Autotrader.comReviews 127

There are some con artists on here so beware of fake ads. I reported one to Autotrader and THEY DID NOT EVEN RESPOND OR CARE about it as a few days after my report the fake ad is still there!
That actually makes Autotrader complicit to the attempted fraud.
The seller I contacted in QLD (car had QLD rego) said the car was in WA as he was in WA working for the Defense Force. RED FLAG - WHY TAKE THE CAR FROM QLD TO WA? Surely you would fly. Very polite and articulate. Gave me a FALSE Dept of Defense ID CARD - signature was nothing like the name and the ID number has been confirmed as "non existent".
Watch out for this scam!
Autotrader - HOW ABOUT GETTING YOUR ACT TOGETHER!

Check out the response for the con artist -
Sorry for taking so long to reply, I work for the Department of Defence and I was transferred to a new military base in WA. I am providing Deployment Training (Desert Training).
If you are still interested in buying my car, I'm asking $6,788 (I've lowered the price because I'm running out of time). The car is Road Worthy and Rego until May 2022. It is very well maintained, always garage kept, excellent condition, runs and sounds 100% perfect with no leaks or noises. Engine starts right up, sounds great and there are no strange noises. No hail damage. I have to sell the car as fast as I can because in three weeks I will be deployed to New Zealand and I'll stay there for a while. I intend to buy a new one when I get back home.
I also need to know if you have the cash to buy the car, because there are a lot of interested buyers. The car is here with me at the military base but you don't have to worry about the distance I can bring the car to you on my expenses, so if you're interested, let me know.
Details:
Registration#: 096-WWO, 189.000 Km's. Rego until May 2022. Just had it serviced. Mechanically A1
You'll love the car, I can guarantee you that!

I advertised my car for sale on Autotrader for a fee of $49. All of the responses I got were from "people" named Anonymous Buyer who gave their email address and asked me to contact them outside of Autotrader's msg platform via email. I had no legitimate responses. I assume they were trying to gain access to my email address. I replied back to each of them through Autotrader msg platform and didn't hear back from anyone. I got several legitimate responses through Facebook Marketplace and sold my car. Autotrader's fee of $49 was wasted money possible also dangerous. Facebook Marketplace was free and effective.

I posted an ad - selling a very desirable vehicle - the ONLY replies I get are from CAR DEALERS looking to lowball me OR from SCAMMERS. Absolute WASTE of $50. PATHETIC, PATHETIC, PATHETIC - do NOT waste your money on this company. NO money back guarantee and NO control over the scams and spam. HORRIBLE!

I listed my car on Autotrader an didn't get one single legitimate response. Instead I got dozens of scammers all saying the same thing.
" I am out of state and will send my mover to pick up the car and pay by cashiers check.".
Autotrader says they screen responses... I don't think so.
Don't waste $50.

I've used Autotrader since it came out in the 70's or 80's but NEVER AGAIN. I searched my year and model and selected from the drop down "relevance" menu, "low to high" as my 4runner was the cheapest one listed on Autotrader. My ad should be the first one right? NOPE it didn't show up, so I searched it again and still nothing. I tried different computers on different days with the same results. For the full run of my ad it wouldn't show up in the way most people who are looking for an inexpensive car, would search. I contacted them for a refund and they gave me a copy paste answer that my ad was live. No sh#t it's live but very hard to find unless you pay extra for their premium ads. Oh and I only received 5 responses in the entire run and 4 were fake inquiries that when I responded they said I had the wrong number. (again, 4runner one of the hottest vehicles in the market) Good luck, I hope your results are better than mine!

If you feel like spending a long long time looking for a vehicle and having the website change your filters seconds after you set them, this is the place! Its the slowest most frustrating site to search for a vehicle! Its SUCKS!

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.

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.

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.

So unimpressed I've had my car uo for sale for but 3 weeks every single Frickn person that replied to the ad was a scammer it's ridiculous. Needles's to say I took the car off of the site cause I've just had enough of that many other places to post. You get the odd couple other places but not 3-6 a day and everyday. I think out of the 50 replies there was only 2 real people and they came out basically asking for the vehicle for free. Like would you go to the dealership and ask for a 30 thousand $ vehicle and say oh would you take 2 thousand. Like f $##$ off COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT. Ill stick to kijiji and the old school way. I posted a picture of what these people do and say they all say the same thing. You have to be pretty high if you were to fall for there crap

I have spent HOURS and HOURS on Autotrader trying to sell my Toyota Camry SE Sport, and it has been a NIGHTMARE of epic proportions! I cant do anything I want to the add, including putting it as the correct model of car I am trying to sell because they don't even off the option. They also don't let private party people sell their vehicles under "Certified" because in their own words: "Only a dealer can sell a Certified car". Completely ignorant and wrong because my Toyota is a Certified vehicle and is so through Sept 2021. Certified warranty up until 100,000 miles goes with the vehicle to any dealer in the nation. SO anybody looking for a certified car will not see my car as a certified car because they say private parties cannot sell certified cars. Thats some idiotic bs right there because a Toyota Certified vehicle is certified no matter how many owners it has until the warranty runs out. This website was nothing buy super slow, a ripoff, about 15 years behind the times, and majorly frustrating because it is so slow, it literally took me about 15 hours to get my ad the exact way I wanted it to be represented to the customers. Takes forever to upload pics, and when you do, they go in some random order that is confusing. Trying to drag or remove pictures is worse, because it is slow and tedious. Never could figure out what picture I was working with, and everytime I tried to delete a pic, i ended up deleting something other than the one I wanted to get rid of! Don't waste your time, effort, or Money on this ripoff site, because it is geared towards the dealers completely, and as a little guy you will never be represented like a dealer unless you spend a lot more money on ad upgrades and highlights, which could easily run the ad to over a $100 total, way too much to be giving these asssholes!

Posted my Honda Civic for sale here. Heard it's the place to do it. No problems as of yet, will update this review if I do have one!

I love the site for buying and for advice, but as a private seller, it was a waste of money. I listed my 2006 Accord with a competitive price (mid 4 figures), and yet in 1 month of listing I got exactly 1 message, and the prospective buyer never responded. All the people who were interested in the car, and ultimately its buyer, came from Craigslist.

The dumbest and most offensive thing is that the site - which is all about paying a fair sum to list your ad - doesn't support LINE FEEDS. (That is the Enter/Return key.) Yup that's right, you pay good money to have your detailed ad turned into a jumble that makes you look disorganized and crude.

BTW this review is essentially identical to my cars.com review - because they proved to be identical. Same price to post, same exact near-zero traffic, and same problem with line feeds. At least cars.com includes a Carfax report.