Cars.com vs PrivateAuto for Private-Party Car Transactions

Cars.com is an online listings site for buying and selling cars. PrivateAuto is a transactional marketplace that uses technology to make it easy to sell your car online or buy a private-party used car.

Let’s compare how the two sites stack up across different value propositions.

The good: Cars.com has a large user base. This means a lot of buyers and a large selection of cars for sale. Unfortunately, the platform poses some serious challenges.

Cars.com has an intuitive website that’s simple enough to navigate and has no listing fees. Their lack of transactional infrastructure leaves buyers and sellers in the lurch to navigate all the logistics of the deal.

PrivateAuto is a vehicle marketplace combined with an integrated banking and payment gateway and a full array of other transactional features to get the deal done. Its DealNow bridge product allows you to start a deal on another platform–Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, eBay Motors, or Cars.com–and then finish the transaction with PrivateAuto’s infrastructure.

PrivateAuto doesn’t have a lot of downsides. We designed it that way after looking at the pain points associated with other platforms. If you find any flaws, let us know!

Cars.com wins this round as it doesn't charge any fees to buyers or sellers.

PrivateAuto fees are among the lowest in the online car-selling market. The seller pays a $150 listing fee with no additional costs thereafter. The buyer is responsible for paying only for the vehicle and has no transaction-related costs.

Cars.com is a non-transactional platform. It connects buyers and sellers. We call it a “meetingplace” rather than a true marketplace.

PrivateAuto is a fully transactional marketplace, with technological solutions for every stage of the deal. Buyers and sellers can schedule test drives, do a step-by-step walkthrough of the entire transaction process, sign the bill of sale, and transfer funds–all through the PrivateAuto app. Because payments are instantaneous, a PrivateAuto deal can be done very quickly.

PrivateAuto is the clear winner in the payments arena. PrivateAuto Pay allows buyers to send any amount instantly and fee-free. Funds appear instantly in the seller’s PrivateAuto Pay account, allowing both parties to function as their own escrow service and even conduct remote car transactions.

Cars.com offers no payment integration. The parties must negotiate payment outside of the platform—a cumbersome, risky, and time-consuming process.

There aren’t a lot of good ways to send large sums of money to a stranger, as Cars.com users quickly learn.

With the speed and security of PrivateAuto Pay, PrivateAuto is the only private vehicle transaction platform that allows a seller and buyer to conclude the entire deal in a few minutes when they meet for a test drive.

In addition to being instantaneous, PrivateAuto Pay offers the following benefits:

PrivateAuto and Cars.com both have websites and apps.

PrivateAuto has an intuitive website. It’s easy to shop used cars for sale and filter by make, model, geographical proximity, and other criteria. Sellers can quickly list a vehicle for sale and choose from standard listing or auction format, with a step-by-step guide helping them through the process.

PrivateAuto has no dealer listings, meaning that all cars for sale are by private owners. With an average of around 250,000 listings at any given time, PrivateAuto is by far the best website to shop cars for sale by owner.

The Cars.com website is easy to use, for the most part. The process of listing your vehicle is quite simple. For the potential buyer, Cars.com does not offer a way for buyers to filter and see only private-party listings.

In fact, the majority of Cars.com inventory consists of dealership vehicles. Of the hundreds of thousands of vehicles for sale, a mere 14,000 or so are private-party at any given time on average.

Considering all the advantages of a private-party transaction, Cars.com falls woefully short in serving buyers looking for used cars for sale by owner.

PrivateAuto offers an app that’s available on both iOS and Android. You can list your car for sale, look through available vehicles, contact sellers, e-sign the bill of sale, and pay for your vehicle, all from your phone.

Cars.com offers an app that’s available on both iOS and Android as well. It serves as a comprehensive mobile platform for car shoppers to research, discover, and connect with sellers throughout the car buying process as well as listing vehicles for sale.

The verdict on Cars.com vs PrivateAuto?

Cars.com has its share of dissatisfied customers, with online complaints falling into the following five categories:

1. Misleading vehicle listings: some buyers have reported encountering vehicles listed on Cars.com that did not accurately represent the true condition of the car. Complaints include undisclosed accident history, hidden mechanical issues, and misrepresented features or upgrades. These misrepresentations have led to frustrating and costly purchases for unsuspecting buyers.
2. Difficulty finding private-party cars for sale, given that the majority of cars for sale on the platform are listed by dealerships.
3. Unresponsive dealers: a frequent complaint about the Cars.com platform is the lack of responsiveness from some dealerships. Buyers have reported difficulties reaching sales representatives, getting timely updates on vehicle availability, and resolving issues after a purchase. The disconnect between the online experience and the in-person dealer interaction has been a source of frustration for many customers.
4. Bait-and-switch tactics: there have been instances where buyers claim dealers have advertised a vehicle on Cars.com at an attractive price, only to pressure them into purchasing a different, more expensive model once they arrive at the dealership. This "bait-and-switch" approach has left some customers feeling misled and taken advantage of.
5. Financing and paperwork challenges: the process of securing financing and completing the necessary paperwork through Cars.com has been problematic for some buyers. Complaints include delays in processing, unexpected fees, and issues with contract accuracy that have complicated and prolonged the transaction.
6. Lack of recourse and customer support: when things go wrong, users have expressed dissatisfaction with the level of support and recourse available through the Cars.com platform. Navigating disputes with dealers or seeking resolution for issues has been described as a frustrating and drawn-out experience by some disgruntled customers.