Reviewers had a great experience with this company. Customers frequently praise the online platform for being exceptionally easy to navigate, offering a well-designed space that makes buying and selling specialty enthusiast vehicles entirely straightforward. Many buyers and sellers highlight the supportive community, smooth auction procedures, and wonderful post-auction follow-up that ensures transactions proceed without complications.
However, some people mentioned frustrating experiences regarding strict image standards and unexpected requirements to purchase professional photography packages to list a vehicle successfully. A few reviewers additionally pointed out occasional challenges involving mechanical surprises upon delivery, titling concerns, or minor communication hurdles during the initial setup phase.
Overall, Cars & Bids did the best they could. The issue is not necessarily them. It’s the people they allow to comment. Honestly, better should be the only one allowed to comment. Everyone else is simply the peanut gallery. No real value.
One of the downsides I discovered is that if your vehicle isn’t in perfect condition, you get a lot of we’ll say, comments about what they would do or could do if they owned the vehicle.
There are vehicles for different purposes in life.
Cars and bids also as nice as they were with writing the ad focused more on the negative rather than the positive. If the goal is to sell a vehicle, you probably want to work on that.
Won two bids. 1st time the seller would only take cash and had me meet him at a Fred Myers in a shady part of town. Didn't have both keys or car pamphlets records etc as posted. Took months to get mailed with zero help for C&B. 2nd time I paid for shipping and they pick up from the seller four days late. Then the transport wanted me to meet him 40 minutes round trip to pick up the car. Now the car has major and expensive mechanical issues I'm stuck with. Whole process is scammy.
Cars & Bids 回复2026-09-03
Hi Eric,
We’re sorry to hear that you’ve had a less than stellar experience. On the pickup delay, our transport team (PAL) handles scheduling and we’d be happy to look into what happened there. We’ve reached out via Trustpilot for more information. For the mechanical issues, all auctions on Cars & Bids are prepared based on details that the seller has provided, so we always recommend a PPI and full due diligence before bidding.
Let me start off by saying this is from a sellers point of view and how frustrating this process was.
I signed up to sell a vehicle in cars and bids beginning of this year. First off I will always choose FB marketplace over cars and bids solely for the time aspect. Even if you are extremely prompt with responses and providing info you are looking at like a month out for your cars auction to even go live.
I had a vehicle which I submitted because I was ready to purchase another vehicle that had come up for sale. I went to cars and bids solely because everyone said you can get more money for collectors/numbered vehicles on cars and bids rather than private party elsewhere.
I submitted the vehicle and they send me an acceptance and then request info. I then send the info, now they want videos and like 100 pictures. I buy their photoshoot package and now I am out $300 and like a week in already. I pick the first photoshoot slot and get that completed. Then another week of the photographer sending photos in and the dash photo wasn’t clear so they asked me to take one and send it in and so on. Now in week three it is all reviewed with some back and forth and finally end of week cars and bids says okay it will go live next Wednesday in week four! It goes live and closes and someone purchases the vehicle! Then this person never goes through with sale and ghosts me the seller and cars and bids. And this was over a week of trying to reach out to seller. Then following week cars and bids reaches out to seller and nothing. Cars and bids resolution was “we have banned the buyer and what we can do is give you partial amount from the security deposit that we held when they placed the winning bid” I said okay at least some compensation for now 6 weeks of trouble and vehicle is not sold and I am out the photoshoot amount. Few weeks later they tell me the buyer disputed the security deposit with their bank and cars and bids did not get the amount so I get nothing. So basically I spent $300 and 8 weeks to be back at square one! Totally felt scammed and this can’t be the first time this has happened to someone. Cars and bids needs to have a different process of collecting funds from bidders that are guaranteed to at least compensate the seller if this happens.
And by the way vehicle sold for over the winning bid a week into placing it on FB marketplace and was picked up that weekend.
Cars & bids maintains a high standard for listing to maintain a consistency in their listings. Easy to work with, pretty sure i worked with humans and not AI. Good experience.
The seller is always available to answer questions about the vehicle. They post extra photos of parts you need a closer look at. You can bid at any time, but the serious bidding takes place in the last 15 minutes. I appreciate that there is a hold placed on your credit card when you bid, which eliminates people who are not serious about purchasing. It also resets the bid timer, so you can’t try to be the last bid when the timer drops to 2 seconds left. The SafePay system is great. They do the title work for you, collect your payment and pay the seller for $198. It took about a week to get the car shipped. I also like that the cars listed have extensive service history and any gaps are noted.
Process was easy. 5% auction fee. For extra $ they verify all paperwork is complete and title is clear prior to receiving it. Seems like prices are more reasonable compared to "other" car auction sites. Everything was easy and quick. I would purchase from this site again.
I went with CarsandBids because I didn't want to do the facebook/craiglist dance. I thought everything would be a nice, simple process. It was anything but. It was more stressful and I got less than I probably should have for the car.
The only reason for 2 stars and not 1 was because they actually did put together a decent ad. Beyond that though I was just riding the failboat.
The first thing that threw me off was their requirement to use a professional photographer. I assumed it was free to list, that cost me $200. Then came the issue of actually making an appointment with the photography company. I initiated this in early June 2026 and the first availability they had was Feb. 2027. It took me two weeks to get that issue sorted, another week to schedule. The photographer showed up an hour early which rushed me and I didn't have time to do a final inspection on the car before photos and they didn't turn out as good as they could have.
The auction itself went OK although at this point the auction was running three weeks later than I had hoped. Which I do believe attributed to the lower price I got. I would have relisted but Carsandbids had already wasted 3 weeks of my time and I didn't have anymore time to relist so I accepted an offer that was a good $10k lower than what the car was appraised for by 3 different industry experts.
The buyer communication was poor. I had to ask multiple times what their plan was for shipping. The shipper they used text me telling me they were an hour away. So I went to the car to wait at the approximate time they told me. After waiting 30 minutes I got a text saying it would be another 30 minutes. It took another 45 minutes plus for the driver to actually show up.
EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WAS PERFECT, FROM LISTNG TO PICTURES TO BUYERS AND I HAD FUN WITH A LOT OF THEM. CARS AND BIDS STAFF ALWAYS THERE TO HOLD YOUR HAND, AS THIS WAS MY FIRST SALE. GREAT PERFORMANCE, WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE! I WILL BUY THE NEXT ONE HERE! GOT MY PRICE AND I WAS ECSTATIC!!!!!!!
I have personally brought 3 vehicles on cars and bids . The first 2 were outstanding. This last one, I did the research, checked out the videos, and moment I start the car for the first time, the check engine and and tire pressure light comes on. Please keep in mind, 0 miles driven on this car. My advice to all of you please look deeply at the videos and question as much as you can on engine function. 2009 650i BMW - KeySAVVY vehicle
The site itself is easy to use, and it's set up to work for both the buyer and the seller.
I enjoyed working with the auction specialist assigned to my case. Pleasant. Easy to work with. Timely answers. Timely nudges when I needed to do something.
Excellent all around.
This was my favorite way to sell a great-condition used vehicle. From everything I've seen, from the buyers/bidders to the sellers and available cars, everything is top notch.
Cars and bids is a great place to sell your vehicle. They make the process extremely easy.
I was able to get the price that I wanted for the vehicle. The post auction steps were also easy.
10/10 would recommend
Very easy to buy my vehicle. Communication was great. I do wish there was an option to narrow down the type of vehicle youre looking for. More than just generic qualifiers.
I sold my car to a person accross the county with no issues. Every step was communicated clearly. I appreciate the folks at C&B for making the selling process easy.
However,
Purchasing a vehicle turned out to be terrible. I had the winning bid on a listing, but the seller refused to process the sale due to the bid amount. The post is still up 2 weeks later. A heavy fee should be placed on the seller that refuse to commit to the seller agreement. I was not offered compensation in the form of a waived bidding fee in the future or anything of the sort.
I will change my opinion/review if steps are taken to better the situation.
For a first-time online car buying experience, it was as seamless and secure as possible. The community around Cars And Bids inspires trust and I was happy to experience it.
Not only a car sale webpage, it is a community for petrol heads.
The experience was great, good support and even if I got less than I expected I believe was a fair number and I am glad that the buyer was happy and communicated with me after he safely drove home from FL to NC.
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