Cars & BidsReviews of carsandbids.com

I can echo many of the terrible experiences documented in other reviews. Cars & Bids provides ZERO protection for buyers, including gross misrepresentation of the working condition of cars. I bid on and won the auction for a used Porsche Cayenne SUV. The vehicle summary indicated there were no functional or mechanical issues with the vehicle. When the vehicle was delivered, I wanted to drive it around, but very quickly realized there were seven error codes on the dash display. I drove it for about one mile before the air suspension completely collapsed in the front and the front wheels were riding on the wheel hub, which made it impossible to operate. After having it towed to a Porsche dealer, I paid to have a full diagnostic done. The dealer indicated that there were three major issues with the car and another six minor issues. Just the major issues alone would cost approximately $12k to fix, which is more than the car cost in the first place. I ended up having to sell the car at a $9k loss without getting any use out of it. I followed up with C&B throughout this process and the only thing they did was refund my C&B commission payment and supposedly ban the user from using the website. It is simply not worth the risk, especially to buy from a private seller where the buyer's recourse is basically zero.

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.

First discussed my car for auction in October and at the time I was thinking a no reserve. As I continued to work on the car details to ensure the new owner would have a vehicle as thoroughly inspected as possible, I got caught by the winter and unable to complete some projects. As the spring thaw came I began to engage in my projects like replacing thr headlight lenses, new wheels, tires, complete detail etc. As it became closer to completion I re-engaged with my account manager, eventually was ready to move ahead and scheduled my photoshoot with Snapper through CAB. I paid the $199 for my photoshoot through the link with CAB. Snapper contacted me directly, was provided a local photographer and scheduled a date for photos. As I was working on the marketing write-up of all the details of my specialty car, I was also providing details to my account manager. After an analysis of regular auctions and "no reserve" auction I discovered that the numbers proved "no reserve" auctions produced lower final bid results. I informed my CAB account manager that I decided on a reserve auction of $25,000 and was told I could not establish a reserve as they accepted my car with a "no reserve" auction. I told him that if that is the case I was withdrawing my car from CAB and was cancelling my photoshoot with Snapper. I contacted the photographer and cancelled the shoot with him and also through Snapper. Snapper contacted me to verify the cancellation. When I inquired about my $199 refund for the photoshoot my account manager said there was no refund for photoshoot. CAB's photoshoot process is a complete scam and you are better off getting your own photoshoot done. Even though YOU are the client, paying for the photoshoot and CAB is not involved, YOU don't receive the phtotos and DO NOT HAVE CONTROL over which photos you prefer. The photos are sent directly to CAB by the photographer and not to you, the actual client of Snapper. CAB made sure the photoshoot was cancelled with Snapper as their corporate office contacted me immediately to verify CAB's cancellation request. Even though the photoshoot was cancelled at least 3 days before the shoot, CAB kept the $199 for absolutely nothing they provided. If anything you would think Snapper would keep but the shoot was cancelled well within their required time. CAB actually takes control of EVERYTHING WITHOUT you having the ability to make or change decision on the type of auction, they "own" the photos from the photoshoot and you don't get any ability to consult on how your car is presented and auctioned. Keeping the $199 for a photoshoot they had nothing to do with except taking the money and you deal directly with Snapper is a typical move you would see by a sleazy used car salesman. Make sure you are thorough about what you want, expectations and your ability to make changes as you go along before your final listing. I was held to a choice of a "no reserve" auction when we discussed 6 months before I was finally ready to list with CAB and was not allowed to change my mind. They are NOT Sotheby's and BAT (bringatrailer.com) has a much larger base and success.

I listed my truck with them and paid the fee for the pro photo shoot. However, I cancel my listing and requested a refund of the fee. I have called several times and email their support, but no refund was sent. I never received a response to my calls or emails. Avoid this site all costs.

Buyer beware. I purchased a vehicle on C&B and it was delivered with significant undisclosed mechanical issues that contradict the listing's representations—problems the seller had acknowledged before and after the sale. I'm pursuing this with the seller and under Texas law. But let me be direct: a platform that sells buyer confidence should stand behind it when a listing proves inaccurate. So far, that protection has been absent. Do your due diligence. Demand a pre-purchase inspection. Don't assume the auction has your back.

Carsandbids sold me a car with a ton of undisclosed problems. They basically told me to screw off once I asked for any recourse. Do not buy a car from this website.

If you are not a professional photographer, with state of the art photography equipment, your pics will not be accepted. I submitted pics of my car 3 times, with different lighting and cameras, following their "guidelines", and all 3 times my pics were judged, "unfortunately the quality of these is not going to work for the listing", "do you have a friend or family with a newer phone?". I took pics with 2 different phones, and the last batch with a GoPro camera. All denied. What a waste of my time! I think they are in the business of selling their "pro photo package" which I finally relented and asked for an appointment and they stated "Can you send me an address near you, and I can see if we have photographers out there?" which I did and got this return answer "You are correct, no luck.." They couldn't provide a "professional photographer" An absolute waste of time! On the urging of friends I reshot my car yet again only to be told "shots are grainy, dull, and make the car look small" I showed the pics to a few friends who stated "are you sure they're looking at the same pics?" None of them said anything even close to grainy or dull! I wish I could post pics here so you all could see what I'm dealing with! Ridiculous.

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.