Cars & BidsReviews of carsandbids.com

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.

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.

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.)

I * believed * that they addressed a flaw in the used car buying process. Until I witnessed the process as a seller. I flagged a comment from a petty bidder (that didn't bid, surprise) saying blah blah "trashed". The moderator said tough luck and kept the comment posted. He set the whole mood for the auction with his misplaced comment. Of course, take the high road and respond respectfully. Good ole Autotrader is still it for me. Sell privately; the internet is full of mindless trolls. Get what your car is actually worth. Be patient and you'll find the right buyer. The auction process makes you accept a price you don't want for your car, especially through their pressuring reserve tactics. Lesson learned...

Not sure if I would trust them. Tried selling with them and opted for the reserve price. They wouldn't accept it because they're "algorithm" says it wouldn't sell for that much. That's the point of a reserve price tho. I don't want to sell it for less than the "reserve" so if it doesn't sell then I adjust or don't sell at all. They would not let me sell so now I don't think this site is the best place to sell your car. They are just another dealership

They advertise their platform as the best place to get top dollar for enthusiast cars - but the offer i got from them a few months ago was about 70% of the car's DEALER trade-in value (yes, i took it in person to confirm & it was still thousands better than C&B). Not sure why anyone would waste even MORE of their time listing with them for LESS money... Whole process was shady & I was disappointed to see the poor reviews become more credible. They do a great job at managing their PR, filtering out the bad reviews, which is why they SEEM to be such a pleasant experience.

Overall, I was blah about the experience from the seller side. I had submitted to both Cars and Bids and Bring a Trailer and was accepted at both sites. Throughout the process I thought I had made the right decision, but hindsight makes me doubt it now. The site talking up the inspection was a mistake. I paid the money to Lemon Squad and if anything it was a distraction during the auction because of a phantom code that no one could figure out. A knock off similar car was placed on the site right before mine. We were very far apart on the reserve, so we discussed going no reserve to increase traffic, which backfired in the end. The results were lackluster from MY side of things. I am sure the buyer is ecstatic! Communication is ok, but if you are east coast time zone there is definitely a delay at times from the team. I tried to do professional photos through the site, but they do not come to my area, which I didn't know until I had agreed to the process. It is recent and stings a bit. I think the car underperformed and maybe that was my fault, but certainly don't feel like cars and bids did me any favors with our discussions. I should have stuck to my guns. Trust is earned not given and that is the lesson I learned today. With regards to your reply, a salvaged title solbra from a "knockoff" brand (as you termed it to me) with almost 4 times as many miles outperformed my solstice by almost 25% within a week, so the market was the same. I bid on the BAT cars you are referring to and they are the basic Mallett conversions and are not comparable cars. But to each's own. AS I said, I learned an important lesson of trust is earned and not given.