Car vending machine kiosk cranks out cars for sale in SA

A Phoenix-based technology startup that sells used vehicles out of glass towers turned on the switch for its new San Antonio location. Founded in 2012, Carvana, LLC is subsidiary of DriveTime Automotive Group, Inc. and was spun out of the company in 2013. The new San Antonio car vending machine is along the 5400 block of Northwest Loop 1604 near the digital driving range TopGolf. Phoenix-based Carvana LLC is a subsidiary of DriveTime Automotive Group Inc. and opened its fourth car vending machine in Texas. Enlarge Phoenix-based Carvana LLC is a subsidiary of DriveTime Automotive Group Inc. and opened… more COURTESY OF CARVANA The car-buying startup recently hired financial institutions for planning its initial public offering, according to Reuters, and has $300 million of investor capital behind it with a $2 billion valuation. Carvana representatives said they don't comment on speculation. Carvana follows customers through the financing process and delivery of the vehicles from one of the car-sized vending machines. Some of the glass towers are eight stories tall, while smaller markets have only five story towers. The San Antonio machine holds up to 30 cars. After the customer purchases the vehicle online, they use a large coin that activates the stand alone vending machine. There are eight cities across the U.S. that Carvana is operating in, four of them have the car vending machines. Other Texas cities with Carvana locations include Houston and Austin. Carvana's CEO, Ernie Garcia, said the company has had some traction from buyers in San Antonio and that's why it decided to build a tower in the local market. The company boasts online inventory of more than 8,000 vehicles and expects to service clients within 100 miles of San Antonio. Carvana’s next-day delivery service is available in 22 markets throughout the U.S., according to the company. It reported revenue of $140 million in 2015 and projected revenue of more than $350 million in 2016.

New 2015 Model Volkswagen TDI Diesels Are Once Again on Sale!

The buying opportunity of a lifetime is here, thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California: You can now buy a brand-new two-year-old Volkswagen or Audi TDI at what should be a cut-rate price.

Volkswagen received approval today to sell new 2015 TDI models with the 2.0-liter diesel four-cylinder, or what’s known as the Generation 3 engine. A software update will delete Volkswagen’s illegal emissions programming, while a few physical parts (exact details are not yet available) will be swapped out later as part of a recall. The cars can be sold and driven now without the new hardware, which won’t be ready until early next year, according to a report in Automotive News. Only the 2015 Jetta, Golf, Beetle, Passat, and Audi A3 diesels are approved for sale. Any older 2.0-liter TDI models or 2015 TDI models with the 3.0-liter V-6 are still barred. A similar update and recall will be offered for 2013–2016 3.0-liter models later this year.

VW had been working on a repair for the Gen 3 engines since July 2016 and received approval in January. Only now can it carry out the repairs and resell the cars. There are roughly 12,000 new cars in dealer inventory and 67,000 used cars, the majority of which have been sitting in enormous parking lots across the country since VW began buying them back in November 2016. VW and Audi dealers have not been allowed to sell new or used TDI models since the diesel-emissions scandal broke in September 2015 and triggered a nationwide stop-sale.

340 cars and the land they're parked on sale for just over $1 million

Ever wanted to hoard old cars but never had the time? Well, now’s your chance! A Canadian man who’s spent the past four decades buying used cars is selling his 340-plus cache of vehicles plus the five acres of land it’s sitting on, a house and an auto restoration shop for $1.45 million Canadian, or about $1.08 million in U.S. currency. According to Driving.ca, Mike Hall works as a rock scaler and travels the country clearing roadside cliffs for up to 10 months a year. He says he makes more money than he knows what to do with when he’s back in his British Columbia home. So he started buying up used cars like a “sickness,” shipping them home and eventually parking them on an organic farm he and his wife bought, before the collection got too big and she told him to find somewhere else to put it. FOR MORE CLASSIC CAR NEWS FOLLOW FOX NEWS LIFESTYLE ON FACEBOOK To solve the problem, he purchased a wrecking yard in the town of Tappen that was already zoned for storing vehicles and just kept filling it up. Still, he has so many that he’s loaned some of better ones at the White Post Auto Museum just down the road. million 2Expand / Contract (CENTURY 21 Desert Hills Realty) million 3Expand / Contract (CENTURY 21 Desert Hills Realty) Spending their winters buried in snow, many of the cars and trucks are little more than rusted shells, while others were purchased for parts to support restoration projects, like the six Sunbeam Alpines Hall picked up to sacrifice for a Sunbeam Tiger that he still hasn’t gotten around to working on. The vehicles run the gamut from Ford Model Ts to 1950s Chevrolet two-door wagons and five Chevy Firefly convertibles – Canada’s version of the Geo Metro – that he drives daily because they get great fuel economy. COLLECTOR'S 700-CAR STASH HEADING TO AUCTION He pegs the value of the vehicles between $500 and $35,000 each, and may hold on to a couple of gems for himself, including a 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle and a rare V8-powered 1966 Beaumont, which was a Chevelle-based car that used some Pontiac parts and was sold under its own brand name in Canada. He’s hoping to sell the entire kit and caboodle in one shot, so don’t call him looking for parts. Along with the cars and buildings, there are also enough beams and rafters stored on the site to build an 8,000 square foot covered area if you have the time to put it up. Hall doesn’t. He just signed a new five year scaling contract and knows he’ll never get to fixing all these cars, which is part of the reason he’s giving them up. He also doesn’t want to stick his wife with them if he passes away.