Despite record-low inventories across the board, Carvana has been doing good this year. Profits are up even though there’s fewer vehicles to sell. But those sales have been dealt a blow, as The Wall Street Journal reports that North Carolina’s DMV has banned the company from selling cars in Wake County, which is the most populous county in the Carolinas as well as the home of Raleigh.
The issue stems from complaints alleging Carvana wasn’t issuing vehicle registrations and was skirting mandatory state inspections. Both of these are in violation of the state’s dealer licensing.
The state said in court filings that Carvana violated dealer licensing laws by not delivering the vehicle title to the DMV in a timely manner and failing to perform a state-required inspection before the vehicle was sold in North Carolina.
State officials also said the company issued out-of-state plates and tags to a vehicle sold to a North Carolina resident, also a violation of dealer licensing laws.
North Carolina’s DMV must be something else because all it took to initiate all of this was a single complaint. That’s what the state’s attorney told Automotive News. The complaint was filed back in February. It makes sense though as I’m sure the person wouldn’t want to get into trouble for something Carvana was supposed to take care of.
NCDMV began their investigation into Carvana’s Wake County location in February 2021, based off of one complaint to NCDMV — a customer wasn’t able to receive proper vehicle registration and plates to operate their vehicle lawfully in NC.
The ban is in effect for 180 days from August 2nd. As part of an agreement Carvana signed onto, all vehicles at the location have to be labeled “not for sale” as well as sales reviews of its other locations in the state to make sure registration and titles are actually being given to customers.