TacticScaleWhat Carvana Does & How It Makes Money (CVNA)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Carvana's latest reported financials
Online platform for buying, selling, and financing used cars. Carvana earns money mainly by selling used cars it has acquired and reconditioned.
How Carvana makes money
Carvana earns money mainly by selling used cars it has acquired and reconditioned. It also earns revenue from financing, complementary products sold with vehicles, and vehicle auctions.
What Carvana does
Carvana Co. operates an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars. Its platform covers the whole transaction: acquiring vehicles, inspecting and reconditioning them, online search and shopping, financing, complementary products, delivery through its own logistics network, and customer support after the sale. The company also operates auction sites. Carvana was founded in 2012 and is based in Tempe, Arizona. It is classified as an auto and truck dealership in the consumer cyclical sector.
Products & services
- Online used-car marketplace
- Online car selling
- Auto financing
- Vehicle inspection and reconditioning
- Vehicle delivery and logistics
- Vehicle auction sites
What is Carvana worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Carvana's most-likely value is about $36 versus a recent price near $64 (43% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$7) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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