Autotrader.com Reviews

Had my car advertised for two weeks. Paid the money and got 8 “interested parties” within 5 days. 7 of these were scams. Listed on Facebook Marketplace for free and sold the car for asking price in 3 days. This site is a scam at $40 an ad. I don’t see this “service” being around for much longer…

I remember when Autotrader was a good service. Absolutely terrible now. Every contact about my car was scam last time and the first contact was this time. What a joke. The new private seller exchange has ruined Auto trader.

They sent is to a Mazda Dealer that had sold the car listed on their site although it is still listed on Autotrader site and prices are inaccurate to say the least. Terrible waste of time. Do not use this site.

These guys are awful, ever since they were bought by KBB. They are nothing like they used to be and you should not give them a penny of your money for anything. After listing my Genesis GV80 2024 with only 20,000 miles on it and listing it below KBB price by $3000 the only offer I ever received after weeks on the market was from Autotrader direct, offering me a ridiculous number hoping I would be desperate to sell since I had no offers from over 300 Views. They are a total scam now and whatever you do don't waste your money!!!

Don't waste your time or Money! We wasted a great deal of time and money posting three ads, all of which received no or little response and the one that did get an offer, Autotrader notified us AFTER the ad expired and refused to share the offer info with us unless we renewed the ad for more money! Attempts to call their customer service found us talking with an individual, out of the country and unable to address the issue, other than to tell us we were right but there was nothing he could do to help us. Autotrader's activity is fraudulent and deserving of legal action.

Don't ever use this scam POS company. After receiving multiple notifications of what I would receive after payoff, AutoTrader turned around and deducted $100 more since they didn't pay the holder on time. Due to their negligence, I'm forced out of profit?! Never again.

System is dominated by dealers. Private listing are at best limited in description of car being sold. System is slow and not accurate. Just overall a bad site. Almost scammed into buying a car, but walked away when I realized what was happening. AutoTrader should warn people what a scam it is. Oh yes don't pre authorize for financing, Your information will be stolen and your identity too. Auto Trader should be embarrassed to have their names on it. D D

Probably the worst customer service experience - I have had with any vendor. Most recently these guys deceptively changed their pricing - charging outrageous fees for a 30 day opportunity to sell your car. REALY..? Who can sell any car within a 30 day window. Equally frustrating - is the lack of customer service. It took me like 10 days - just to get my pictures loaded and properly positioned. CARS.com - much better experience & will be getting all of my future business..!

Updated on 1/5/2026: A few years back any ad to sell any type of vehicle I would get very quick responses, it's been 3 months and no calls, their new system I think is not effective, on top of that your ad expires in 40 days, that was not the case back then. I am very disappointed in Autotrader, it feels to me they are ripping me off by re charging every 40 days and I can't even put my own phone number anymore, has to go through their system claiming it's for our protection. I don't trust them anymore!

We are a car dealer and use all the major advertising platforms. Autotrader is a very poorly run company and a completely ineffective platform. They also run payment scams and charge you more than you agree to. Just stay away, absolutely no reason to deal with them.

BEWARE!!! Manager, Phillip, decided he doesn't have to make good on his IOU to replace a damaged bumper on the truck I purchased. When the body shop told him it would cost $4700, he refused to replace the bumper. It's been 3 months now and all I was offered was $1300 with no reasonable explanation as to why not the full amount. Not even half the cost. The damaged bumper started causing cosmetic issues so I had to pay for the bumper to be fixed. Now I will be taking them to court as I gave them 3 months to make good on their promise. Miracle Nissan of North Augusta lacks integrity and has no moral ethics. They just want your buck at any cost. This could be you if you shop there. Think twice and BEWARE!!!

This psx is a pain, and too much hassle. Autotrader does not follow up, you have no direct contact with seller and it costs more than they initially communicated. Without our passports, you can not use it! What about all Florida snowbirds wanting a used car?

The website is so complicated to use. It took an hour to list my truck. Finally, after listing the truck, I received an offer. The offer page was completely fractured and there was no guidance to respond to the offer. In fact, it's complicated you find yourself afraid to move forward with the links for fear you're going to do something wrong. After calling customer support the leadership from them was also a joke. They don't even know how to help guide you through the process. The call to customer support was so bad I had to cancel my ad and move on. Bottom line, Autotrader is a complete mess. Autotrader is a complete waste of time and money!

I will never use AutoTrader again! I advertised my vehicle on 3 sites including Autotrader. The only responses I got from Autotrader was them offering to buy my truck for thousands under the value and scammers trying to trick me into giving them info. You cannot talk directly with anyone who responds to your ad, all communication must be done through email from Autotrader. It's like they don't want you to sell your vehicle so they can steal it. Expensive fees, total ripoff. I got multiple legit responses from the other sites and sold my truck in 3 weeks.

Ripoff - Paid for an ad. I paid for a sponsored ad and received just 4 responses. In comparison, the identical ad posted for free on Facebook Marketplace generated 156 interested buyers. Identical timeframe.

In a three week period interacted with the customer service person about a vehicle and was told a salesperson would follow up with me. I never heard back from anyone. I continued to text their CSM team and was told I would hear from someone. CRICKETS

$9 was just bait, by the time I got to listing it was $79. AND much to my surprise I wasn't just listing my Truck for sale. I was signing up to have them manage the whole sale. Just another $317 dollars! I just wanted to list my truck for sale. Pages of fine print.

Worst experience ever. No legit offers. Just nothing but scammers trying to sell their own fake auto history report. Cancelled same day, so will get a refund through credit card due to a shoddy service that needs to be gone. Totally worthless. I would have given less than one star if I could.

The first person was fraudulent. Sheila was a fraud. Found out this person was doing it all over the country, then other people were fraudulent. No other people would respond in the chat. I assume they were all fraudulent. Deleted my account because it is too difficult to navigate through. It needs to be made way simpler. Buyers should be completely verified to be legitimate and they are not. Not comfortable to let someone drive away in a vehicle without payment. That’s just wrong. In fact, it’s just plain stupid. You certainly can’t do that at any dealership. Needless to say Auto Trader will never get my business ever again nor will I ever refer someone to use Auto Trader?

I have been AutoTrader.com for years to sell my personal vehicles as private seller, however over the last 12+ months or more, I have not been receiving any interest from perspective buyers other than requests for a test drive which is crazy because most people will not even ask to test drive without first having the opportunity to engage in a conversation first with the seller. And even then, I never hear back from the interested party only to find out that they probably did not want to have to have their driver’s license or passport scanned due to a identity verification process that is now required.

There seems to be no penalty to be paid by a seller who will not respond to messages from a buyer. After spending much time and then reluctantly providing a picture of my driver license to Autotrader.com/Private Seller Exchange for "verification", my request for a test drive of an advertised vehicle has gone unanswered for three days. The seller's offer count continues to increase but the car is still advertised as for-sell. A seller should be required to respond to all messages within a reasonable time, and be barred for not following this basic requirement. The current mode of operation by Private Seller Exchange causes a buyer to waste considerable time because of a non-responsive seller.

Autotrader.com is a joke to sell a vehicle! Costs $9 but the supposed filter that keeps scammers and low-ballers out doesn't work. That was ALL I got when trying to sell an old vehicle. The cost of selling THROUGH the site is an additional $99!? Didn't know that until AFTER paying the $9 to list the vehicle. Very disappointed in the outcome of the "service" (so-called). Will never do it again! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I put a car on Autotrader this morning and have had nothing but scammers since I posted my ad. This used to be the place to sell a vehicle. They are no longer who they used to be. I am sorry I got taken by these folks! Don’t do it!!

AutoTrader has gone downhill. Years ago, it was a great alternative for private sellers to buy and sell, but they have become an ineffective platform for private sellers (the new Private Seller Exchange sucks). I recently listed my car for 40 days (for $49) and although about 10 people tried to reach out to me, I did not get a single appointment. They used to allow sellers to pay a single fee, to advertise your car until it's sold. A great opportunity that costs Autotrader nothing. But they did away with that option. They want to the have to pay multiple times. AutoTrader appears to only care about the dealer customers. A very small percentage of vehicles for sale are from private sellers. The dealers don’t want people selling cars to one another, they want buyers to have to buy from dealers only, allowing them to charge exorbitant prices.

Just wish I had read these reviews before giving up $70! Just like everyone else is saying, only got 2 hits from Autotrader. Both were stated as being "verified"... Both turned out to be scammers! I thought since Autotraders has been a trusted platform, that I would be exposed to a higher quality pool of buyers. 2 Scammer hits from AT for $70, and 1 legit hit from Craig's List, and 2 unknowns from Craig's list, $5. I almost fell for the Scam...If it weren't for my CC company stopping the payment I would have been jacked. They got my money, but I am going to try to take down my posting as soon as I can. Just sorry so much of my info is out there now.

Autotrader used to be the best site to come to, but not anymore. When you set up a search and put in parameters for distance, price, miles, etc. don't bother 'cause the parameters mean nothing. They used too, but the site ignores all those parameters.

For the first time did a transaction with the help of finding a car via Auto-trader. Driven Auto of Dundee, Illinois was the dealership and Eddie ** was my sales representative. I personally am disabled with ALS Bulbar Onset and don’t have the ability to speak. This did not phase Eddie at all and all correspondence was done via text message. He kept on top of it all and the car shipped right away after the deal was done. Received it and everything I expected was done.

I bought my Jeep Compass from Autotrader less than 10 months ago. I also purchased the 4-year warranty... My car has already been in the shop three times!! I'm very upset about this, but I guess now I'm stuck with this lemon!! Please shop somewhere else!!!

I have not received one ligit inquiry and am almost at the end of my time paid the original $50 fee plus added another $15 to supposedly have my vehicle spotlighted. I never had any inquiry in which anyone asked to actually come out and see, much less test drive my car. When I contacted AutoTrader regarding why, I simply got a load of bull 💩! I honestly believe this is more a CON than a true site that helps you sale your vehicle!

Nothing but scammers! Trying to get me to buy a fake "accident report" and then one guy who wanted to do a test drive at 8:30 PM and wouldn't respond to my texts. Who test drives a car at night? The site looks like it was put together by an eighth grade computer science club. It would not even let me access it through my VPN. And they wanted a picture of the front and back of my title, what's up with that? I cancelled the ad, and fortunately still have my truck - which is still for sale...

Autotrader Private Seller is HORRIBLE, and you have NO choice anymore but to use it! They hold your vehicle hostage. There is no way a buyer can contact you directly. I didn't get one legitimate offer from a real buyer. All I got were low ball offers from them in the 4,000 to 5,000 range, for my car that was worth 16,000. They are a total rip off and a nightmare to deal with. I got many qualified buyers from Craigslist and Facebook Market Place, and sold my car with Facebook, which is FREE.

Full of scammers if you can even find used stuff. Has become a platform for companies selling new vehicles. There are 100 ads for new vehicles to every 1 used that's probably posted by a scammer anyway.

Unfortunately advertising on AutoTrader has turned into a constant battle of dealing with scammers trying to get to sign into their “car facts” site. They either want your credit card number or $39.95 for a report you don’t need. Imposing as serious buyers, I’m constantly battling to find out if they are real. After five days, five scammer and ZERO actual buyers. Save your $79 and secure a site with real buyers.

Not a single legitimate buyer! Five scammers trying to get me to buy their unique "auto report" and Autotrader's ridiculously low offer. Autotrader offered me $6000 for an $18000 car, why? This was a complete waste of time and money.

It was confusing, time-consuming, expensive, and it has been 2 months that I "bought" the car and still have no plates or title. Normally, if you pay with cash and go to the Vehicle Licensing business, it can all happen same day. They also charge you a $200 transaction fee, which I never saw until I got the final invoice. Good for sellers (maybe), bad for buyers in my opinion.

Watch out for actors selling you their car report service! They act like they want to buy your car but want you to buy the car report (from the company they work for). I explained this to customer service and they said once the ad went live (which is as soon as you list it) you can not receive a refund. So nobody gets a refund. $50 fee just to list your vehicle.

These people need tech help badly. The site is down nearly every day. How can I sell my car when the site is down and I’m stopped dead in my tracks while trying to chat with a buyer? Oh, and then there are the scammers constantly wasting my time, posing as buyers but really trying to get me to buy fake VIN reports. And to make things worse, the scammers are listed as “verified buyers” by Autotrader. Who is running this company anyway?

Autotrader.com is ridiculously slow. Browser keeps timing out waiting to load, probably from all the ads they promote. Go to ** or **, or anywhere else for that matter, for a better search experience. You're wasting your time, literally, trying to use autotrader.com.

If you want to throw money away list your car on this webpage. You’ll get a ton of people trying to scam you and steal your property? Then they also steal your photos and try and sell your car as theirs? Oh and get this, it’s 80.00 for 40 days of scammers contacting you for fraudulent transactions. Customer service is horrendous, they could care less. It’s a data collector reading prompts on a screen in Mumbai India? This company has lost all credibility. Don’t even bother buying or selling on Autotrader anymore. RIP.

I've had my truck for sale for 2 weeks priced very well. No legit offers, just tons of scammers on the site. Way more scammers than actual buyers. Complete waste of time and money. DO NOT USE!! WASTE OF TIME