Autotrader - Shop & Buy Cars

• Free

Last verified 4 Sep 2026

4.7 349507 ratings · App Store

1. 5/5Scam proof sale

   I am a Realtor who is more than familiar with scams. I don’t trust wires or even certified checks. I don’t trust anyone when it comes to selling a car, but I do trust auto trader. Let me tell you this is a flawless way to sell a car. Autotrader gets the money from a potential buyer and holds it in an escrow account so the funds are verified before you ever meet the buyer. When the buyer comes to test drive the car they arrive with a paper license plate should they buy the car. You just have to remove your plate. Once the buyer agrees to buy your car, they just log into the auto trader account and press “take possession” and that’s it. Money hits your account in a day or two. After that, Auto Trader sends you a envelope with instructions and pre paid envelope to send back your title and whatnot. This is an extra layer of protection. By the time you get your envelope from Autotrader you should have long received your payment and they don’t technically own the car until the title has been signed. The fees are also minimal and very fair. I just sold two cars in the past two months and I am thrilled with my experiences. You should not exchange phone numbers prior to agreeing to test drive. Meet somewhere public not at your home. Police station is perfect. I bring “protection.” To be safe. Autotrader verifies real people by having them upload pictures of their license. They will warn you of potential scammers. The only chance of getting scammed is selling your car off of the auto trader platform so stick to it! Do I sound paranoid? Yep and anyone else that sold on Craigslist will be as well. Hope this all helps

   Realst88 · 4 Sep 2026

2. 5/5Glitchy, Poor results and too Expensive

   I have been using Autotrader for years. The last few times I have used it not only is it glitchy and freeze up, but the quality of the results were not inclusive of many many other results found on other competing websites. Step it up or I will start my car searches where the results can be found. I have also sold a few cars on Autotrader. The last time I TRIED to sell a car I was SHOCKED how expensive it was. Tried it for a few weeks with only a few calls, all tire kickers. I put the same car on another site after a few weeks on Autotrader and we had ten calls in two days and the car was sold within a week. So, again poor results. Autotrader needs to lower the cost to list a car to solve their two biggest problems. 1)Not enough listings 2)because it’s to expensive to list a vehicle. Look, I think Autotrader has been the goto in car searches/selling over the years, but they got too big for their britches! Come back to reality Autotrader and realize you are getting your clocks cleaned cause you got greedy.......

   Peter the car buyer · 4 Sep 2026

3. 1/5Trashed

   The developers have been destroying the app with each update over the years, to the point where it’s unusable now. I have been a longtime user of Autotrader and have been using it for over 5 years. The old app was the best. When they started to modernize the app, each update introduced new bugs and annoyances. The most recent update that introduced a new interface and a type search feature is the absolute worst thing. It was easy to tap make and model in the old app as it was front and center, but now it’s the search bar. The search bar does not recognize some very common models. For example, I type “S550” it brings up every Mercedes model except for the S550. If you do manage to find what you're looking for, when you apply the filter sometimes it doesn’t work, it shows the entire brand instead of what model you’re looking for. The app has had issues with it logging you out of your account for OVER A YEAR! How ridiculous is that? The newest issue is that, if you do manage to stay logged in, it won’t save cars that you want to save. Instead, it will give you an error. What’s also new is that if you tap on a vehicle to open the listing, it will show a blank screen. The app is literally unusable, in addition to showing us showing ads for this ridiculous performance, the developers and the company as a whole should be ashamed.

   Aaron102332 · 4 Sep 2026

4. 2/5An Unfortunate Descent Into Chaos

   It deeply saddens me to write this review. After consistently providing in depth feedback via the surveys that used to pop up for years; I have been reduced to an App Store reviewer whereas I doubt the team will truly read each one of these reviews. The app is simply beyond use at this point, and an experience as mine is apparently relatively common nowadays. I have used old tactics that used to work to revive the utility of the application (i.e. deleting and reinstalling, clearing the data from my device in between installations) without success. I am not someone who uses many apps on a daily basis but Autotrader has always been a personal favorite of mine considering my lifelong affinity for automobiles as both an industry member and a buyer myself. In the case that my review be read by the team: Please do make a serious attempt at increasing the stability and hence utility of searching on the application, even at the expense of removing alternative features temporarily; it would appear to me that a core line of business and viability of the advertising revenue is at stake. Thank you for your time and new users beware: the application is effectively useless at this time but please use the website in its absence and i’m sure very soon it will be in proper working order.

   SoCal CarGuy00 · 4 Sep 2026

5. 3/5Messaging feature is archaic, at best!

   A great app to have when searching for that perfect vehicle. Great filter options, and a large inventory of listings. Very happy to see more private seller listings up these days. This is the only place that I have serious complaints. The ‘secure messaging’ feature is absolute dogwater. The load time is sluggish, interface is very jerky, and messages I open don’t get automatically marked as read. The most egregious part is that the return key functions as a send button. You have to hit ‘shift’ before ‘return’ to create a new paragraph. Sometimes, while backspacing, I’ll accidentally hit return and send messages I’m not ready to send. To make matters worse, I can’t look back and view more than about 30 messages ago. Having the whole conversation available to read is a really important, I’m not quite sure why I can only view more recent messages. Tried to get the seller to just text me, but he refused. Understandable, since the app warns users to keep discussion on the app to prevent fraud. I get it, but communicating on the app is god awful! I hope they work to make the massaging more fluent/streamlined.

   TroyLock2016 · 4 Sep 2026

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