“As I’m looking down the street, I realize I’m headed toward a cliff.”
A Pennsylvania man says that the Toyota RAV4 that he bought from Carvana nearly killed him just a day after the return period ended.
TikTok creator John Michael (@johnmichael317), who lives in Reading, Pennsylvania, told the story in a video posted on October 21. “This is my storytime, my experience with Carvana,” he says. “And how I nearly died in a car that was sold to me only six weeks into ownership.”
The ordeal started when John Michael’s former car was totaled by a hit-and-run driver while parked on the street. After not being able to locate the driver, John Michael decided to cut his losses and simply purchase another vehicle. That’s what led him to Carvana.
John Michael selected a 2017 Toyota RAV4 that was listed at a reasonable price, as he described it. “Everything was great until Day 8, which is one day after the return period [ends],” John Michael says.
As John Michael drove home from work that day on the freeway, he says the car hit the brakes without his input. “The only option is to swerve to the right and figure out what I’m going to do,” he says. “Once I made it over to the shoulder, the car had shifted into neutral. And when I was trying to control it, it just kept doing its own thing.”
He called SilverRock, Carvana’s warranty claim service provider, and was instructed to take the vehicle to an in-network mechanic to determine the issue. “Literally the next day I took it right to a mechanic,” he alleges. Unfortunately, he says the mechanic was unable to determine the cause of the problem.
John Michael says he continued driving the RAV4 even though the issue wasn’t addressed. He says that it occasionally showed warning lights as it had previously. That is, until John Michael decided to take a trip to Pittsburgh in the car. That’s when everything changed, he says
“I was headed up a hill,” he claims. “The car lost power. As I started going over the hill, the brakes stop working and the traction light was just intermittently going crazy. No brakes on the car at all. I’m pressing the brake, and I can hear them crunching. They’re not engaging; nothing’s happening. As I’m looking down the street, I realize I’m headed toward a cliff.”
Running out of options, John Michael decided to shift the car into neutral and engage the emergency brake. It was only then that he was able to get the RAV4 to stop. “My life flashed before my eyes,” he says. “I had to save my own life because this RAV4’s brake system…failed me.”
John Michael called SilverRock yet again and received the same advice: Take the RAV4 to an in-network mechanic for evaluation. Unfortunately, the mechanic he took it to couldn’t look at it right away, so John Michael says he had to get a rental car to return home. Later, he learned that he wouldn’t get reimbursed for the entire $390 he spent, he claims. Instead, he says, he received just $60.
John Michael returned home and waited to hear from the mechanic and Carvana about the issue. He claims he was assigned a Carvana resolutions specialist who told him that the mechanic had found no issues with the RAV4 and asked if he would feel comfortable driving the vehicle back from Pittsburgh to his home.
“So I take the rental all the way back to Pittsburgh, four hours,” he says. “To go pick up my car from the mechanic.”
John Michael dropped off the rental car, picked up the RAV4 from the mechanic, and started driving home. “About five, maybe seven, minutes down the road, as I’m going into a tunnel, the brakes go out again,” he says. “It starts giving me all these warnings. I’m not able to steer the car, stop the car, anything. I was able to make it to the end of the tunnel chugging along.”
He pulled over to the side of the road and called SilverRock yet again, John Michael continues. He says he was told the only option was for him to have the vehicle towed back to the same Pittsburgh mechanic who had previously found nothing wrong with it.
The tow home cost approximately $900, he says, and SilverRock told him that he would have to pay out of pocket and be later reimbursed for that amount. Unfortunately, John Michael didn’t have the cash to pay out of pocket. Eventually, his parents offered to pay for the car to be towed to the Toyota dealership in Reading.
The Toyota dealership in Reading inspected the RAV4 and determined that its brake system was in serious need of repair, according to John Michael’s report. The quote was too steep, so John Michael opted to take the vehicle to his personal mechanic, who confirmed the brakes and rotors needed replacing.
In terms of out-of-pocket costs, John Michael says he’d spent more than $500 in rental car fees at this point. The new brake pads and rotors cost him more than $1,200. That brought his total out-of-pocket expenses to $1,834.
Of course, that didn’t address the traction warning light that kept going off. The mechanic recommended that John Michael take the RAV4 back to the Toyota dealership to have the sensor issue addressed, he says. Until the issue was addressed, John Michael says he did not feel comfortable driving the RAV4, so he took rideshares to get where he needed to go. That added another nearly $1,100 to his expenses, which he estimates to total $2,919.
When John Michael finally got the RAV4 back to the dealership, he says he was told that the mechanics there couldn’t identify the problem. At this point, he says he shifted his focus to trying to get Carvana to take the vehicle back. During this time, he claims he accrued even more rideshare expenses, pushing his out-of-pocket total to over $5,000.
John Michael posted a third video, detailing what happened after the second SilverRock resolutions specialist he spoke to advised him to ask Toyota for a ride-along, so they could see the issue in action. He made an appointment at the Toyota dealership to get this done, but says the technician expressed annoyance that John Michael was bringing the car in yet again.
John Michael eventually convinced the dealership to take his car and look at it again, but then he waited several weeks without hearing anything. And all the while, he claims he was paying out of pocket for rental cars, which brought his total to over $6,046. Finally, he got in contact with a dealership technician, who told him they had determined it was a steering wheel issue, unrelated to the brake system.
John Michael alleges that he did receive a reimbursement check from SilverRock…which totaled $200. “That’s the reason I’m making this video,” he says. “They didn’t say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I sold you a broken car.’”
In a final follow-up video, John Michael informs his viewers that he still does not have the RAV4 in working condition, and he doesn’t, at this point, expect anything to change. “I feel defeated,” he says. “I feel tired. I feel drained that I have to keep explaining how my life is worth something to corporations that risked it, realistically.”
In the comments section, viewers called on Carvana and Toyota to make this situation right for John Michael.
“Carvana, do better,” wrote one viewer. “Make this right.”
“A TOYOTA?? I thought they could do no wrong?” said a second person.
“This is scary,” wrote a third person.
Motor1 contacted John Michael via TikTok comment and direct message for comment. We also contacted Carvana and Toyota via email for comment. We’ll update this if either responds.
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