Best Websites to Sell a Car Online

Are you seeking an efficient method to sell your car on the Internet? Opting for online car sales offers advantages like competitive pricing and bypassing the complexities of self-selling. The convenience and access to a broad audience make it a favorable choice. Given the multitude of online platforms, identifying the optimal place to sell your car is crucial. This guide aims to streamline your car-selling experience. Best of luck!
Below, we present 13 top-rated online platforms for selling your car.

Best Way to Sell Your Car Fast

• Auto Trader Car Buying Site
• Year Founded: 1997
• Traffic: 26.1 M
• Score: 7.8/10

Autotrader might be the best choice if you want to sell your car. Autotrader was the first site to streamline cars for sale by owner. This has led to the site having millions of active users, many of whom are ready to buy with cash.
Autotrader lists more than 3 million vehicles from 40,000 dealers and 250,000 private sellers.

Why Did We Pick Autotrader?

• Search tools make it easy for buyers to find what they are looking for.
• In addition, Autotrader provides buyers with a free vehicle history report on every vehicle listed for sale.
• Some listing packages offer a money-back guarantee; if your listing doesn’t sell, you won’t be charged.
• They have a useful feature that will automatically renew your listing every 30 days until it sells for free.

• Desktop 14.2M
• Mobile 11.9M

Best Site to Sell a Car Fast

When you list on Autotrader, your listing automatically appears on Kelley Blue Book’s site as well.

Autotrader’s free Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer program may be a great option if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to sell your car.

Fees for Listing Cars and Optional Add-Ons

Autotrader lets you sell or trade your car for free to a dealer. However, they charge a fee if you want to sell to a private party through its marketplace. Three packages are available, ranging from $25 for a basic listing to $90 for the premium package.

All options include photos and the ability to see how many customers have viewed your car. You can opt for the premium package if you want extras such as a Carfax report and additional photos.

Autotrader has an easy-to-use interface that a huge number of buyers rely on, and that is a reason to put it at the top of your list.

Best Website for Auctioning Your Car

• Year Founded: 1995
• Traffic: 213.4 M
• Score: 9/10

The eBay Motors brand is part of eBay, a global online marketplace that has been around for more than 20 years. The site features new and used cars, motorcycles, boats, and recreational vehicles.

Multiple Ways to Sell a Car

When you list your car on eBay Motors, you have the option of auctioning your car to the highest bidder or you can list it for a fixed price, known as “Buy it Now.”

If you auction your car, you might end up with more cash than you expected because enough people are interested in buying it. However, traditional auction results can be unpredictable.

When you list a vehicle for a fixed price, you know in advance how much it will sell for.

Additionally, when you’re listing a fixed-price vehicle, you can allow buyers to use the “Make an Offer” feature.

Why Did We Pick eBay Motors?

Found in 1995 eBay Motors is one of the best-known websites for auctioning or selling your car at a fixed price and that is the reason we gave eBay Motors a 9 out of 10. Our score is according to the ratings of Trustpilot, Side Jabber, and Consumer Affairs. It is a low-fee car listing platform as compared to other car-selling sites. The table below shows the traffic of eBay motors in the US region and also the reason to pick eBay motors.

• Desktop 121.4M
• Mobile 92M

eBay Motors Fees

eBay Motors makes it easy to set up online car sales listings. When you create a local listing, there is no fee. If you plan to list your vehicle nationally, it will cost between $60 and $125. Find out more about eBay’s fees here.

Drawbacks

There are some downsides, including the fact that the bids are not binding. That means the buyer who won the bid on your car can back out at any time for any reason.

eBay Motors’ biggest downside is that they do not handle the money for the sale or assist with the transfer of the title. They are just a way for you to get your car in front of people. The rest is up to you.

Great for Selling Your Car Locally

• Year Founded: 1995
• Traffic: 155.3 M
• Score: 8.4/10

When selling a car online, Craigslist may be one of your first thoughts. Craigslist has been around for about a decade, starting as an email distribution list in 1995. Now, it has listings in 70 countries.

Selling on Craigslist is similar to using your newspaper’s classifieds. You list your car on one of Craigslist’s hyperlocal sites for cities across the U.S. and around the globe.

Why Did We Pick Craigslist?

As a hyperlocal site, Craigslist is best suited for attracting local buyers. This is a great option if you do not want to deal with the logistics of transporting the car and collecting payment since you can just get cash in person.

• Provides you with a quick and low-cost listing
• Gives more details about the car that you want to sell

Message Relay System

Craigslist offers a message relay system that allows you to communicate with potential buyers without disclosing any of your contact information, such as your phone number.

• Desktop 77.6M
• Mobile 77.7M

Craigslist Listings Fees

Craigslist listings used to be free, but not anymore when selling vehicles online. Craigslist now charges $5 for 30-day listings, which is quite reasonable compared to other options. Also, if your vehicle sells, then you get to keep 100% of the profits.

Downsides

While selling a car locally may be easy, Craigslist may not reach the national audience unless people search outside their area.

This means that depending on your location and the make and model of your vehicle, a potential sale of your car might take longer than expected.

As one of the oldest websites on the internet, Craigslist gets a lot of traffic. However, with tons of traffic come tons of scammers. The smart seller will avoid them. Before completing any transaction on the site, make sure everything is in order.

Features are limited

While Craigslist may not offer extras like tools for sellers or the ability to sell to a dealer, the $5 listing fee for a 30-day car listing can make it an affordable way to sell your vehicle.

Safety Precautions by Craiglist

• Choosing a neutral meeting place ahead of time and bringing someone with you are precautionary measures that can keep you safe on Craigslist.
• Take prospective buyers along with a test drive.
• Before any money changes hands, get all paperwork notarized, and bring a counterfeit money marker (found at all big box office stores) to check the cash.
• Payment can also be made via a cashier’s check for added security.

Top Website for Providing a Wide Selection of Tools as well as Resources

• Year Founded: 2017
• Traffic: 39.5M
• Score: 7.9/10

If you are looking for the best way to sell a car online, check out Cars.com. With over 20 million visits per month, it’s the most popular website for selling cars.

They have a huge inventory, and their listings are syndicated widely which makes it the gold standard for auto sales.

Cars.com makes it easy to sell your car. You can create an account for free, and then post your car for sale in just a few minutes. Cars.com also offers a wide selection of tools and resources to help you sell your car, including:

• A pricing tool that helps you find the best price for your car
• A listing tool that makes it easy to create a listing for your car
• Guide for car buyers that provides information on buying a car
• A financing tool that helps you find the best financing options for your car
• Service center directory that helps you locate service centers in your area

Why Did We Pick Cars.com?

After calculating the traffic, reviews, features, and stats of cars.com, we gave the score to cars.com 7.9 out of 10 as per the reviews on Site Jabber, Trustpilot, and BBB. With the user-friendly interface of cars.com, you can easily negotiate with the buyer. Cars.com provides a great variety of resources and selling tools.

Sell your Vehicle to a Dealer

If you want to sell your car quickly, use Cars.com’s Quick OfferTM feature. Within three to four days, you can expect to receive up to four offers from dealers. Simply select an offer you like, and a voucher will be emailed to you.

Cash for Junk Cars

Cars.com’s partner site, Peddle, may be able to help you sell a damaged, non-operational, or missing paperwork vehicle. Peddle will assess your vehicle and may even pay you cash, regardless of how good it is.

Both Free and Paid Options are Available

When you are going to sell your car online through this website, you have both free and paid options for listing.

There is a possibility that your listing will be syndicated on one of their other websites, including NewCars.com, PickupTrucks.com, and Auto.com. Also, the car listing may appear on one of their affiliate sites.

The site also enables you to sell your car quickly to a dealer. If you value time more than money, this is a reasonable option.

Downside

There is more competition and it’s harder to advertise your car. It can be hard to get your vehicle the attention you feel it deserves unless you have a model that’s in high demand or stunning photos of your vehicle.

Best for Giving Fast Selling Offers for Your Car

• Year Founded: 2006
• Traffic: 19M
• Score: 6.9/10

CarGurus is one of the most popular car marketplaces in the U.S. It offers more than 5 million listings, powerful data analytics, and vehicle history reports.

Why Did We Pick CarGurus?

An easy-to-use interface

The CarGurus.com portal makes listing your vehicle quick, easy, and hassle-free by putting all the tools you need in one place so you can make the sale quickly.

Authorized users

The major benefit of using CarGurus.com to sell your car is that all the buyers have been verified. This means that if you receive an offer on your car, you can be sure it’s a real person making the offer, unlike some sites where scams abound.

Secure transactions

CarGurus Pay offers a secure online transaction with fraud protection of $75,000 – and payments are made directly to your bank account within three days. No more dealing with cash or bank checks.
However, CarGurus Pay isn’t required. If you deal directly with the buyer, you can accept cash, a cashier’s check, or any other type of payment.

What is CarGurus’ Price?

It only costs $4.95 for a 30-day listing on CarGurus. And if your car doesn’t sell, you can extend the listing for free. However, if you’re successful in selling your car on the site, you will be charged a flat fee of $99.

That means you will lose $100 regardless of whether you sell your car for $500 or $50,000.

Accept Bids from Dealers and Car dealers

If you prefer, you can also use CarGurus.com’s SellMyCar feature to accept bids from dealers and car dealerships. This vastly expands the market for your vehicle, which improves your chances of selling your car for what you want to get out of it.

The Entire Process is Supported

Selling a car with CarGurus reduces the hassle of the process. Dedicated support is provided from start to finish, including helping sellers establish an asking price.

The CarGurus platform allows you to receive payments directly through its platform (CarGurus PayTM) and can help you create a car bill of sale once you find a buyer and agree on a price.

Great for Selling Unwanted Cars

• Year Founded:2012
• Traffic: 11.2M
• Score: 6/10

A used-car marketplace best known for its car vending machines, Carvana was founded in 2012 to help people easily and quickly buy, sell, and trade in cars.

If you are just looking for an easy and convenient way to get rid of your car, this might be the right option for you. Find out if Carvana is legit in our Carvana review.

Why Do We Pick Carvana?

Trade-ins and instant offers

In order to sell your car fast, you just need to upload some documents and provide some basic information about it. As soon as Carvana receives this information, it makes an offer to buy your car within minutes. Once you accept, Carvana pays you immediately.
Carvana also allows you to trade in your vehicle. Carvana will hold your trade for seven days in case you decide to return your new Carvana vehicle and get your old one back if you return your new Carvana vehicle.

• Carvana provides you with a free pick-up service if your car is within 100 miles.
• You don’t need to visit any Carvana outlet to sell your car they will pick up your car without any fees.

Shipping your Car is No Problem

The site enables you to sell a car or truck fast and without having to deal with car shipping. You can drop off your vehicle at your nearest Carvana vending machine or choose to have it picked up at any location you choose.
If you owe more on your car than Carvana is willing to pay, you will need to pay the difference between Carvana’s offer and the balance on your car loan.

Great for Selling Undesirable Cars

• Year Founded: 2013
• Traffic: 1.6M
• Score: 7/10

Vroom works similarly to Carvana. The company buys almost any type of car, even cars that do not meet the requirements for online resale.

So, even if your vehicle is a bit old, not in the best shape, or has too many miles on it, Vroom may still buy it.

Why Did We Pick Vroom?

Best place to sell a car quickly

Additionally, it helps sellers find a quick sale. In less than 30 minutes, you tell them about your vehicle, they offer you a price for it, and they’ll come and pick it up and pay you via direct deposit.

Car sales and trade-ins are made easy

Vroom offers you an offer on your car instantly after you provide some basic information about your vehicle. It is valid for a week or for the next 250 miles that you drive your car. If you want to trade in your old car, Vroom will offer you a price based on that.

Provide Vehicle Shipping and Pick-up services

Vroom’s best feature is that it comes to you if you live in the lower 48. This means that you don’t have to move your car; Vroom will pick it up at your home or elsewhere. After your car is picked up, you will be paid. You can expect to receive your check-in in three business days.

Note: Vroom will charge you $599 for delivery of your new car if you trade in your current vehicle.

Great for Selling Collectible, Classic, and Rare cars.

• Year Founded:1954
• Traffic:7.1M
• Score: 4.3/10

Hemmings is the right choice if you are looking to buy or sell classic and collector cars. It is so popular among classic car enthusiasts that one listing can reach millions of potential buyers.

It’s a bit different from the other sites in a good way because people who visit are really into cars, so they know what they’re looking for.

It can be a great relief compared to some of the annoying interactions with people who are purchasing cars that they have no knowledge of.

Why Did We Pick Hemmings?

Hemmings provides you with buying and selling tips about cars, and it also provides advice about cars for people that are interested in classic cars. It is the best site for selling classic, rare cars, and their tools. We give Hemmings 4.3 out of 10 because Hemmings does not have more traffic and reviews than the other websites we mentioned before.

Best for Offering Unwanted Cars

• Year Founded:2011
• Traffic:187.9 K
• Score: 5.7/10

Peddle is an online car-buying service that offers excellent service and convenience to its customers.
In a similar fashion to Vroom, Peddle offers to purchase any car, regardless of whether it’s “Cool or Not.”

The site gives instant offers after you input the vehicle’s year, make, model, mileage, and condition. The title of the vehicle must be on hand.

Once an offer is made, it is valid for seven days. Once the car is picked up by Peddle, a team member will deliver a check to you before removing it.

Why Do We Pick Peddle?

The fastest way to sell a car

You will receive an offer to buy immediately after submitting your information. As soon as Peddle visually inspects and picks up your car, they will buy your car and pay you. There can’t be a faster way to turn an unwanted car into money.

It is the best website to sell your junk car at the best price.
You can get instant offers from Peddle without any selling fees.
Organic search traffic

• Desktop 99.6K
• Mobile 88.3K

The offer is not binding

You are free to accept or reject the offer. If you reject it, you are free to move on. With no ads to place and no test drives to schedule, the process is fast and convenient.

Good for Checking up on Your Buyer or Seller.

• Year Founded: 2004
• Traffic: 991.8M
• Score: 8/10

The Facebook Marketplace is a good place to start if you intend to sell your vehicle locally. Start by registering with Facebook and you can search for and post cars immediately

Among the best features of Facebook Marketplace is the fact that just about everyone in your community will already be on Facebook. According to Statista, as of 2021, 70.5% of American adults are using Facebook.

Why Did We Pick Facebook Marketplace?

It’s free to list a car on Facebook Marketplace, and you can look at potential buyers’ Facebook profiles to verify that they are legitimate.

Great Website for Selling your Vehicles Fast

• Year Founded: 2005
• Traffic: 9.4M
• Score: 7.8/10

TrueCar analyzes dealer pricing information, then shares it with prospective buyers.

Transparent information makes it possible for buyers to approach TrueCar Certified Dealers with certainty and confidence.

TrueCar is also a great place for people who want to sell their vehicles fast. Here you can get a True Cash Offer which is a very simple process. You’ll get an offer right on the site, and you can then go to a Certified Dealer to cash it out.

Why Did We Pick Truecar?

Truecar offers 3 days to accept or decline the offer if you somehow change your mind about not selling your car.
Truecar is not just about buying or selling your car but also provides you trade-in option.

• Desktop 5.3M
• Mobile 4.1M

Good Website for Selling Vintage and Sports Cars

• Year Founded: 2007
• Traffic: 3.4M
• Score: 5.7/10

Check out Bring-A-Trailer if you want to sell your car to like-minded people and you’re an auto enthusiast. The site contains a wide variety of vehicles, including antiques and sports cars.

On this auction site, you have to pay $99 to list an item, but otherwise, buyers pay most of the fees. If your car is vintage, this is one of the best sites to sell it.

The website gets a lot of quality traffic, meaning that most of the people who visit it are actively searching for products.

Why We Did Pick Bring-A-Trailer?

Bring A Trailer is the best website for selling and auctioning vintage and sports cars.
The most important feature of Bring A Trailer is that they provide White Glove Service whenever you need assistance to sell your car.
Bring A Trailer provides a nice and well-maintained listing of classic cars.

• Desktop 1.8M
• Mobile 1.6M

Best for Retail Used Cars

• Year Founded: 1993
• Traffic: 32.7M
• Score: 8/10

CarMax offers free vehicle appraisals at all participating locations, and they work hard to make fast and accurate offers.

The company then submits a written offer to be considered for a period of seven days. An instant offer will be provided in less than two minutes and will be valid for up to seven days.

You are under no obligation to sell to CarMax after an appraisal, but if you decide to sell, bring the title, keys, payoff details, and valid registration documents when you collect your money. A valid photo ID will be required for everyone who holds the title.

Why We Did Pick CarMax?

The reason we pick Carmax is that it offers good money for junk cars, cars with extreme mileage, or cars that have engine issues.

You don’t have to advertise your car and convince the buyer to buy your car, CarMax will directly buy your car from you.

• Desktop 17M
• Mobile 15.7M

Factors that Affect Your Car’s Reselling Value

• Age: The age of your car is an important factor to keep in mind before selling your car, the older your car is the less resell value you will get from it than a recently purchased car.
• Brand Matters: If you are looking for selling your car and it’s a Luxury car brand it will give you better resell value than other ordinary car brands.
• Extreme Millage: The lower the mileage on the odometer, the higher its resell value is.
• Condition of your car: The condition of the car is more important than mileage. If you are thinking of selling your car, it is necessary to check the condition of your car’s interior and exterior. You need to deep clean your car’s interior. Also, you can purchase car accessories such as Floor rugs to attract buyers. You can also go to the workshop to make your car’s exterior better.
• Modified cars: Cars that are modified have less resell value than unmodified cars because some people do not have the same taste as you.
• Car Registration: Registered cars may sell for a better price if you decide to sell them. It is difficult to resell cars with missing papers and unpaid taxes.
• Accident history: If your car is involved in a major accident then it will affect your car’s resell value negatively. Even if it’s completely repaired your car’s resale value will decrease at least 10% compared to a model in similar condition with no accidents.

Craft a Compelling Car Advertisement

To ensure a prompt car sale, mastering the art of crafting a compelling ad is essential. While a concise ad is preferred, including pertinent details about the car can be advantageous. For instance, sharing information about previous owners, your ownership duration, and the vehicle’s performance can intrigue potential buyers.

Furthermore, maintain proper grammar and spelling when drafting the listing. Refrain from using all capital letters. An error-free listing enhances credibility and prevents potential buyers from being deterred by mistakes.

Ensure Truthfulness Regarding Your Vehicle’s State

It’s crucial not to deceive potential buyers regarding your car’s condition. Instead, ensure honesty about the car’s performance and any necessary repairs. Some buyers are receptive to purchasing a car needing work if they have prior knowledge of its condition. This also holds true when obtaining an instant cash offer from a dealership, as the offer may be adjusted according to the actual state of your vehicle.

Is Selling a Car Online a Good Idea?

Unsure whether to sell your used car online or in person? While selling in person can be effective, online platforms offer a broader reach and security features like safe transactions. Consider your comfort level and local audience, or leverage the internet’s wide exposure and secure processes for a convenient sale.

Whether you’re interested in buying or selling a car online. You will need someone who understands your needs to deliver your vehicle to or from your doorstep.
For over 16+ years, AutoStar Transport Express has been transporting cars to and from all states in the United States.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about vehicle transport services.

Related Articles:

• Where to Buy Classic Cars and Vintage Cars Online?
• The 10 Best Online Car Auction Sites in 2023
• 20 Best Websites for Buying and Selling Used Cars Online

Bilal

Bilal is an auto transport blogger and internet personality who loves to share his thoughts and experiences with the world. He started blogging as a way to connect with other people who shared his interests, and he quickly gained a following for his honest, relatable writing style. Bilal Ahmed is known for his willingness to speak openly about difficult topics, and he hopes to use his platform to help others find their voice.

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