From candy corn to Lincoln Continentals, Craigslist is the ultimate Turkish bazaar. It's an almost universally accessible free market for millions of folks who once paid (and paid) for the ‘privilege’ of selling their stuff. From a pistonhead perspective, Craigslist seems to be a great place to buy and sell automobiles. Even a brief scan shows that the site offers a vehicle for every type of appliance seeker, enthusiast and hobbyist. I’ve been using Craigslist as my site du jour for nearly three years. During that time, I’ve sold more than a hundred vehicles through the service. But I'm a pro, and I’m here to warn you that there's a dark side to the deal.
While Craigslist offers free, instant access to an enormous quantity of listings and potential buyers, car buyers and sellers get very little information about the vehicle involved. Vehicle Identification (VIN) numbers, ownership histories and other critical details regarding the car’s true condition (i.e. collisions, insurance claims, outstanding debt) are few and far between. You can imagine what happens next…
I’ve seen cars from commercial auctions with salvage and rebuilt titles advertised on Craigslist with nary a mention of these “issues.” And that’s not the half of it. I’ve heard numerous tales of car dealers stuck with lemons using Craigslist to make lemonade, sticking their poison fruit on someone else’s plate. And these are just the pros. We’ll never know how many less than scrupulous private sellers have hidden potentially lethal problems or grievously misrepresented their rides.
Craigslist– like any website encouraging “real world” interaction– also has the potential to connect buyers or sellers with deviants, thieves and thugs. Scam artists bent on identity theft can use Craigslist contact to solicit credit card information from all-too-gullible buyers. Fake car buyers can show-up for a test drive, convince buyers to let them take a solo test drive, and disappear. But wait; there’s worse…
Way back in July ‘06, the San Francisco Gate newspaper reported that several Craigslist advertisers were held up at gunpoint by criminals posing as buyers and sellers. “In April, two men in Boston who responded to an ad for a used 1995 Honda Civic were robbed of their money,” the paper reports. “The suspect directed the men behind a house to look at the car, and then pulled a gun and forced the victims to the ground before fleeing, according to Boston police.”
Obviously, printed classifieds also offer (offered?) criminals a chance to find their marks. But just as the web makes commercial transactions vastly more efficient, Craigslist has made it easier for dangerous and devious criminals to identify, lure and victimize their targets.
Crime thrives in the dark. Returning to the actual transaction, the scrupulous seller who provides full disclosure on Craigslist is no more likely to find favor than the unscrupulous scammer whose car title is as genuine as a thirty-three dollar bill. Once a Craigslist user buys a vehicle, it’s theirs and that’s that. A dishonest seller can easily continue with their deceptive and dishonest practices, under a different name if necessary.
Craigslist does not attack abuse. Click on the New York City site’s “personal safety tips” and you’re assured that the “incidence of violent crime has been extremely low.” One of five bullet pointed tips advises you to “trust your instincts.”
Click on “avoid scams” and the site advises you to “DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON – follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts on Craigslist.” And if that one simple rule doesn’t save you from fraud, they refer you to the Federal Trade Commission, the Internet Crime Complaint Center or your local police’s “non emergency number.”
The real answer to this question is on eBay. Not only does eBay have a Global Law Enforcement Operations Team that actively pursues fraudsters, but they also provide buyers with a feedback mechanism to check the seller’s reputation. Sellers must provide a vehicle’s VIN number, which links to a downloadable AutoCheck report ($7.99). eBay also automatically protects buyers of qualified passenger vehicles against certain types of fraud (e.g. it’s a stolen car, unrevealed damage above $1k or a vehicle simply never gets delivered), up to $20k.
All of which means that scam artists have a harder time slipping through eBay’s net, and if they do, the car buyer has financial or criminal redress.
Since I first used Craigslist, the site has gone from being a quality-focused website to the electronic equivalent of the Wild West. The days when this electronic bazaar was a well kept secret used by overwhelmingly decent and (how can I say this nicely) intelligent users are long gone. The truth is that anyone who uses Craigslist instead of eBay now does so at their own peril, which is far greater than most people realize.
CL’s biggest advantage is that, being a no-cost sales outlet, people selling items don’t have to worry about recouping their sales cost (unlike eBay and other for-pay advertising sites.) This keeps hassles low for sellers and costs low for buyers. I would probably not buy a new or near-nes car off of CL but looking for an older, or rare-model car or motorcycle, CL can be your best friend. After all, there are people who want to get rid of that old jalopy but not enough to shell out $150+ (or whatever it is that eBay charges nowadays.) Snap a couple of pictures with the DigiCam, put it up on CL and it’s gone within a day. And yes, Caveat Emptor applies, but then again, is there any other car-buying circumstance in which it doesn’t?
Tried to sell a motorcycle on the site. 17 people contacted me, most wanted to lowball me so they could flip it on ebay. Several harvested my email address for advertising (use a free hotmail account for contact) and a few tried to swap obviously stolen merchandise for the bike.
Long and short of it is I sold it on ebay, cost me 70 bucks, but I got paid in 2 days and for more than I wanted for it on CL. I sent the completed auction link to all the potential CL buyers as a final “leave me the F alone” notice.
If your trying to get rid of some large unshipable junk in your garage CL is probably OK, Ebay is taking a hit from it as every CL sale is a loss to them it seems. But use a fake name, disposable email address, and even a one time use phone number if you can. It’s really no different than old fashion newspaper ads were, the only difference being a larger geographic area means more creeps than usual.
My experience has been different. My ebay account has been “hacked” into and I had someone selling laptops under my name. It was a huge inconvenience to get it all straightened out. I have bid on several cars, even won some auctions, but the reserve was never met. I see it as just another medium to find cars no better, no worse than anything else.
In the past year I have sold two cars and purchased two cars on Craigslist. All transactions were very smooth and I saved a ridiculous amount of money purchasing from private party rather than from a dealer.
The bottom line is, regardless of where you “find” a vehicle, you need to do your due diligence before you make a purchase. In fact, I believe TTAC had some good articles with best practices for buying privately. If you follow those tips I don’t see how Craigslist could be any different from the newspaper, eBay, autotrader, etc.
I must’ve missed when anything useful came from craigslist. I’ve tried renting out some apartments I had and got nothing but degenerates who knew they couldn’t pay the rent I was asking for. I’ve tried selling my car, and got beseiged by lowballers. I’ve tried buying cars, but quit checking there after I saw an ad for a ‘clean’ Nissan 240SX that the seller wanted $6,000 for, but the picture showed a car that looked like the driver actively pursued every pothole in the city.
Craigslist has to be the most useless site on the wweb, good only for an occasionally funny ad you might see in their ‘best of’ section.
CL is what it is. Common sense and prudence will resolve any potential issues. I don’t even know how many successful CL transactions I’ve completed but I’ve never had a bad experience.
As for my experiences with eBay, they are much more like jsvo’s. Account hacked, bogus bidders terminating auctions early and then asking me to send my laptop to their “brothers” in Nigeria, Fake auctions set up on my account, more phishing emails than I can remember, etc etc. Sure, I got it all straightened out and all it cost me was a couple hours online with eBay representatives but it’s certainly turned me off of eBay, and I wouldn’t even think of buying a car off eBay. The whole process is not well suited for car buying, i.e. you have to make a bid, which then has the potential to become a binding contract, and I can’t even imagine making a bid without a thorough inspection of the vehicle in question.
As for “getting besieged by lowballers” I don’t understand why this is an issue. If they won’t meet your price, you go on to the next person, right (when I sold my motorcycle this past August, I put in the ad that while my price was negotiable, all negotiating would be done face-to-face with cash-in-hand, so that if I said “yes” to their offer, I would expect immediate payemnt.)
And if you’re not getting any responses, it’s likely because your asking price is too high. CL is the free market, plain and simple. That’s what I like about it.
Final point: CL is a great way to get rid of unwanted junk. I swear there are people out there who will pick up your garbage if you just post is as “free” on CL!
It depends where you live. Here in Maine, there’s not much crime and most people are relatively honest. I haven’t bought a car through Craigslist yet, but I’ve checked out a few, and everyone seemed to be on the up and up. Bought lots of other stuff, lots of good deals (I’ve picked up several servicable items for free), and the sellers have almost all been very polite and friendly. I can imagine how the experience might be completely different in, say, New York City.
Craigslist and eBay are different tools for different jobs. I have bought and sold cheap motorcycles on Craigslist, but have pursued more expensive stuff on eBay. Like all auctions you have to know what you are doing, and if you take cash to look at a vehicle the first time, hoo boy, you deserve what you get. I have never been scammed by Craigslist or eBay, and have pretty much decided that this is a case in which 95% of the people are happy and the 5% that aren’t whine and bitch at the top of their lungs. The fact is that buying used stuff is ALWAYS risky, duh, but the fact is that CL and eB allow for a huge expansion in opportunities, and all that signifies. What? You want to go back to only local stuff? And the newspaper? Pah!
quasimondo,
Funny you should mention renting out apartments. I just recently used CL to rent out two of my townhouses. I received a ton of emails, many of which were worthless. However, I was able to fill both vacancies from leads on CL. I put an add in my local paper for nearly $100/week and got only 2 calls. I get fairly regular calls from a sign in front of the property but the quality is usually poor. Through CL I got a few quality out-of-state individuals that were moving to the area because of a job transfer. Without CL I would probably still be out a couple grand each month with my units sitting vacant through the winter. Perhaps it’s a regional thing but I find CL to be immensely valuable.
I’ve sold a motorcycle and bought a Jeep off of CL with no issues.
I still prefer eBay/half.com but for stuff that’s too much hassle to ship, I use CL.
For vehicles I’d rather deal with someone local and CL has more sub $5k vehicles at the local-level than eBay around here.
I think CL is meant to be limited to shopping locally. Its not suppose to be like ebay, where you can bid from long distance with (some) confidence. Plus CL isn’t exactly a large corporation with the funding to establish a dedicated fraud department. People just have to rely on [gasp] personal responsibility for once to sort out the bullshit.
Besides, its hard to complain about something that’s free.
I agree with JFSVO CL is ok for renting out property, you just have to not have unreasonable expectations
Mr. Lang’s advice is an excellent fit for craigslist and old-fashioned newspaper classified ads (do they still print them?). And for eBay too. The cars I watch on eBay — Triumphs, old BMWs — seldom make their well-above-market reserve. What happens when those high bidders are contacted directly after bidding ends?
The same rules apply in any used car purchase. Have a PPI done by an expert, meet buyers or sellers in safe locations, and protect your private information. I found both my ’87 BMW and ’92 Range Rover on craigslist, and both have been terrific reliable ride. But I think Craigslist works best in smaller markets, like here in Colorado, because there are fewer thieves per capita.
I’ve used Craig’s List and Ebay to buy items – I’ve never actually bought anything on E-bay technically, but I’ve used it to contact the seller and then buy it outside of E-bay. That is how I bought my 67 Ford Galaxie convertible.
I’ve bought firewood and the services of a shadetree mechanic over Craig’s List – I was completely satisfied both times.
It’s like anything else – there are always people trying to rip you off. Just stand your ground, and send them packing. If you are afraid of your safety, meet them at a parking lot or something.
There is risk in life – if you want to avoid it 100% then maybe you should never get out of bed.
My problem with lowballers on Cl is the waste of time they incur. Since they are not committed to buying there is no responsibility.
I have used CL to advertise my rental apartments in San Francisco. Maybe it’s just because it’s the Bay Area, but I usually begin getting calls within 10 minutes of publishing a post. The last ad I ran, I had over 30 people at the open house. And got a suberb tenant. Never used them to buy/sell cars though.
jfsvo,
I am in Maryland and I have a couple of slightly higher line single family homes that I rent. In the last two years I rented these homes off craigslist almost immediatly. A tiny ad in the local paper cost at least $60 a week and I rarely get a lead . Sure , I get the UK yahoo`s trying to scam me but I just don`t pay attention to them and only talk with ” normal people ” that sound serious. So far so good.
When my Trooper threw a rod, I put it on Craigslist and it sold practically instantly. I fully disclosed that the engine was fried and I had 5 responses within a few hours. So the fact that Craigslist is crawling with people looking for lowball deals worked to my advantage.
Oh, and for those paying attention to the names on these posts, I wrote an article on TTAC that praised the quality of my Isuzu Trooper. Then, wouldn’t you know it, a few months later the darn thing blows up. Funny, eh?
I sold my Dad’s car on Craigslist and was generally very happy with the results, though I can imagine it going all wrong. The car sold for my asking price within 24hrs. When the buyer asked if I could do lower, I told them to find another car with a stack of receipts to prove its reliability and durability for the coming years. Done deal.
But I’ve tried to sell parts and haven’t had much luck. Everyone wants it for free, they lose interest, waste my time on the phone, etc. I have better luck selling parts on a brand-specific message board.
Thanks for the writeup, Steven. Well done.
I found my last used car on CL. Worked out fine for me. The seller was not totally honest in his ad. He had the color wrong (claimed Burgandy, it was fire-engine red), and he rounded down the miles by 8000 (Claimed 110k, was really 118k).
I just assumed the seller was full of s**t and checked out the car myself. He had a good price for what he was selling, so I paid him and took the car. Deal done. No surprises.
I’ve also sold a lot of items on CL. I’m stunned how fast things can go, minutes in some cases. There are some people who do nothing but watch CL all day long.
I’ve rented rooms from CL. Worked out great. Saved me a fortune in hotels when traveling.
So you’re saying there are more scam artists there than on e-bay? It’s almost hard to believe that’s even possible.
I’ve found Craigslist to be a mixed bag much like the classifieds and other informal local venues.
You have to be very careful is all. Recently we purchased a very nice use Baldwin grand piano via Craigslist. Of course we had a piano tech. inspect it first and did quite a lot of research as well as visiting the seller, verifying her story, etc. I’ve helped several friends over the past few years find good used cars on craigslist. The important thing is to buy well cared for vehicles direct from their long-time owners. In every case my motto was “sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince”. Also, I stay far away from the flippers and small time dealers who also infest craigslist.
eBay isn’t very good for finding large items nearby. On any given day I can find 10-20 Volvo wagons for sale within 50 miles of my home on Craigslist while ebay typically turns up 0-2. My experience buying cars on ebay from far away sight unseen has been a mixed bag and I don’t plan to do it again.
However, the biggest thing I hate about shopping on ebay is the whole bidding game. If I want to buy something I want to negotiate with the seller and either buy it or not. Playing fingernail biting bidding games for a week is not my idea of fun. Wasting a bunch of time just to not buy something is agravating, and spending to much to be sure that the time was worthwhile is stupid.
Years ago I did a lot of business selling and some buying on ebay. In the early days it was fun because in general the stuff being sold was interesting and the people were on the up and up. Now ebay is huge and most categories are chock full of junk. Browsing the tools for sale section is like looking at Harbor Freight online. Yuck.
For me, the absolute best place to sell a car is Autotrader.com. I have sold 5 cars there and each sold within 2 weeks. I paid $50 to run my ad until it sold and was able to post 9 pictures.
I use Craigslist as well for parts for my 240z as well as tools, etc. As many have said, trust your instinct and you’ll be fine.
Hey, one thing CL has that eBay doesn’t is hookers. Go to “Services” and click on “Erotic…”
I just got cruise the free stuff. Got a very nice Lawnboy 2 stroke trim mower. It was quite serendiptacious. It was on my way home from work.
Ebay offers a great bang for the buck as a seller if you have something that is rare and valuable. On the flip side though it can become a big headache when it comes to turnover. Each one of my last five transactions took well over a month to complete due to excuses ranging from a 3 week trip to Costa Rica, to a mom who twice sent her son to pick up a Harley Davidson. The first time with no dolly (sure Junior, just set it on the Saturn’s roof and use bungee cords) and the second time with a car dolly (sure Junior, motorcycles have 16″ training wheels that just pop out of the sides). In the meantime I could have sold it three times over on either Autotrader or Craigslist.
I’m not saying Ebay is a waste of time or is even substandard when it comes to selling vehicles. In fact, it’s a wonderful place to do business if you’re very highly specialized, or in the higher end of the business. But it’s still neither cheap nor quick when it comes to selling vehicles and unless you’re running a warehouse operation (detail the cars, post pics, put it in storage, have $250k+ in slow inventory) or have that very special something, Autotrader and Craigslist can usually offer the seller a better alternative.
The fellow who mentioned the 10+ 240 Wagons that are already on Craigslist is spot on. As a seller you get more immediate feedback, and as a buyer you usually get more variety and options. If you’re a vigilant and patient car buyer Craigslist can be a great place to find a vehicle. Just make sure to get all the information (especially the VIN# for the Carfax/Autocheck report and where it’s been serviced) BEFORE you actually see the vehicle.
Hope this helps…
You just have to be extra carefull. Paranoid even. But if you take the extra time to do due diligence, your odds of getting an extreme bargain are higher on craigslist.
Just as there are more sharks, there are also more
a). Desperate people that need money fast
b). People that don’t know what they are doing and don’t have their car priced correctly
c). Transactions you can conclude TODAY before a competing buyer can drive up the price.
I recently bought a car off craigslist, and we looked at alot of cars before we bought one. I received a number of “nigerian” type scam letters in response to queries about a car. But I ended up buying a used car and getting a price I never could have gotten on ebay, because on ebay, other people would drive up the price. On craigslist, it’s the early bird that gets the worm!
carsoup.com is another site that deserves a plug. It’s closer to autotrader.com, but seems to have more private party sellers which is what I look for, they are more likely to be the ones with the car priced incorrectly.
Craigslist is a good way to get screwed…
Take that as you will.
jdv is absolutely right. I’ve bought two great cars off craigslist and sold the first one I bought on craigslist as well. I’ve also helped a friend sell his car on it. There are a couple huge advantages over ebay:
1. there are far more choices in your area. ebay sellers often expect you to bid sight unseen, whereas cl sellers expect you to come and take a look at the car before making an offer.
2. you start at the asking price and bargain down, as opposed to bidding and then being stuck with your high bid.
3. it’s much more common on cl to contact the seller directly so you can get a feel of the person selling.
When I sold my car on cl I had a lot of lowballers. That’s to be expected, but you just ignore them and only talk to serious buyers. As for purchasing, both sellers offered to meet me at my mechanic to have the car inspected, as I did when I sold my car. Obviously, if someone doesn’t, they have something to hide, so you can move on.
But, as in any deal, trust your gut, and never, ever buy from a car dealer on cl. They always overprice and what’s the point of going on cl, if not to save what you would pay at a dealer?
Also be prepared not to sell your car right away. It usually takes several weeks to a couple months even. If you have something more interesting than a corolla or camry you will eventually find someone who is looking for that particular car and they will be the one to buy it. So above all, be patient and keep reposting every week. People tend to assume that if a post is a few days old, the car’s already been sold. I don’t know why, but you will get the most responses the day after you post.
Also forgot to mention, craigslist is an amazing place to find cheap parts for an older car. There are lots of people parting out wrecked cars and you can save hundreds.
I haven’t tried CL to sell or buy, but I have bought and sold cars on eBay, and if you’re looking for a certain type of hard to find car (I was looking for a super low mileage 1996 Impala SS), I can’t imagine a better place to shop or sell. From the vehicle reports, to the escrow services or the transport services, eBay makes it simple. No scam artists approached me when selling, either.
Were I looking for a $2000 generic car I can find anywhere, I *might* look at CL, though.
caveat emptor.
Thanks to all for the post and the comments. I have two cars that I’m about to list for sale and this is helping me to sort out the process. One is a near-death Acura that sounds perfect for CL. The other is a decent older M-B that I was going to put on eBay but might put on CL as well. I have to figure out where to meet the buyers, though. No way are they coming to my house.
Bought my BMW off Craigslist. Saw the ad the day of the posting, called and the next morning I drove 2 hours to go look at it. Upon seeing it and having it inspected (a big key right there), I decided to buy it immediately.
Better deal than any used car dealer around here, plus I got to meet the owner and hear about the car’s history. So far it’s been a great car for me.
Craigslist’s the place that to me exemplifies what the Internet ‘was intended to be’- open, a bit risky, but ultimately rewarding if you knew what you were doing.
I have to figure out where to meet the buyers, though. No way are they coming to my house.
Pick a public place, like a well lit parking lot at a mall or grocery store. Perhaps even one with a police station nearby if you’re very paranoid. :)
We’ve bought and sold quite a bit of electronics on CL, and common sense rules apply. If they say the words “money order” or “escrow” or “international” it’s a scam. The low-ballers are irritating, but taunting them is amusing. And with everything, do your homework. There are plenty of scammers on e-bay also.
I’ve bought and sold many cheaper cars on CL and never had a problem. Regarding this comment:
I have to figure out where to meet the buyers, though. No way are they coming to my house.
It seems common sense, and sounds like a reasonable practice – but where I live, everytime I have had an owner want to meet me somewhere other than a house or business, its been a scam or a rip-off. I have learned to be much more picky or just walk away when they want to meet somewhere like a park or grocery store. Why? Thiefs, rebuilders, and car flippers often don’t have a casual personal place where they can meet you, and they sure don’t want the buyer to have a physical address to follow up with if problems with the car or title surface.
I’m not necessarily saying that you should use your address per say…I just wanted to throw this observation out for comment.
Two years ago, I advertised to anyone who was willing to move my large couch from my old apt to a new apt 2 miles away. Aside from the serious offers, I got at least 5 emails accusing me of being too cheap ($25 to move my couch!). In the end, I got a guy who had a Kia Sportage move my couch. Nice to have half your couch sticking out the back of the SUV.
I also advertised a service to create resumes, cover letters, and do job interview coaching. I loved the Nigerian-style scams. Just how many UK parents of teenagers sending their kids off for vacation in the US want them to make a resume and practice their interviewing skills while in the US (with pre-payment of course)? I had to laugh at those.
I know one collector car dealer who (still) buys cars off of Craig’s List (grammar corrected) and the reason is that he is willing and able to fix up cars that are oftentimes very much in need of work; and then sell them.
He also, will occasionally sell cars via the site; since he is too cheap to pay for newspaper classified advertising. Admittedly, you get the same sort of people responding: bottom feeders. So why pay for that? He maintains a web site of his own, for those people who are more likely to be serious buyers; and in any case, meets people at his secure warehouse, in a very public place, only after screening them on the phone. Since he has been in the business of selling collector cars for the better part of three decades, he is quite good at “qualifying the buyer,” as the saying goes.
Even eBay has its limitations, most especially if you buy or sell to someone outside the United States. Another collector car dealer friend, who bought a microcar from someone in South America, told me that he had to get the FBI involved, when he finally took possession of the car he’d bought; and saw that the condition did not match the claims made.
But as Steven Lang has noted, at least with eBay, there are set policies in place to give some assurance of legitimacy. Craig’s List is an absolute piece of shit. “What expect for free” someone posting a comment asked earlier? I expect to get nothing and having sold several items through eBay Motors, can assure anyone that it is a better site to sell than Craig’s List (where I tried listing on the items and never heard a thing, which might have been a blessing in disguise).
Thing is, at a site where anyone yahoo can list or respond for free, you can likely expect one thing: trouble or plethora of stories to be told, later to friends or in court.
A major problem Craig’s List has is its lousy methodology for reporting problems. I had the misfortune of renting from a particularly nasty slumlord, for a few years; until I was able to move. I tried to warn others, when I saw his rental ads posted; but was never able to do so. I finally ended up – along with 8 other former and then current tenants – posting warnings about the guy at http://www.insiderpages.com, a site for reviewing businesses of all sorts.
The Internet is akin to America, before Theodore Roosevelt started to put regulations in place to ensure that American consumers could be protected. The term “let the buyer beware” applies to the Internet, as does “let the seller beware.” Likely it will remain that way for the foreseeable future. Whether that is good or bad, is the subject for another forum, perhaps the presidential debates later this year, when the smoke clears and two people are left standing.
Wildly outdated.
eBay is getting rough. So many sellers “cancel” or “refuse to sell the car” after a contract is completed, and ebay does nothing about it but give them a “strike”. even so much as me driving 4 hours to get the vehicle. However, if you try to back out you are in a legal contract, so you technically can’t.
Then the number of “auctions” for vehicles that have super high reserves is almost humorous.
Selling is worse because people don’t show up or pay (but your locked into a contract so you have to wait several weeks to relist it)
Its turning into the wild-wild-west.
I have bought 6 vehicles on ebay, but only received 3, and the other 3 were because of the seller. I have sold 4 vehicles on eBay but 2 were the same car and no one ever actually got it, I ended up selling that one on Craigslist.
Craigslist has always been the Wild-Wild west, but there’s no “deal” until theres a deal, which has its benefit. As long as you are smart about it, it seems much safer to me. I’ve bought or sold in the ballpark of 30 vehicles there.
Autotrader has gotten awful. We posted 2 cars and didn’t get a single call on either. Just because I thought Autotrader was junk, I kept dropping the price every few weeks for my BMW 3 series e90. I sold it on Craigslist, but kept it on Autotrader. I dropped it from 11,500 down to 4,800 a few hundred bucks at a time and never even received a single call. We had an SUV we listed on there and we received 2 calls but both were scams. A joke for the price.
I’ve had similar luck buying. I’ve tried calling and emailing sellers on there and never get a response, then I look and see tha the car has been on there for like 300 days- they probably sold it and just never pulled their listing. Then the MANUAL thing. So many cars are listed with faulty info (State manual transmission but its really automatic) and similarly.
needless to say I’ve paid to sell on Autotrader and tried to buy and have done 0 vehicles on there!