Autotrader Reviews 

I’ve used Autotrader countless times over the years and unfortunately their services are not what they were and will not be using them again. The two stars is only for browsing on the purchase side the selling side would be a negative if possible. Previously you could purchase a “run till it sells ad” which is no longer available, but the worse part is all the spam/scams. In 24hrs I received 26 messages for my vehicle, everyone of them was a scam to purchase a fake vin check. I reached out to Autotrader for a refund a ad retraction in the first 24hrs and their response was “we want you to feels as comfortable as possible, we offer vin check through your ad you don’t need to purchase and additional. There’s a block option in messaging, just block the sender.” I have no interest in sorting through dozens of scam messages everyday, so waste of $50 no reason to even continue my newest posted ad.

Experience at the end was smooth, once a buyer was selected. However, the initial process was very rough. In the first 2-3 weeks of listing the ad, I was bombarded with dozens of fake/spam accounts asking me to either message a number or purchase a scam vehicle history report.

Also, the offer process needs to be improved. Once an offer is approved it is very tedious to change the price if it is lowered.

I did contact customer service a few times and their service was excellent and prompt.

I posted an ad for a vehicle, every single response I received was a scam. Not one or two but all of them. Very disappointing as I was using what I thought was a quality service that would screen out the garbage. I was wrong. I put a for sale sign in the car's window and sold it within 2 days.

The only people I have been contacted by with Autotrader have been scammers who have wanted me to take fake payment by check or pay for a fake document site that would steal my information or waste my money. It seems that buyers on autotrader aren't being vetted nearly enough and I have wasted money advertising through this site. I would likely not pay for future advertisements on this site and opt for Facebook Marketplace in the future. There at least you have real people behind the buyer profiles and it's a lot easier to sort through the scams.

Absolutely full of scammers... Autotrader says they "take these things seriously" but symptoms don't happen without a root cause. You spend $49 expecting a professional experience with a company that has a big presence. The customer support felt like it was part of the scam with how little they want to do anything about it. They put all the ownership on the seller to manage these fake buyers... SO BAD!

I had an amazing and smooth experience as the sale process goes. I was able to get a good price and sell my Car fast. The platform offers amazing services for a reasonable price/fee. The things that are keeping me from giving a 5 star are the extremely buggy app (I was using an android phone) and scammers. These scammers were wasting a lot of my time asking for more pictures, more information about the car and some times even scheduling a test drive only to try to scam you with these silly and unbelievable stuff. I spent most my time in the first couple of days rejecting and blocking scammers. I don't what the platform can do in order to limit the number of these scams but the issue has definitely affected my experience.

Used Auto Trader a long time ago so thought I would try again. This was a total waste of time. I listed my Jeep this morning and within a few hours had already dealt with 4 scam inquiries. They charge you to place and ad and then try to upsell you to their Private Seller Exchange service. The cynic in me wonders if the scam inquiries are AI and designed to motivate use of their service. Asked for a refund and was told they do not do that but that they would refund 40% as a courtesy.

Platform is horrible in all ways-

I have received one low ball offer 8k lower than offer price, one message from a dealership that may be scam, and 15+ spam/scam messages. It's worse than marketplace on here. Just constantly trying to get you to buy something, or a robot with a mass message to get you to text or call off the platform.

Platform from the seller side is also abysmal. Barely navigable and insanely glitchy whether on the website on a computer, on website on a phone, or the app. It's actually the worst integration I've seen in recent years. Must not have been updated at all in the last 5-10 years or have no support any more.

Waste of money, big regret.

A Complete Waste of Money and Time

My experience with AutoTrader was extremely disappointing from beginning to end.

I listed my 2017 Hyundai Sonata Sport and paid $29.99 for the listing plus an additional $15 for the Spotlight feature, expecting to reach qualified buyers. Instead, I received 32 scam inquiries and not a single genuine buyer through AutoTrader.

Most of the scammers followed the same pattern:

Asking for my home address under the excuse of mailing me a check.
Trying to convince me to purchase a third-party vehicle history report.
Asking me to continue the conversation through text messages or personal email rather than communicating through the platform.

Ironically, I found several legitimate buyers on Facebook Marketplace, where I encountered virtually no scammers and ultimately had success—without paying any listing fees.

The account login experience was equally frustrating. AutoTrader guided me to create an account using third-party sign-in options such as Google, Facebook, or Apple on my laptop, yet I repeatedly could not access the same account from my phone. There was no clear option to reset or change my password, leaving me locked out whenever I tried to use a different device.

For identity verification, AutoTrader required highly sensitive personal information, including my driver's license, Social Security number, and bank account information. After providing all of that, I expected meaningful buyer verification and effective scam prevention. Instead, I was left dealing with dozens of scammers, making the entire verification process seem pointless.

What frustrated me the most was AutoTrader's constant emails and pop-up notifications urging me to accept an instant cash offer worth only 30–40% of my car's market value. My vehicle was worth over $13,000, yet AutoTrader repeatedly promoted offers in the $5,001–$6,500 range.

Those repeated low-ball offers had a real psychological impact. They made me question whether my asking price was reasonable, discouraged me from continuing to market my vehicle, and even made me feel guilty for pricing it fairly. The repeated messages gave the impression that my vehicle was worth far less than its actual market value and pushed me to lower my asking price. In reality, after listing elsewhere, I attracted multiple serious buyers willing to pay close to my asking price. Rather than helping me maximize the value of my vehicle, AutoTrader's repeated low-ball offers undermined my confidence as a seller.

Overall, I paid for a premium listing, dealt almost exclusively with scammers, struggled with account access, submitted highly sensitive personal information, and received no meaningful value in return.

Based on my experience, I do not recommend AutoTrader to anyone selling a vehicle.

100% of the communication I received in response to my ad on Autotrader ended up being a phishing/scam, or attempt to pull communication outside the platform. Not only was this a waste of money to purchase an ad, I invested time in communication back and forth only to find out 5-10 messages in that the person I was communicating with wasn't a real buyer, just another scammer. When I called into customer support they offered no assistance, only promises that they're working on features to make the platform better.

Terrible platform. I requested a refund just a few days after signing up because I was overwhelmed with scam messages almost immediately. The app itself is also very glitchy, making it frustrating to use and difficult to navigate. Overall, it was a complete waste of both my time and money. I would not recommend it to anyone trying to buy or sell a vehicle.

Great experience, was nervous that it was a scam but it was simple . Want to do it again

Very clean, fast and efficient for my first experience selling a used vehicle. Sold my vehicle the very day I posted the sale on your website. The steps were easy to follow although harder to track on my mobile phone versus the desktop. Note: Be careful with sneaky trollers on your site pitching “cartrace.us” It’s a scam and fraud site. Stay away. Darn fraudsters.
Otherwise, I highly recommend your site to sell or buy a vehicle. Nicely done. Keep on trucking! Thank You!

100% of all inquiries about my KIA Forte was a scam, They all wanted to payt by cashiers check, when I suggested PayPal, or Zelle They quit communications. The scam is Your bank legally must make check funds available within a few days, making you think it cleared. However, weeks later, the bank fully processes the check, discovers it is fake, and reverses the deposit. You lose your car, any money you wired, and you must pay back the bank out of pocket.

I complained twice, and was directed to Autotrader support, and when they replied they emailed me a do and dont email, caring less.

This site is full of scam buyers. I have had over 20 responses from “buyers” wanting me to let their cousin test drive my car and then Venmo me the money. What a joke. Not worth the money to post your car on this website. Don’t bother calling customer service. They are almost as bad the the scammers.

I had an extremely disappointing experience trying to sell my car on AutoTrader. I listed my Buick Regal expecting to hear from legitimate buyers, but instead I was flooded with scammers almost immediately. Nearly every inquiry I received was some variation of the same scam—people wanting me to purchase vehicle history reports from obscure websites, asking for personal information, or sending generic messages that clearly weren’t from real buyers.

Over the entire time my listing was active, I received virtually no serious interest from actual people looking to buy my car. It felt like I paid to advertise my vehicle only to become a target for scammers. I spent more time blocking fake buyers and deleting fraudulent messages than communicating with anyone who genuinely wanted to purchase my car.

I expected AutoTrader to have much better systems in place to detect and filter out obvious scam accounts before they ever reached sellers. Instead, it felt like I was left to deal with the problem myself. Selling a vehicle is already stressful enough without constantly wondering whether every message is another scam attempt.

For the money I spent on my listing, I expected exposure to real buyers—not an inbox full of fake inquiries. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend AutoTrader to private sellers. If you’re considering listing your vehicle, be prepared to waste a significant amount of time sorting through suspicious messages instead of talking to legitimate buyers.

I sincerely hope AutoTrader invests more in protecting its users from scammers because my experience was frustrating from beginning to end. I won’t be using the platform again unless I see major improvements in how they screen inquiries and protect private sellers.

Do yourself a favor and don’t use auto trader! The site is basically there to support scammers. I put up a vehicle for sale and less than 24 hours later I’ve got countless scam messages, no real buyers. When I called customer service they had no way to prevent it. They clearly value keeping scammers on their site since they have a way to verify real buyers, but don’t force buyers to be verified in order to send messages. I’m honestly floored they do “business” this way!

Nothing but Scam messages. Horrible experience. Wouldn't refund me. I wish I could rate a zero. Not 1 single real person

Every message I received about buying my vehicle was a scam! I couldn't even leave a bad review on their website, said it couldn't post. Please be careful about listening on this site, you don't want to have your identity stolen.

For 49 dollars I got nothing but scam offers and 1 low ball offer from Auto Trader. This used to be a good site but it is nothing but a place for scammers. I only have my ad up for less than a week. I will never use this site again!