Cars & Bids Auctions

If you are thinking about buying a vehicle on Cars & Bids, I highly recommend looking elsewhere. I recently won an auction, completed all the necessary paperwork, and finalized my financing, only for the seller to flat-out refuse to ship the car. Despite holding up my end of the deal, Cars & Bids offered absolutely zero buyer protection. It has become painfully clear that this company only cares about collecting their commission. Once they have their fee, you are completely on your own—even if the car is blatantly misrepresented or stated incorrectly in the listing. Cars & Bids is incredibly good at isolating themselves from culpability while actively censoring anything that might make them look bad. It seems like a brilliant business model for them: collect millions in fees with absolutely zero legal exposure, while allowing both buyers and sellers to get screwed along the way. To make matters worse, when I tried to get help with my situation, support completely ignored their own formal "Terms of Use" and "Auction Agreement." Instead, they pointed to a small, obscure bullet point hidden in their FAQs stating that "buyers are expected to complete the transaction within 7 days" just to wash their hands of the problem. I would guess the vast majority of sales on their platform are not fully completed within 7 days. In fact, I know this to be true because that was exactly the case when I sold a car through them a few years ago, and they had no issue with it then. Save yourself the headache and the money. They will gladly take your fee and leave you to fend for yourself when things go wrong.

Listed my car, got a lowball offer well below reserve — then found out my listing (with my full name, license plate, and near-exact location) stays up forever, even though it didn’t sell. They cited their ToS, which barely anyone actually reads in full. Also be careful with reserves: if your car doesn’t sell, don’t be surprised if the “best offer” they bring back feels aimed at getting you below market rather than getting you a fair price. Once you say no, good luck getting your listing removed — private sellers don’t get that option, no matter how personal the photos are.