on the acquisitions, with Chief Executive Officer Ernest Garcia telling investors in April to "stay tuned" for more details.
The move marks a sharp pivot for Carvana, which built its business selling used cars through an online platform supported by 39 car vending machines across the U.S. The company sold its four-millionth vehicle in October 2024 and reported 596,641 total sales in 2025, competing with CarMax and traditional dealers.
Stellantis has lost U.S. market share in recent years, and its Chrysler, Dodge and Ram brands ranked below the industry average in J.D. Power's annual U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index. The automaker said it applies "the same consistent standards and criteria to all dealer partners" and that Carvana operates as a corporate owner similar to Lithia and AutoNation. Stellantis has also approved Carvana as a certified website provider, allowing it to bypass third-party platforms.
Sean Hogan, chairman of the Stellantis National Dealer Council and vice president of Sierra Auto Group in California, said competition benefits consumers but acknowledged the uncertainty. "If they're doing something better than we are, then we will need to adapt, or we're going to be irrelevant," Hogan said.
The U.S. franchised dealership system includes 16,990 retailers that generated more than $1.3 trillion in sales last year, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association. Carvana's entry threatens to upend that structure by applying its digital logistics model — built around centralized reconditioning and nationwide delivery — to new-car sales.
Only 30 percent of car buyers said they were interested in purchasing a new vehicle completely online, according to a Cox Automotive study released in January. That suggests Carvana may need its physical dealerships to bridge the gap between online convenience and in-person transactions — a hybrid model that CarMax already employs across 261 locations.
Erin Keating, an executive analyst at Cox Automotive, said the dealerships also give Carvana access to trade-in vehicles that can feed its used-car marketplace. "Tying up with a manufacturer gets them access to used cars as they come in, so it could help with acquisitions," she said.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
