Autotrader Reviews 

Hi, tried to buy 3 great deal utes only to realise they were all scams. Autotrader should verify it’s cars and sellers.
Now I don’t trust them.

I had used Autotrader to sell my cars and trucks several times over the last two decades with decent success. Unfortunately, I think their business model is dead.

I used it recently to try and sell my Lexus to avoid all of the scam artists that come with Craigslist. Not only did I only have 4 replies in the entire month, but 3 of the 4 were scam artists. They had the identical scams that people on Craigslist have like "I am interested in buying your car (which they can't even remember which car it was), but I live in another state."

Where they lost me forever as a customer is when they instantly tried to get me "quick cash offers," which got me bombarded with emails from a ton of dealerships. A few of the emails from the dealers were flat-out lies to. "It has been a while since we spoke" and "getting back to you about the vehicles we discussed."

I ended up having to completely unsubscribe and block a ton of emails and block people. Then I had to report a few other scam buyers. So I basically paid money to avoid scams and unsubscribe to deceptive emails.

Very disappointing and frustrating experience. They have partnered with a company called Tred. A total scam. Autotrader said the service is "free" but it's not and very expensive. They listed my ad without my knowledge, sent me emails from buyers but refused me access to the buyers unless I agreed to pay a percentage of the sale. Autotrader is very passive and acts like they don't know anything. When you reply to buyers the buyer does not know which car you are replying and this causes hassle and irritation for buyers. Idk what to say. They just seem all about squeezing sellers for every cent they can get and offer minimal support. Its all about the money grab at the expense of the customer. I wish they would just list the ad and then leave the customer alone instead of upselling and making it feel like you're just be used.

They allow scammers to continue to post ads after being informed of a scam. Please be careful if anyone is selling a car and in the army/airforce set up an escrow account and then want to send the car to you for free, it's most likely a scam. Disappointed in Autotrader to allow these scammers advertise on their site.
Will never use them again and have warned everyone I know too.

I don’t normally write reviews however I do need to leave one right here. If you are currently in the market for a car whether used or new my advice would be it won’t be brought from here. Numerous cars are listed on here that appear WAY to good to be true and whether the seller gets the accuracy right in price for current market values I still would not trust it. Multiple cars I did see on here were WAY WAY below what I have seen for sale for a used car of that type. As a customer we are the most vulnerable and I really am rather disappointed that autotrader fail to monitor the sellers of whether they are legitimate or not.
After reading other reviews left I also fell subject to a scam. I did not purchase anything as I had already read reviews so I knew what was happening but after 2 weeks of enquiring for a car I get a response from a “smith nicole” with a story about them going to work up north and the car was in a garage and it will be brought to me at no expense to view by a ADF car and have for 7 days to trial. I also tested this out and sent an enquiry through my partners email who got word for word the exact same response from the same person
Please please do not purchase a vehicle from here. Don’t even waste your time!

Beware of some of the ads on this site. Autotrader just remove fraudulent adverts and put no warning on them. They should stamp the ad as fraudulent not just remove it. This coursed me to loose a substantial amount of money. It even helped the scammer as he said he had removed it because I was going to put a deposit down. If they had warned the ad was fraudulent I would not have gone ahead with the purchase. Fraudsters are posing as dealers, even using a real companies details to obtain funds.
After looking into it, this scam has been going on for years and Autotrader are aware it happens and are not interested when you report it to them. Fraudsters pretending to be a dealer should have the advert marked not removed. Large amount of money lost due to company neglect.

Very bad experience. Full of scam and robbers. Don't use your email dealing with them.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND AUTO TRADER. SINCE I DID MY ADD I'VE BEEN GETTING NOTHING BUT SCAM EMAILS AND TEXT. I CONTACTED AUTO TRADER FOR A REFUND AND THEY DENIED IT. WHEN I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THE REFUND POLICY. I WASTED $90 FOR NOTHING. NEVER AGAIN, I LIKE CARS.COM ITS FREE AND BEEN GETTING MORE REVIEWS.

I really thought I could trust Autotrader as I thought they are independent.

However, through my own bad experience with own of their advertised car dealers, i realised that they work for the dealers, deceiving the consumers.

I bought I car with multiple problems. My mechanic discovered that the MOT I was given was not done properly, so the problems were not reported.

I reported the case to DVLA and the police and the dealer and his mechanic are being investigated. I notified Autotrader of the problem, and asked to change my initially good review (written before I found out about the scam). When I wrote a negative review, they deleted it! I wrote to them explaining the situation, tried to leave another review, 3 more times! They keep deleting them and leaving only positive reviews!

Do not trust them as they are bigger liars than the dodgy dealers they are protecting!