Jessica Mendoza

Part of Carvana's sales pitch, the price that's listed is what you pay, which does away with a lot of fees and can speed up the process.

You can buy online and have your new car delivered.

Carvana's model worked so well that the company's market cap is now at $82 billion, higher than some of the major automakers.

Now, Carvana is applying that rubric to new cars.

The company partnered with Stellantis, the automaker behind brands like Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge.

Today, Carvana has seven Stellantis dealerships across the country, and they've all applied Carvana's light touch approach to car shopping.

Why is Carvana doing this?

And why now?

What do other Stellantis dealerships think about what Carvana is doing?

Not everybody has their hazard lights on yet.

No.

Stellantis hasn't talked publicly about Carvana, but the company says it wants to maintain, quote, a healthy competitive dealer network that provides exceptional service for our customers.

Carvana isn't the only company trying to bring the new car market online.

Amazon launched its own marketplace for cars about a year and a half ago.

It sells in partnership with a range of dealerships, including those that sell Stellantis, GM, and Subaru.

When you think about the story, what does this all tell you about sort of the situation for car dealerships right now?

Is it the beginning of the end?

Are they running out of gas?

Is the check engine light on?

Is there a better car metaphor that we could use here?