Cars & Bids Reviews 

Selling a car here was easier than I thought it would be, and I definitely got thousands more than a trade-in would have offered.

Buying a car through Cars & Bids is a great experience. First, the quality of the cars seems to be set at a high bar, and second, the bidding experience is easy and reliable. Cars and Bids' post purchase fee is a bit high, but there's frequent and appropriate follow-up from Cars & Bids after the auction to ensure that everything is going smoothly in the exchange with the seller. I was impressed with that.

I had never sold a car via auction, and was a little intimidated by the idea, but the listing experience is so clear and transparent I knew exactly what to do to get it right. The team was responsive within minutes when I had questions, and the community was engaged and helpful, which helped me be confident that I was doing all I could to ensure bodders knew what they'd be getting if they won.

The winning bidder and I also used the SafePay option to pay off my existing loan and transfer funds/keys, and that entire process was equally smooth and transparent, so both buyer and I felt comfortable and supported.

When it's time to sell to my next car, Cars and Bids is a no-brainer.

Incredibly easy experience selling a car. Would highly recommend.

Cars and Bids does a Great job putting Car Enthusiasts together in these transparent and Smooth Deals.

Legit site, and I got the exact car I had been searching for. Great info and insight along the way. Would ALWAYS use this site if I needed a car.

My first time auctioning a car online and had some hesitancy but the staff (especially Michael) helped out in every step and manner possible with professionalism and more. It went better than expected and fluidly in every sense! I will definitely sell again with cars and bids and highly recommend Michael for any and all assistance; he was phenomenal to work with.

lots of communication from them! Made my first selling experience survivable.

I had a seamless and incredible experience, highly recommend it to anyone, especially if your car has unique or interesting features. The commenters were all fair, friendly, and engaging, making the whole process even better. Definitely pay for the photos too, it’s so easy and adds tremendous value!

Great experience and I got a great price for my car.

Hassle free payment method. Seller was 100% honest about vehicle

I recently purchased a B8 S4 on Cars & Bids and the entire experience was outstanding, truly the best I have had across any platform. I've bought and sold many cars through Bring a Trailer, Facebook Marketplace, dealerships, and even friends and family. Cars & Bids was by far the smoothest of them all. It has set the high bar. From placing the first bid to picking up the car, every step felt seamless and well thought out. The listing was well detailed and questions asked by commenters and bidders alike were sharp and genuinely helpful. It's very clear there's a strong enthusiast community and an expert team behind the platform. Safepay was incredibly easy to use, the fees were very reasonable, and the system strikes a perfect balance between buyer and seller protections. A conversation with the seller, along with my own personal experiences backs this up. I'll be recommending Cars & Bids to all of my friends, my family, and frankly anyone willing to listen. It exceeded my already high expectations in every way, and I will most certainly be using it again in the future.

Didn’t get my car sold, but was extremely impressed with the experience and will use again.

This site is amazing for sellers. I spent $0 throughout the whole auction experience. Everything from the layout of the website, the helpful support team and the amazing community was flawless. Although Cars&Bids doesn’t receive as much traction as sites like BAT I still was able to achieve well over my reserve price and get almost 9000 views on the listing with a ton of interest from enthusiasts. The site is only getting bigger and better and I think it’s a much better choice than other auction sites for specialty enthusiast cars like the EuroVan Westfalia I auctioned off.

Doug needs to respond to this, and before the Doug lovers come out and scream that it's not Doug's responsibility...it is. This is his site. Doesn't matter that he sold it, he markets it in every video, he runs it. There is no other face of C&B.

We are proud to offer Cars & Bids SafePay as the easiest way to complete your purchase.

Please tell me what the misunderstanding on my part was? My plan was to place winning bid, then use providers of Cars & Bids to pay and finish purchase by using your transport service to ship car. This is advertised as the safest and easiest way to purchase a car by your online site. I was looking for the easiest all in one purchase I could make. I tried dozens of times (as did the seller) to be verified and pay for this vehicle. Finally went to facial recognition and then was told because I used facial recognition , because your program wouldn't work, I would have to send wire transfer, which my bank will charge me to do. It's not like I just bailed on this deal. I tried hours to pay for this car and was given no help and nothing but answers in chat read from a script. This was not the experience I expected after following Cars & Bids almost daily for years. This was not a misunderstanding on my part! This was a failure of your company to provide the services it advertises. Cars & Bids was able to immediately take my buyers fee yet couldn't and wouldn't let me pay what I owed immediately. I know I can finish the transaction between me and the seller bypassing your providers. That was not my plan. I wanted the easiest route by paying another fee and using the tools your company provided to make this purchase seamless. The misunderstanding is on Cars & Bids part. My intention was to pay and to pay quick that day and this would have been a simple transaction. Even just a simple "I'm sorry, we'll put this through immediately," would have been enough to seal this deal. I'm out and if you want to penalize me by keeping buyers fee because of your providers failure, well, so be it. This was never about the money. This is a little dinky 7,000 deal plus 8-9 hundred for shipping. This is a matter of principle to me because Cars & Bids failed to live up to the expectations one would expect from their website and podcasts. As far as I can tell you guys don’t seem to care that this kind of service is bad for business. Once you start putting money over customer you lose. 



Bailey from Support
​You​
Hi Irving,

We completely understand if you do not wish to move the deal forward, and are sorry to hear that this has been your experience thus far. We have notified Cars & Bids so they can reach out and discuss cancelling the deal if you and the seller do not wish to proceed with the sale privately outside of SafePay.

SafePay has not collected any funds from you, or your seller, at this time, so any funds previously sent for your transaction were facilitated through Cars & Bids.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if we may be of further assistance, and we wish you the best with your vehicle purchase.

Kindly,
Bailey
Support

We are proud to offer Cars & Bids SafePay as the easiest way to complete your purchase.


I know it's not necessarily Cars&Bids fault...and I'm sure my comments or what I think now will have no impact on their operation or success. Not to mention knowing that I sound cranky and clueless - please cut me some slack on the rant.

I put 2 stars because I would like at least a couple of people actually read my review vs. 1 star which most people (and me) dismiss as a crazy who is clueless about whatever they are rating and can't work the blender or complain about a bad shipping box.

But, I cannot tell you how disappointed I am with how my auction went at Cars&Bids.

I really needed to get full value for my vehicle. I chose Cars&Bids because it looked like it had the experience and processes to get me maximum value for a very nice Volvo S60R.

I asked for a reserve and was guided/talked out of a reserve saying no reserve will help get bidders very interested (I do get the logic but logic didn't help me).

You can tell by the comments posted on the site after my sale ended that people recognized this was a terrible auction for me with several noting this was a "steal" - and you can also tell from the comments that viewers were very surprised at the low, final bid amount.

I needed maximum value and was obviously correct in my original plan to have a reserve but was talked out of it by the Cars&Bids team. I actually had the time to hold my S60 and post it on a number of sites to get maximum value over time. But, I did not because of Cars&Bids' apparent success of getting close to full value in a short timeframe.

The sale of my vehicle was going to help pay for a family event. That is not possible now.

While others have had apparent success with the site and I know this is the nature of auctions, I cannot recommend this service. When asked or when given the opportunity, I have to share my opinion with others so they make informed decisions about reserve and get maximum value and do not end up as disappointed as I am.

(Note: I must add a comment: Even though I'm frustrated with the ultimate outcome, I must say that the buyer of my vehicle seems to be a great guy. Very nice and personable and a Volvo lover so it is nice to know who ended up with my vehicle. So, I guess enough people who regularly buy vehicles here find the process works for them, even if it didn't for me.)

my experience is that it's cheap easily and better to use Guys make sure that some car is used and some or Not bye:)

Fair and open auction practices

Title: Very Disappointing Experience – Poor Support and Unfair Practices

I had a very negative experience with Cars & Bids. After winning a bid, I received no real assistance from their team to complete the purchase. Despite the seller not following through, I was still charged a buyer’s fee. When I disputed the charge, instead of addressing my concerns, they disabled my account entirely.

Their customer service is extremely inconsistent — communication is limited to emails and chat, which are often unresponsive or delayed. Overall, the experience felt unprofessional and borderline scam-like. I would strongly advise others to be cautious when using Cars & Bids.