• Autotrader.com

Autotrader.com

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Overview

Autotrader.com has a rating of 2.16 stars from 169 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Autotrader.com most frequently mention complete waste, customer service, and facebook marketplace problems. Autotrader.com ranks 228th among Car Buying sites.

  • Service
    31
  • Value
    30
  • Shipping
    8
  • Returns
    11
  • Quality
    23
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 12.5%
Positive
2
Neutral
0
Negative
14
4
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What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

No positive highlights yet

Critical highlights

  • I put an ad on auto trader and was not happy with their service.
How would you rate Autotrader.com?
Top Positive Review

“Great place to buy a car”

Rady D.
12/9/23

Love the place and the owners. Great place to buy a used car. I truly like the place and live the location

Top Critical Review

“Waste of time”

Rich M.
2/9/24

I listed my car for sale on auto trader more than two weeks ago and all I received were fraudulent buyer messages. People offering to send a cashiers check then their driver to pick up the car (LOL) or people insisting that you communicate with them through their email or (not even local) phone numbers. Oh! I also had one dealership message me and make me an offer of $13,000 dollars LESS than my listing! My car is practically brand new with only 5,000 miles on it. I did my research on pricing it in the market. But, how nice of that dealership to offer me the convenience of not dealing with scammers and being able to just drive in an and out of their dealership with a check. A check for more than a third of what my car is worth. Listing my car for sale with Auto Trader was more of a nuisance (dealing with bogus messages) and a complete waste of time and money. I called them directly and politely requested a refund due to the nuisance of fraudulent messages and lack of real interested buyers. They were only able to offer me a $10 credit. I had them delete the ad and issue me the credit. I wouldn't deal with Auto Trader again.

Reviews (169)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

auto trader (18)
Thumbnail of user zeevr4
1 review
1 helpful vote
March 10th, 2024

Placed an adv over a year ago and was contacted by scammers only. One made it through and got my DL after sending my a fraudulent certified check. My DL was then used by the scammer in effort to purchase other honest people cars (they posted on autotrader and contacted me independently once got my DL). All my repeated attempts to get autotrader fraud unit to help failed, attempts to get formal letter in support of changing my DL by the DMV failed - be aware - you are on your own!

Products used:
adv

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Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user rmarmol1972
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 9th, 2024

I listed my car for sale on auto trader more than two weeks ago and all I received were fraudulent buyer messages. People offering to send a cashiers check then their driver to pick up the car (LOL) or people insisting that you communicate with them through their email or (not even local) phone numbers. Oh! I also had one dealership message me and make me an offer of $13,000 dollars LESS than my listing! My car is practically brand new with only 5,000 miles on it. I did my research on pricing it in the market. But, how nice of that dealership to offer me the convenience of not dealing with scammers and being able to just drive in an and out of their dealership with a check. A check for more than a third of what my car is worth. Listing my car for sale with Auto Trader was more of a nuisance (dealing with bogus messages) and a complete waste of time and money.

I called them directly and politely requested a refund due to the nuisance of fraudulent messages and lack of real interested buyers. They were only able to offer me a $10 credit. I had them delete the ad and issue me the credit. I wouldn't deal with Auto Trader again.

Products used:
Ad

Service
Value
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user cheryls2066
1 review
0 helpful votes
September 26th, 2023

I put an ad on auto trader and was not happy with their service. After four days, I asked for a refund of $49 and was declined. I got scammer responses and as an elderly person, I fear for my safety. I have had no problems with Facebook marketplace and get many legit responses without paying for an ad. Auto trader is very rigid and not helpful at all. They are in it for the money. I would suggest not to go that route.

Quality
Thumbnail of user nabidaa
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 7th, 2024

Appalling Treatment and Deceptive Practices at Toyota of Richardson.
My recent encounter with them was an exercise in manipulation and deceit.

The negotiation process, lasted an excruciating seven hours. To be clear, I made an mistake by not prepping for this, also was not planning to buy a car that day. Also this was my first experience in walking in to the dealership. But the The pressure tactics deployed were not only but left me questioning the morality of those involved at Toyota of Richardson
The used vehicle I purchased was priced so outrageously that it's hard to believe anyone at Toyota of Richardson has heard of fairness. Transparency? Forget about it. Soon I realized the price of the 2021 used car was that of a new 2024 vehicle!
The financial strain caused by their greed is something I wouldn't wish on any consumer. It's impossible as a student to get approved for financing with my current income. But somehow David, Syed Ali found a way to stick me with an outrageous monthly payment.

I share this review not out of a desire for revenge but as a public service announcement. If you value your time, money, and sanity, steer clear of Toyota of Richardson. Their shady practices and blatant disregard customers are nothing short of appalling.

Thumbnail of user epictetus1953
1 review
0 helpful votes
December 8th, 2023

Don't waste your money on this site. Very few legitimate inquiries. Most are from dealers who will low ball the heck out of you even though I specified I did not want dealer bids. And you will be constantly harassed by the "Auto Seller Exchange" "service" they offer that is deceptive as all get out. It is easy to inadvertently sign up for this which will cost you hundreds of more dollars. It constantly comes up when you will try to check for any offers. Facebook and Craigs List produced more activity although the low ball dealers are their also. At least I didn't pay $45.00 for the harassment.

Thumbnail of user juana988
1 review
1 helpful vote
December 8th, 2023

AUTOTRADER HAS GONE TO S**** AND BECAME GREEDY, JUST WANT TO MAKE MONEY OFF TRANSACTION FEES, THEY RATHER LET SCAMMERS MESSAGE SELLERS INSTEAD OF REAL BUYERS

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Thumbnail of user radyd1
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
December 9th, 2023

Love the place and the owners. Great place to buy a used car. I truly like the place and live the location

Tip for consumers:
Nothing at all

Products used:
Great place to buy a used car

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Value
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Thumbnail of user sarahjanep4
1 review
4 helpful votes
January 25th, 2023
Verified purchase

Don't use Autotrader if your a buyer or a seller. There are so many scammers on this site that genuine sellers would find it hard to sell their vehicles. The scammers on this site are prolific. There are more on here than genuine sellers now. If the price is too good and the body shape in the picture doesn't match the year it's saying it is don't bother! If you enquire and you get an email from a female in the military who won the car in a divorce don't reply.

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Value
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Thumbnail of user kevinh2198
2 reviews
8 helpful votes
May 11th, 2023

Save your money. Only responses I received were obvious scams, asking me to text info that was already in my ad, and never being specific about my vehicle. Will never use auto trader again nothing lasts forever, I guess. Waste of $50.

Products used:
Listing

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user stand121
1 review
0 helpful votes
October 24th, 2023

Selling on Autotrader has been a DISASTER. I received FOUR spam inquiries trying to get me to either use a 3rd-party (not CarFax) technical assessment product that was clearly intended only to get me to pay them money or to use a payment method that was phoney. All were from 'buyers located 2,000 to 3,000 miles away and had no intention of coming to see the car. They stopped asking one I questioned how far away they were. I then got an offer from Autotrader Private Seller Exchange which I accepted. Despite them saying that they could reduce or rescind the offer if the car was not as advertised (which is reasonable) after I went through the seller verification and provided my bank details they called me and after discussion they simply changed their mind and withdrew the offer because THEY HAD NOT READ the description of the vehicle in my ad - which was 100% accurate of the car's condition. Furthermore, although I got emails saying that I had messages I was not able to read the messages once logged in. A complete and utter terrible experience!

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Thumbnail of user staaleh
1 review
1 helpful vote
February 14th, 2022

95 % of the contacts was fraud attempts. We got more serious contacts on Craigslist and even Facebook Market... Completely waste of money. I even contacted them 2-3 times telling that they could take all my email and I was happy to give them the fraud attempts phone numbers... No answers at all yet!

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user dougm575
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
July 2nd, 2023

After 3 weeks I've had 6 inquiries, all scammers. They ask details that are in the ad then offer to send a certified check with a promise to send for the car once it's cleared. I never went that far but it's complete waste of time and money.

Thumbnail of user spencerm174
1 review
3 helpful votes
July 13th, 2023
Verified purchase

When I bought my jeep from someone online I was charged $200 for an escrow fee. They issued me a temporary plate and then took almost 2 months to send me the title and registration in the mail. If I just had the guy give me the title, I could have had it done within two days, instead of driving around with cardboard taped to my car as a temporary license plate. As far as I remeber, they told me my paperwork would be shipped to my door within a week. DO NOT BUY through their platform--pay cash or do something else if you dont want your time and money wasted--$200 to wait two months to get a license plate on the car--crazy!

Thumbnail of user joelg486
1 review
1 helpful vote
August 2nd, 2023

In the past I have used Autotrader several times with positive results. It's been a few years, but I just had my most recent ad expire. This time my Autotrader experience was so bad I will never use this service again. The first issue was after I paid approximately $50 to post my ad, I find out that if my car does sell, I need to pay an additional $200 at the time of the sale.

I got only three prospective buyers that responded to my ad. Even after I stated in the ad that I would only accept cash or bank transfers, two of the prospective buyers said they would pay me with a cashiers check without even seeing the car. The third prospective buyer was only interested in my providing a CARFAX type document from some website I had never hear of. I was trying to sell a 10 year old car for a very low price. I did not want to provide that document the prospective buyer. All the information was in the ad the allowed the prospective to obtain the historical information they wanted on the car.

I was selling an electric car with a limited driving range. Two of the three prospective buyer were so far away that they would have needed to trailer this car back to where they live. My ad was truly intended for local people that would be OK with the car's limited range.

At the time the ad expired, I got three notices from Autotrader all sent at the same time from the same person that said, "Hi this is Larry Malone, I just came across your listing and I am interested in buying it. What is your final price and do you have the full service history? Look forward to your response. Thanks". I could not respond to Larry because Autotrader had already taken down my ad. As you can see from Larry's comment, he was not interested in seeing the car, only wanted to know my final price.

I felt that AutoTrader Private Seller's Exchange only provided me with scammers and not one real possible buyer. Autotrader talks about how they check out prospective buyers. In my experience, it seems like they do zero checking on buyers. Also, Autotrader talks about accepting payment with a cashiers check without the in person sale of a vehicle. Seems like one of the oldest scams where you get paid with a cashiers check only to find out when the buyer and your car are gone, the cashiers check is fake. You are left SOL with no car and no cash.

Thumbnail of user suzyk4
2 reviews
11 helpful votes
September 3rd, 2023

I put two cars for sale on Autotrader...all the (fake) interested buyers are fraudsters and cons artist who are phishing. Autotrader needs to find a better way to filter these people out instead of just 'flagging' and telling consumers to deal with caution and sometimes they don't screen them right. I had five appointments so far that did not show up and no reply to text or phone calls after getting my home address and phone number. When I called to speak to someone at Autotrader management said they look like they usually are calling from other countries. After a week of nonsense, I called autotrader to get a refund on the $100 I paid for the two ads but she said according to their policy they couldn't do it. All that work and time spend and information about the car and downloading documents were a waste of time. This makes sellers feel unsafe.

Thumbnail of user gregorya420
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
February 12th, 2023

After placing the run until it sells I quickly noticed some things odd. Most replies to my ad had the same phone number with different emails and different names. The replies also, if there was more effort, would say the exact same thing "kindly what is the price and condition". Its in the ad with pics! After contacting Autotrader they replied with "we do not give refunds" "we filter all scams". At this point I have received 45 replies, not one of them are legit, I replied to roughly 35 of them and gave up. So if there was to be a real buyer he/she will be unable to purchase this rare antique. Try Facebook, I know, now have people that remember me and I have no clue.

Tip for consumers:
Do not use!

Products used:
The worthless one

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Value
Shipping
Returns
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Thumbnail of user philips500
1 review
2 helpful votes
June 5th, 2021

I listed my ad on Autotrader and a social media marketplace. I listed for a very reasonable price and while the marketplace offered many potential customers, Autotrader got me one scam email trying to 'send me a check'. I don't hold that against them, but taking my money and offering nothing helpful. Not cool, would not use again.

Tip for consumers:
List your car for free elsewhere.

Products used:
Car listing

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user kimberlyd1481
1 review
2 helpful votes
March 11th, 2023

I recently tried selling my car via Autotrader and did NOT read the fine print. I was okay with the $49 listing fee, but they also take a percentage of the sale price. That being said, I did not receive any inquiries from my listing. After listing my vehicle with them, I put my vehicle on Facebook Market Place and my phone blew up with inquiries. I sold it through FBM within 24 hours for listing price to an auto dealership. My advice is do not waste your time with Auto Trader. BTW, they will reach out for more money to boost your chance of selling it within a day or two. I was so unimpressed with this company.

Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user fuckyoua3
1 review
1 helpful vote
September 2nd, 2022
Verified purchase

Took my money and didn't post my car. $#*! them and there magazine. Only can see new cars not by owner. Stay the $#*! away.

Thumbnail of user scottl917
3 reviews
2 helpful votes
November 6th, 2023

After a month of getting only bogus inquiries (not wanting to only go through auto trader) it seemed like a once great service had declined. But then in one day I got a request for a test drive. The buyer made an offer within 2 hours of his test drive. We agreed on price and with auto trader facilitating the sale the buyer picked up his new car 24 hours after his test drive. I received my cash the next day. It could not have been an easier transaction and I have auto trader to thank. Their system minimizes risk for both sellor and buyer and is very reasonable. I would use them again.

Products used:
Sold a car

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user nics36
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
April 29th, 2021
Verified purchase

The car was listed briefly a couple of days but had to remove it as I ultimately never won the car auction (back in January).

Upon contacting support, they refused to issue a refund, or even change the car advert to the vehicle I actually own.

In essence, I made a card payment of £50, and they provided absolutely nothing, just keeping the money! They couldn't care less about customer service during lockdown either, completely opportunistic behaviour.

Laughable and atrocious policy - I'm simply shocked a company of this size would seek to retain money in such a deceitful and dirty manner. Have filed a complaint with the Ombudsman.

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Thumbnail of user nicoker
1 review
1 helpful vote
October 18th, 2022

Do not buy from autotrader. It's a scam. Seller told me a story about military deployment and must have the car sold in three days. I googled their reviews because I felt uncomfortable paying outright without seeing the car and saw reviews warning me that the exact same story of military deployment and car delivery to house had scammed people.

Thumbnail of user erikr170
1 review
1 helpful vote
April 1st, 2022

They allow dealers to post listing of cars that are already sold and not available with ridiculous low prices just to get you to call and tell you the vehicle has been sold already. They also allow dealers to list cars that are certified that are too old to be certified some even 14 years old. I emailed them about this and never got a response. They will do anything for these dealer scammers for a buck

Thumbnail of user harryj361
1 review
1 helpful vote
August 31st, 2023

Looking to buy a new truck. Looked on Auto trader found a real good deal, only to find out it was all lies. Advertised price $37,500. Real price $46,500. DO NOT BELIEVE AUTO TRADER!

Thumbnail of user elar6
1 review
1 helpful vote
September 15th, 2020

I listed my used car on AutoTrader and upgraded the package to their promote listing options at a hefty cost. Three days later, the car still hadn't shown up on their website and I'd sold it through Facebook Marketplace at no cost. I emailed customer service about it and they replied that I need to call during their limited business hours, which I will do. This site is really for auto dealers, not individuals, so don't waste your money. The site promotes the dealership listings only.

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2.2
169 reviews
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