Cars & BidsReviews of carsandbids.com

I really wanted to like Cars & Bids as a seller, but I’ve tried twice and failed to sell. They push you as a seller to have a really low reserve, if at all. In both cases, I ended up selling my car on Autotrader within a couple of days for higher than the price where my auctions ended without selling. Maybe the experience is better as a buyer, but you do have to pay a 5% buyer’s fee.

Trying to sell a car here. Was told that it is better to sell my car with NO reserve. I am not comfortable with selling it this way, but they insisted that is best for me. They claimed it is a wasteful of resource to sell my car this way just in case the transaction falls through. I started to dig deeper on the internet. I noticed there are many other cars regardless they are on the high end or low end, they are selling with reserve and or no reserve. Even though it does not costs me to sell through this site but they profit from it. Also, i heard similar reviews online with them pushing for cars to be sold with no reserve on their website. I don't like the fact that they control how I sell my car. I feel like i don't have the freedom to how to sell my car with them. I also heard that there are shady stories of them stopping auctions that are nearing the due date and that they are not meeting the reserves. They made up stories on why the auctions need to be stopped. I don't feel comfortable listing here anymore. Like I said, I would rather pay and have a say on how I want to sell my car then to save the $100 and have no say.

It was a disappointment that none of my money could be recovered when the car I bought was not in the condition described. I thought the car was well vetted through the Q&A. So many things either misleading, omitted, or untruthful. Upon pickup, the wheel well liner was ripped off and placed inside the trunk of the car, 2nd key fob wasn't cut for this car, seller lied about the tire rub, roof sun screen detached, check engine light came on, engine oil leak when seals had supposedly been replaced, misaligned panels... and all C&Bs would do was ban the seller; but why would he care? His car was already sold. On some positive notes, I had a pleasant experience with another vehicle I purchased on C&B in December 2023. And the website itself is really well designed and easy to navigate. I appreciate the variety of cars that come through the auction.

Great auction site, the process is easy, explained well, and customer support is good. Buyer beware though, there are some shady dealers who will leave out key flaws on vehicles they're flipping (which I'm sure is the case on any auction site really)

The setup process for the auction was slow, and while it did get completed, the listing page didn’t really give me the control I wanted for how I would have liked my car presented. The bidding activity wasn’t great either leading to a pretty low sales price. I wondered if I made a mistake listing on this site versus BAT. While not CAB’s fault necessarily, I got ZERO value out of the vehicle inspection. The inspector got basic details about the car completely wrong, including calling 500 mile old 200TW tires as bald and calling factory convertible top reinforcements as “repair patches” and ultimately I suspect hurt my sale.

Not bad for an auction site that is new in the game but there is room for a great deal of improvement, both in writing the ads and taking the time to understand the seller. They seem fiercely defensive about their opinions and views on the sellers vehicle, reflecting on the way the ad is written. It may be a paid option, but my vehicle got little to no coverage on social media like many others. The way the private messages are handled needs improvement. Nonetheless I did get connected with a buyer that really appreciates the vehicle and made the transaction hassle free, and usually get straight to the point (unlike others).

What a cluster. Listed a vehicle with Cars and Bids based on the reputation that Founder, Doug DeMuro has in the industry. Did everything that was asked of me. Took professional photos (using the company they suggested) and had the car lemon inspected (using the company they suggested). Accepted the lower reserve based on their industry expertise and answered every posted question in a timely and responsible manner. Once the bids started rolling in, we soon eclipsed the projected reserve and were on our way to a successful sale. That was until 20 minutes before the buy closed and a nefarious bidder spoiled the process with an offer 23% above the 2nd highest price. Of course, everyone else dropped out and once the high bid was proven fraudulent, C&B reached out to the two highest “underbidders” to gauge their interest. To my surprise, neither bidder wanted to honor their offers and so I was given two options. 1) accept a lower price or 2) agree to split the commission fee of the fraudulent offer (assuming they do not dispute the charge). In C&B's view, they did their job by bringing in a deal above the reserve price (that they themselves set). However, the primary purpose of an auction service is to obtain the highest price for the seller. Cars and Bids claims they “validate that each bidder is a serious buyer by requiring and verifying credit card information. This ensures that bidders are committed to the purchase. We also work with our payment processor to flag and avoid any high-risk or potentially fraudulent transactions, to further ensure a positive sales experience.” Unlike eBay however, Cars and Bids does not have a method in place to limit the damage of a bad-faith offer by curtailing exorbitant bids. So, if someone wants to offer 2x the value and spoil an auction there’s little that can be done to remedy the matter… Except relist the auction which Cars and Bids has refused to do. “We typically discourage relists because we've found they never seem to perform well. No matter how much we stress that the deal fell through as the result of a bad buyer and not the car or the seller, bidders remain skeptical and it's reflected in their bids. Additionally, in the few instances we have done relists, we've had to make sellers wait upwards of one month based on our current scheduling commitments and in the end, they expended a lot more time and effort only to achieve a disappointing result.” The above excerpt is from my chat conversation with Cars and Bids (there’s no phone number to call). They typically don’t relist an auction because “in their experience, they don’t do well” is an indictment of the entire process. Nevertheless, who is C&B to make that call anyway? If the seller wants to accept the risk of a lesser-performing auction they should be allowed to do so. Cars and Bids simply earns 2x the commissions and everyone wins. It’s really a shame. This company appears to be run by people who don’t understand customer service and their commitment “to support you and your buyer during the post-sale process” is nothing more than an empty slogan of techy rhetoric. Caveat emptor people. Caveat emptor. 11/30: Quick note that C&B was able to get a deal done for me with a new buyer. I still think there's lots of room for improvement here, but I am revising my review based on their final performance.