Autotrader Reviews 473

Their private seller exchange does not allow non usa residents to buy a car even if you have a house and as such address and itin ! The helpdesk is not willing to help and there is no info at all on this on their website ! A passport is a passport !

Platform is full of scammers. I got more messages from scammers than real people who were interested in the car. All of them would pull the same setup - seemingly very interested in the car asking good questions, before asking for a 3rd party vehicle history report via a website I'd never heard of. All of these sites are designed purely to steal your information. All of these scammers were marked as "verified" by Autotrader. Pay $50 for an ad just to get scammed - unbelievably bad experience. Horrible company.

This is not a Private Party Seller platform as these people require that buyers for your vehicle must provide ID verification by posting pics of their drivers license, front and back. They don't provide this info up front and I only found out about it after I listed my vehicle. They claim it's a secure site but all their phone numbers ring to offshore so you can only imagine who has your private personal info. They don't require this for Dealers of course, just private party sellers which displays the bias they have towards making sure private parties have difficulty in selling privately and just trade or sell to a dealer. It's all part of the Corp design to make sure we don't deal directly with each other. The other problem is that it's $50 for 40 days which is not a value. Stay far away from selling your vehicle on AutoTrader.com, they are a horrible company to deal with as they will not refund any of your money, even if the ad went live for a day, which is what happened to me.

Great service and great experience!

All around great experience, no complaints!

Got all I needed with little to no worry at all. Highly recommend!!

Using Auto-Trader was great! The site was so easy to use and was a great experience.

The person that did my ad was very professional and detail oriented. I had a lot of specifics but they were up for the challenge and I was very pleased overall!!

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.

Found myself missing the car I drove in college - a 95 Ford Probe. Easily found what I was looking for on the site. Pleasantly surprise of the used car inventory available.

I bought an ad to sell my car on the private seller exchange. Customer service appeared to be responsive and good however my ad never got a deal badge or indication if my price was high or low like the dealers get. This reduces exposure in my opinion since customers can filter by deal. My ad got two hits the following morning wanting me to buy history reports. I bought the first one thinking this would help the sale as they seemed quite interested. As soon as I sent the report to this person, I got no further communication from them. The second person asked for a different report so I told the person they could see that one I had bought if they wanted. No further communication. My ad went live on 8-13. I have had no questions, inquires or interest otherwise. It seems autotrader is a "has been" place to sell your car.

I’m writing this review as a warning to anyone considering listing their vehicle on AutoTrader.com — **save your money**.

I paid \$50 to post a vehicle, expecting a reputable platform with legitimate buyer interest. What I got instead was a complete waste of time and money. The experience felt more like a scam than a paid service.

Within 24 hours of my listing going live, I received three inquiries. Sounds promising, right? **Wrong.** Two were obvious vehicle history report scams — the kind where they send shady links to steal your credit card info. The third contact was just as suspicious: vague, inconsistent, and full of red flags. Not one felt like a real buyer.

Frustrated, I contacted AutoTrader's customer service about 12 hours after paying. I asked for a refund, given the platform was clearly failing to deliver. Their response? A **partial refund of \$20**, but only if I agreed to **take the listing down**. So let me get this straight — I pay \$50, get hit with scam messages, and then AutoTrader “graciously” gives me \$20 back to walk away? That’s not customer service — that’s a polite ripoff.

There was **zero value** in the listing. I honestly feel like I **paid AutoTrader to be spammed**. Meanwhile, free platforms offer better visibility and more credible leads.

AutoTrader once had a solid reputation, but from my experience, that’s long gone. The site now feels like a ghost town full of bots and scams, and their refund policy seems designed to minimize accountability.

**Bottom line:** I got no real exposure, no serious leads, and absolutely no return on my \$50 — just disappointment and a scam-filled inbox.

I’ll never use AutoTrader again, and I strongly urge others to look elsewhere. If you're selling a car, do yourself a favor and avoid paying to be disappointed.

I have Ford Escape 2018 model with 150000km,Market price is 14000 to 16000, Where as they offer 7500 dollars cash,how funny it looks 😄

Poor customer service. For a service that "sells cars" they don't understand how cars are sold. My family has owned a mid 40's plymouth for years and years, but the car has not been registered since the mid 70s. Car doesn't run. It's a project car. The title has never been transferred, but the ORIGINAL Title is in hand. Auto trader would not post the listing because they told us the title MUST be in our name. We buy and sell classics all the time without registering them for several reasons. Auto Trader needs to stay in its own lane and just offer the opportunity to create a marketplace for buyers and sellers. What a waste of time and effort. Auto Trader historically was the best, now they are the worst. 1-Star review is a gift to them as it should be ZERO stars. Bring-A-Trailer for the WIN!

Terrrrrrible, terrible website all around. Please believe me when I say, do NOT list your vehicle to sell under this company. All you will receive are fake inquires and scammers. It's truly a waste of $49, and we cancelled the ad after just two days of blasted scams messages. To make this even better, we called customer service for a refund with the ad being completely useless... and they will not give any refund under any condition. We sold our car on facebook market, absolutely free and sold in under a week. Save your money and do not pay this useless company like we did.

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.

On the 19th of August 2025, I purchased a vehicle advertised on AutoTrader from a dealership trading as Pinnacle Prestige Ltd, for a total sum of nearly £8,000. Unfortunately, within less than one hour of driving the vehicle home, the engine warning light appeared on the dashboard.

I contacted the dealer immediately to report the issue. He advised that his mechanic was unavailable to inspect the car and instead instructed me to take the vehicle to my own mechanic. Upon inspection, my mechanic diagnosed an EGR valve fault, along with additional issues related to the injectors—both of which were not disclosed at the time of sale.

My mechanic recommended a full replacement of the EGR valve due to the severity of the issue. However, the dealer insisted that a simple cleaning would suffice and refused to contribute to the cost of a proper replacement. He also gave an assurance that the vehicle would be fine following the cleaning. Unfortunately, the issue recurred within 24 hours of collecting the vehicle from the garage.

I notified the dealer once again and requested a full refund, citing that the vehicle was sold with a serious engine fault that was evident almost immediately after the point of sale. The dealer refused, claiming the car was in working order at the time of purchase, and stated that the issue did not meet the threshold for a refund.

This situation is completely unacceptable. The car is still well within the 30-day legal warranty period, during which a full refund should be available if the car is not of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, or as described – as per the Consumer Rights Act 2015. A fault with the engine, particularly so soon after the sale, is undoubtedly a significant issue and not a minor defect, as the dealer claims.

I am now in the process of contacting Citizens Advice and will be pursuing all legal avenues available to resolve this matter, including potential involvement from Trading Standards and dispute resolution services.

I strongly advise any prospective buyers to exercise extreme caution when dealing with Pinnacle Prestige Ltd. My experience has been deeply disappointing and financially distressing. The level of after-sale support has been unacceptable, and the unwillingness to address a legitimate and serious fault is appalling.

I responded to an ad on Autotrader in July that turned out to be a scam.
In August, I found identical ads (11 in all, the only difference was the city the Tacoma was supposedly located in.
I reported the fraudulent ads to Autotrader on a Sunday. The following Saturday, I noticed there were 9 of the same identical ad still live on their site.
Be very very very cautious of anything contact you make on Autotrader. They do not take any responsibility for the ads posted on their site and they don't respond when scams are reported.

Just listed a boat. 5 people interested but all wanted me to buy a report to give them - from 5 different suppliers!! Only scammers on autotrader. Beware. Don’t bother posting. Wasn’t like this before Covid when I last listed a boat.

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 if FREE.