• Cars.com

2017 CUSTOMER CHOICE AWARD

Cars.com

Overview

Cars.com has a rating of 3.56 stars from 320 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with Cars.com most frequently mention customer service, great experience, and whole process. Cars.com ranks 5th among Car Buying sites.

  • Service
    39
  • Value
    36
  • Quality
    37

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 25%
Positive
2
Neutral
0
Negative
6
9
See all photos

What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

Critical highlights

No critical highlights yet

How would you rate Cars.com?
Top Positive Review

“Easy 5 Stars”

Eric C.
8/24/23

After setting up an ad with a couple of other (overpriced) sites, I decided to add Cars.com. I was very impressed with the price of FREE. When I finished adding the details and photos the ad looked great! It allowed easy edits (and there were many) and cost me nothing. Several prospective buyers were sent to me from cars.com--they were just as good as the buyers sent to me from Cargurus, ebay motors and Craigslist (Carvana was such a joke!). All of the features which concerned me (length of ad, number of photos, features listed, ad editing, ad price, popularity of the site, and site functionality) were available and of the same caliber as ANY of the paid sites. I'm not sure if there's a fee we have to pay if the vehicle sells (I canceled my ads after a couple weeks due to a change in business plans), but f there is it's a much better deal than the paid sites who charge up-front whether the vehicle sells or not. I will DEFINITELY recommend and continue to use Cars.com.

Top Critical Review

“Site is a Joke.”

Paul S.
10/3/23

Got an offer for a vehicle over $12,000 less than it's actual value. What a waste of time. Not sure who is benefitting from this.

Reviews (320)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (23)
Thumbnail of user pauls2283
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
October 3rd, 2023

Got an offer for a vehicle over $12,000 less than it's actual value. What a waste of time. Not sure who is benefitting from this.

Tip for consumers:
Suppose to be a service company, not products. Apparently the review site is just as screwed up.

Products used:
None

Value
Thumbnail of user jamesp4436
1 review
5 helpful votes
December 22nd, 2022
Verified purchase

Got an offer from site. Cars.com then sent an email confirming offer and pointed me to a dealer to turn car in and complete transaction. The dealer rep called confirmed time and date and location. When i got there dealer rep wanted keys and registration. They then proceeded with an offer which was much lower than initial offer. Attempted to hold me hostage by holding my keys and registration as they went back and forth with a manager.
Their comment when I asked about offer from Cars.com "they aren't buying the car". Avoid this con.

Tip for consumers:
Avoid this site

Products used:
None

Thumbnail of user stephens2427
1 review
3 helpful votes
October 24th, 2022

These People Are CROOK'S. 8,000 truck ended up almost 12,000... 4,000 in tax's and fees to the Elderly, Disabled Who just lost everything in a hurricane... SHAME ON YOU! Mcgrath Fort Myers Volvo. The Brakes Failed and Myself and my Wife almost died. How can you people Sleep at night... God Will Punish the people who take advantage of the unfortunate.

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user andrew.c
1 review
1 helpful vote
June 27th, 2023

Cars.com has very poor customer service and generates very few good leads. We ran into several issues where deleted/sold vehicles would show back up for sale on their website out of the blue. We could not see them, remove them, or delete them from the backend where we have previously marked them sold. All requests to have them removed were ignored. This created confusion and made some customers angry. Hajreta Kadic in accounts receivable needs to be replaced with someone more competent and friendly. Julia Zayed as an account representative is worthless.

Products used:
Advertising

Thumbnail of user nickf723
1 review
1 helpful vote
August 6th, 2023

Business is advertising vehicles they don't have at low prices to get you to click on them so they can offer the same vehicle for 10-15k more. SCAM…

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user chadj172
1 review
2 helpful votes
February 3rd, 2023
Verified purchase

This site is a joke for an owner trying to sell their car. These clowns shut me down 2 times trying to sell mybtruck. When I called and asked why, they said I need to prove to them I OWN the truck and send them proof! WTF seriously but if I paid them or was a dealer, it's OK lol.

Thumbnail of user tonys1488
1 review
3 helpful votes
May 28th, 2022

Inconsistence in their search engine and my biggest complain is that you will see cars from "CARAVANA" online dealer popping everywhere like they're pushing you to see their website to only find out that none of the cars advertised by this overpriced company is available, so they are using the little click-bite trick. There is other better choices to search for your new or used vehicle. I'm not using cars.com

Thumbnail of user mc1311
1 review
0 helpful votes
August 15th, 2023

This review is for cars.com's instant offer business, where you can sell your car to them similar to Carvana, CarMax, Vroom and others. In selling my car I received eight separate quotes and the offer from cars.com was the highest by $1,121. When I brought my car to the local dealership as instructed by cars.com I was under the impression that the process would be similar to CarMax's and Carvana's, where they will pay you the offer price unless something doesn't check out during the final inspection, like the condition of car, extra miles, missing options, etc. Once this dealer affiliated with cars.com was done with the inspection their actual offer was well below the original offer. I balked and asked why the large difference? I told the appraiser that I had received much higher offers, including cars.com's original offer. He came back and bumped it up by $1,000 but still $1,925 below original offer. He proceeded to talk about the market and what he could get for the car, etc. All fine and I have no issues with the appraisal, but why tell me my car is worth $X and then two days later tell me it's $X minus $1,925? This is the problem with cars.com. It doesn't stack up to Carvana or CarMax. Those places will give you the quoted offer unless something is off. It appears as if cars.com gives you a high offer and when you get to the inspection they pull the rug under you. To me that is a complete waste of everyone's time and a disingenuous business model. Pay what you say you're going to pay. I will stick to Carvana and CarMax and avoid cars.com.

Thumbnail of user alanl674
1 review
1 helpful vote
January 2nd, 2023

The people who worked in this dealership are extremely unprofessional and rude. I don't have an appointment and tried to ask for help to change motor oil. It won't spend a technician couple of hours (maybe just 15 minutes) and I am willing to stay at the dealership for whatever time waiting. However, a black service advisor (don't know his name) just stormed next to me and screamed at me that "THERE IS NO SERVICE FOR NO APPOINTMENT" while pounded the service table angrily. He has no courtesy to customers and I don't recommend anyone to go to this dealership. Stay away from this ugly place.

Thumbnail of user maryannc142
1 review
7 helpful votes
November 29th, 2021

Reached out to cars.com regarding a listing they have. Advised them that the price they have listed is $10k lower than the dealership. MEGAN, told me that sometimes there are errors and that I would need to contact the dealer for correct pricing, HOWEVER never said cars.com would address the issue with the dealership and have it corrected. Seems a little strange that they would allow wrong information to sit on their site. Bad business practice!

Thumbnail of user thomasb3430
1 review
2 helpful votes
May 30th, 2022

Listed my daughter's vehicle for sale on Cars.com for the fist time. Can't seem to access the listing or the inquiries on her car on the app even though she got emails. Used a computer to login and still can't find the listing. Pictures posted when listed did not appear. Clicked the Feedback button and then chat feature and nothing. Moving to another site.

Thumbnail of user elizabeths3183
1 review
2 helpful votes
November 30th, 2022

The "dealer" cars.com sent us to was 21st Century Auto Group and they were a very shady company. The sales person was not going to let us leave until we agreed to take his rediculous price. We got up to leave and the worm started calling us names! Seriously! The dealership gives off a vibe similar to the show "the sopranos" …. Trust me - steal clear of these scammers.

Tip for consumers:
Stay away from this place!

Products used:
Did not buy anything- they quoted a price to buy my car. I drove 2 hrs to get there to sell them my car. My car is in excellent condition. They had quoted a fair (not great) price then when I got to their dealership they reduced their offer from $18k to $8k… I did sell to a different company and I was paid $18k… 21st Century dealership is a scam and the sales person acted like he thought he was Tony Soprano.

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user ryanc1214
1 review
5 helpful votes
April 28th, 2022

I spent more than an hour completing the vehicle description, taking pictures, arranging pictures and writing a description only to find that it is impossible to be connected with a buyer as a individual seller on this website. I am saying that even after I set up the account and vehicle, that when I tried to contact the seller (I noticed that no one was contacting me) that nothing comes thru - not even as spam.

Service
Quality
Thumbnail of user briank1907
1 review
2 helpful votes
August 17th, 2022

This business will not cancel your account! We had to block our credit card to get the account closed. Sent emails requesting cancellation with no response. Owner will not accept a phone call. When asked to speak to the owner told "He does not take calls. He hires people to do that". I would not accept calls either if I was doing unethical business practice like this!

Service
Thumbnail of user shawnj214
1 review
3 helpful votes
October 6th, 2022

My instant cash offer was just bait! When I got to the dealership to turn in the vehicle I was low balled! Walked away! Car was perfect and as represented in questionar! Use carvana or vroom. Sold 3 vehicles with them no problem!

Thumbnail of user sh607
1 review
6 helpful votes
September 20th, 2021

Cars.com will post a false add (maybe a ‘too good to be true') and then the details of that ad will change once you give your email and phone number requesting more information. I suspect they are either making money off of your info or from extra purchases like carfax, which you should be able to find publicly anyway. Don't use this site.

Thumbnail of user colts13
1 review
3 helpful votes
October 20th, 2021
Verified purchase

I signed up for cars.com for 4 month starter plan. I'm a dealer in Oklahoma. I was told I could cancel after the 4 months if I didn't use the service. I could not cancel and I ended up getting over charged. I only posted 3 cars on the whole life of the account. This company is filled with liars and cheats. They reel you into a contract and then keep you on the hook as long as they possibly can. Cars.com will
Scam you out of money like they did with me and my business. Watch out and look elsewhere. I could go on for hours about all the ways I got screwed by this company and several of its employees. Please watch out and don't do business with these liars and cheats.

Tip for consumers:
Don’t use them

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user randyg532
1 review
1 helpful vote
February 11th, 2023

They made me 6K offer to buy my car and then someone called me from Mercedes Benz of fayetsville and said they would offer me $2000 instead. Saying that the cars.com offer is just an estimate lol. From 6k to 2k!So it's a scam to market you to local dealers

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user mikel1765
1 review
2 helpful votes
January 18th, 2022

Lazy, unprofessional and very unhelpful. Would rather make excuses why they can't help than actually solving problems.

Products used:
SLes

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user markg2523
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 9th, 2022

Straight forward understanding of what's the honorable thing is out the door, Classic Guy Jim has lost control... Go Figure... where's the money?

Thumbnail of user vivianh118
1 review
3 helpful votes
February 25th, 2021

I would NEVER recommend DeVoe Buick! They are the worst at customer service. They have an attitude of almighty. From lying sales people to arrogant owners. I leased a car from them and returning was a nightmare. Service staff was good though, always helpful. But the owners are terrible and very full of themselves. BEWARE! If I could have given negative TEN stars, I would have!

Thumbnail of user scottl347
1 review
10 helpful votes
January 2nd, 2019

Car dealers on cars.com continually bait and switch. They leave cars up on the site for days and weeks, probably months without the car being in stock. Total waste of my time to search for cars that don't exist. When you post a negative review they do not post it, in effect creating a false review system and protecting their paying customer. Someone should start a class action law suit against them. It's just wrong! You think you're buying from a "5 Star" dealer when you may be buying from a total sham dealership.

Thumbnail of user joshuah374
1 review
5 helpful votes
September 2nd, 2020

Cars.com is despicable. I posted a legitimate review for a dealer on their website and they keep removing it because that dealer is a "paid member". Executive Auto in Winchester, VA sold me a used vehicle that had a rusted through subframe mount on both sides. The dealer knew about it, covered it up and provided me a with fake safety inspection certificate. I could have been killed if it gave out while I was driving on the highway.

I left a review about this on Cars.com and they remove it without notifying me. I then contacted them and provided them with the photos as well as the vin number to the car with the sales contract and safety inspection. In not so many words, they said there was nothing they could do... try posting it again.

I did exactly that, and it was removed within 48 hours. Executive Auto put that Saturn Vue back up for sale on their website. My review is simply trying to help other consumers and protect them in case they do not find out about the death trap that is being sold to them. By removing my review, Cars.com is an accessory to murder if someone gets killed. I have notified the dealer about this and I have notified Cars.com multiple times, but they continue to act in this sleazy manner.

NEVER trust reviews on this website! Look on multiple sites and use your best judgement. Cars.com needs to be shut down and investigated before someone gets hurt.

Tip for consumers:
Use cars.com to look around at vehicles, but do not use their reviews to judge a dealer on the site. They make negative and neutral reviews disappear if the dealer pays them.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user patriciap1885
1 review
3 helpful votes
July 29th, 2021

Just want everyone to know how Romano Toyota treats people. This was my baby she was my lease and in no way was I wanting to give her up at the end. When I leased her three years ago I was told yes you can buy her out at the end and we will help you... Three years later me taking care of my vehicle because she would be my forever... Not only was I emotionally attached to this car for many reasons I loved her... I go in to buyout my Rav to be told nope we don't do that anymore. No honor in their word and when you go to Bur$#*! they are handling all Romano's buyout because they don't do them anymore Now when I was at Romano the sales man Ian stated to me my car was worth nothing cause I had one accident reported and that's even if they wanted to buy it if they would give me anything beside my buy out price of *******. 00 mind you look at the miles. Not even close to 36,000. Went back after him cause her I am in tears cause I don't want to let go of this car and not once did he ask why is it that you have such an emotional attach to a car that it's making you cry. He just didn't care no one did. Went back to look at other cars which anyone knows looking for a car is sooooo not fun. Still they wanted to give me nothing for my car cause remember it's not worth anything. But yet here it is on there lot for 27,995. Where the buyout was *******. 00 how is that fair. They gave me nothing, emotionally crushed me, financially put me in a harder spot because I had to go get a new car yes somewhere else. And all I wanted was my own original Rav. Greed hurts and I hate to say this but I wish no luck to the person who gets that vehicle because they got it out of Greed of a company #romanotoyota

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user randyk187
1 review
3 helpful votes
October 30th, 2020

When you post photos of your vehicle the site does not maintain those photos. If you call customer service they say there working on a fix for the site wide problem. Two weeks and I give up. Your not even trying. Avoid this website.

Sitejabber for Business

Gain trust and grow your business with customer reviews.

From the business

Cars.com provides consumer information on purchasing new and used cars.

Company Representative

Thumbnail of user customerc13
Customer C.
Typically does not respond to reviews

How do I know I can trust these reviews about Cars.com?

  • Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
  • Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
  • Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
Have a question about Cars.com?