Best Sites To Sell a Car

Cars.com is our pick for the best website to sell your car online. The company has been around since 1998 and is a household name when it comes to selling your car. Cars.com offers two ways to sell your car: to a dealership in its network or to a private buyer on the Cars.com platform. Cars.com also has an A+ rating and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which shows it works with customers to resolve complaints.

Read More: Cars.com Review

Cars.com offers two ways to sell your car. You can sell your car to a dealer in the Cars.com network or list it on Cars.com and sell it to a private buyer for free.

Option 1: You provide information about your vehicle and then get a range for your instant cash offer. If you like the offer, you can continue the process and redeem the offer at a local dealer in the Cars.com network. You can sell your car outright or trade it in for another vehicle there.

Option 2: You can make a free listing on the Cars.com marketplace. People in your area can see your listing and contact you about the vehicle. It’s up to you to protect yourself and make sure the buyer is legitimate.

We found the experience of getting an offer to be fast and easy. Cars.com requires a license plate or VIN to get started.

Instead of giving an exact price for your vehicle, Cars.com provides a range based on your car’s value. This is because you’ll ultimately sell the vehicle to a dealership which will pay based on that range. 

Our team received offer ranges for a 2015 Ford F-150 Super Cab and a 2015 Toyota Camry from Cars.com. The range for the Ford was $14,075 to $16,175 and the range for the Toyota was $9,925 to $12,025. Both of these ranges extended above the Kelley Blue Book (KBB) values for each vehicle.

Carvana is the best option if you want to sell your car without leaving your driveway. The company’s name is synonymous with selling a car online because it offers fully digital service from start to finish. Many of Carvana’s have great experiences as evidenced by the more than 10,600 reviews that give the company an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot.

Carvana is currently not rated on the BBB. We reached out to Carvana for a comment and here’s how the company responded:

“Carvana is committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences, including making it right when we get it wrong. We are proud to see our dedication to our customers reflected in hundreds of thousands of real reviews averaging 4.7 out of 5.0 stars on Carvana.com. For questions or support needs, please contact our Customer Advocate team at carvana.com/help.”

With Carvana, you can get a cash offer, accept the offer and possibly even sell your car without leaving home. Before the offer can move on to a sale, however, a Carvana representative will inspect your vehicle. Depending on where you live, the inspection can be done at your house, a Carvana site or halfway between your home and a Carvana site.

Once the vehicle has been accepted, you can either have it picked up or drop it off yourself at a Carvana site. Carvana pays by certified check or direct deposit, which can take two to five business days.

Carvana has 38 physical locations across the U.S., so you can take your car to one of them to sell it or trade it in. Trade-ins work just like sales do with Carvana, and they can often be done remotely. This means you can get an offer online and use that as a credit toward your next vehicle as you shop on the site.

If you do a trade-in, Carvana will bring your new car and take the old one away. However, you might have to bring your car to a Carvana location or meet a representative at another place if your address is outside the service area. The company may charge you if it has to use a trailer to pick up your vehicle.

Carvana’s offer is good for seven days. After that, you may get a different offer from the company. Carvana offers a quick and easy cash offer process in our experience. We also found Carvana will keep emailing updated offers periodically if you don’t sell your car to the company.

Carvana offered us $9,911 for a 2016 Chevy Equinox. While that was in the lower range of cash offers we received for the vehicle, it was still reasonable. We also received an offer of $11,860 on a 2015 Toyota Camry, which was slightly higher than the KBB value. Carvana did offer about $3,000 over market value for the 2015 Ford F-150.

CarBrain is the best option if your car has seen better days. Perhaps it’s been in a couple of accidents or you have received a high repair bill that isn’t worth paying. CarBrain doesn’t have any hidden fees which makes it easy to know what you’d get for your car. The company has an A rating from the BBB and a high customer review score of 4.9 stars on the website.

Read more: CarBrain Review

CarBrain makes it easy to get rid of your damaged or totaled car. Just enter some basic details on your car and its condition and then review your offer. You could get an instant offer or receive an email or call depending on the vehicle.

CarBrain picks up vehicles in 24 to 48 hours after a signed offer on average. At that point, you’ll provide the keys and a signed title. CarBrain may help get the title released in some cases but it’s best to have a clean title when selling your car.

Our team received a CarBrain offer of $1,230 for a 2011 Honda Civic LX Sedan with 124,000 miles. The car had damage to the front left bumper. This was lower than the KBB private sale value but about what you’d expect for a company that will take damaged cars away fast with free nationwide towing.

If you have an older vehicle that’s taking up space on your property, we recommend checking Peddle out. The company buys old and junk cars across the country, whether they run or not.

Perhaps you’ve tried getting an offer from Cars.com or Carvana but got a message saying the vehicle was too old or had too much damage. You won’t get that message from Peddle. According to Peddle, the company has bought more than 2 million vehicles.

Most Peddle reviews show customers have a great experience. The company has a 4.6-star average rating on Trustpilot from more than 120,000 reviews plus an A+ rating on the BBB.

Read More: Peddle Review

Peddle’s car-selling process is similar to Carvana’s. You input information about your vehicle, including its make, model, year and vehicle identification number. Since Peddle buys junk cars, it’ll also ask if the tires are inflated or if any parts have been removed from the car.

Once you finish the questionnaire, you’ll get a cash offer that’s good for seven days. If you accept the offer, Peddle will send a tow truck to pick your vehicle up from your home. The driver will do a quick inspection and then pay you with a check (or cash in some cases).

We found Peddle’s questionnaire to be more detailed than those of some other companies. However, the online experience is easy to navigate and Peddle provides information and examples wherever helpful.

Since Peddle buys junk cars and provides free towing in as little as a day, don’t expect to get top dollar from the platform. We found Peddle provides decent offers, but the convenience factor improves the value when you don’t have to sell the car yourself.

Peddle gave our team an offer of $1,325 for the 2011 Honda Civic LX Sedan with 124,000 miles, which was slightly higher than CarBrain’s offer. We also received offers for much older vehicles — $820 for a 2007 Toyota Camry with 250,000 miles and $400 for a 2004 Nissan Altima with 250,000 miles.

TrueCar is the best option if you want to sell your car to a local dealership or possibly trade it for a new or used car. TrueCar works with over 13,000 dealerships across the country to help people buy and sell cars. The company’s powerful platform has many car shopping tools like a car affordability calculator and car loan calculator. TrueCar has an A+ rating and 4.2-star customer review score on the BBB.

Keep reading: TrueCar Review

As far as selling a car goes, it’s similar to Cars.com in that you get an offer online and complete the sale at a dealership. But what’s different is the TrueTrade™ offer is locked in and good for three days, so you don’t have to worry about the price changing at the dealer.

TrueCar’s valuation process includes multiple questions about things like aftermarket parts, accident history, optional equipment, mechanical issues and interior condition. You have to provide your contact information before you can see the offer, however. Be prepared to receive calls or texts from dealers in your area.

Our team received an offer of $14,525 for a 2015 Ford F-150, which was about $600 shy of the KBB trade-in value. We also got an offer of $11,984 for a 2015 Toyota Camry, which was about $200 above KBB’s trade value. While offer values aren’t the highest we’ve seen, TrueCar is a reliable website for selling your car with a fixed price.

Copart is another option for selling an older car that may or may not run. The company holds auctions for the auto industry and buys older cars directly from consumers across the country. It’s a good pick if you want to scrap a car for cash. Copart owns CashForCars.com, which also buys cars from consumers. Copart’s A+ rating on the BBB shows it resolves complaints quickly on the platform.

Read More: Copart Review

You can get an instant cash offer from Copart using its online form. Start by entering your VIN or the year, make and model of your vehicle. We found the online calculator works for most vehicles, but some situations might require a representative to review your information.

You’ll see an instant offer if in most cases. If you accept the offer, Copart will send a tow truck to pick your car up from your home. The driver will do a quick inspection to make sure the car matches the description. You’ll get less money if something’s missing, like the catalytic converter or a door panel.

In our experience, the calculator was a bit less intuitive than what some other companies have on their websites. While Copart provides free towing, some reviewers have had to wait longer than expected for the truck to arrive.

We received an offer of $847 for a 2007 Toyota Camry with 250,000 miles from Copart. This was just slightly higher than Peddle’s offer. Considering the offers were so close, both are solid choices if you’re looking to sell an older vehicle.

Out of all the car-selling websites we compared, CarMax gave us the best price for our 2016 Chevy Equinox. If you’re looking to get top dollar for your used vehicle, it’s definitely a good idea to check CarMax out. The company has an A+ rating from the BBB and has been in business since 1993.

Read More: CarMax Review

CarMax works a bit differently from other car-selling websites. In reality, you can’t fully sell your car online. You can get an instant cash offer for your vehicle, but you have to go to a CarMax location to finalize the deal. Offers are valid for seven days.

The offer is contingent on an inspection. In our experience, this inspection is fairly quick and won’t bring any surprises if you answered the questionnaire truthfully.

You can sell your car to CarMax or trade it in for another vehicle the dealer has in stock. CarMax can buy your car if you have an auto loan, but you’ll need to bring payoff information from your lender.

The following places don’t have CarMax locations:

• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Hawaii
• Montana
• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Vermont
• Washington, D.C.
• West Virginia
• Wyoming

One of our team members sold their car to CarMax. In their experience, the whole process was quick and easy. After a simple inspection of the vehicle, the CarMax salesperson finalized the offer price and wrote a check. In this case, CarMax paid off the remaining auto loan balance and gave a check to our team member for the extra amount.

We found that CarMax provides great offers for used cars. For example, we received an offer of $11,400 for a 2017 Kia Sportage, which was almost $300 over KBB’s value. Similarly, we got a CarMax offer of $12,000 for a 2016 Chevy Equinox, which was almost $800 over the book value.

If convenience is important to you, CarGurus is a great option. The company can provide an instant offer and pick up your car from your home (in most states). CarGurus has an A+ rating on the BBB and a high customer review score of 4.2 stars. Most reviews are about the car buying process but many say the platform is easy to use overall and customer service reps are helpful.

Read More: CarGurus Review

The CarGurus platform is simple and easy to use. It took our team about five minutes to get an instant offer. Unlike some other sites, it requires you to provide your VIN or license plate number to give you an offer — you can’t just select your car’s make and model.

Offers from CarGurus are valid for seven days or until you drive an additional 250 miles, whichever comes first. If you like the offer, you can schedule a pickup date for CarGurus to retrieve your vehicle. While CarGurus works with a network of dealers, it’s nice to not have to leave your home to sell your car with the company.

The instant offer option isn’t available in the following states:

• Alaska
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Maine
• Mississippi
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Vermont
• West Virginia
• Wyoming

You can also list your car privately on CarGurus to try to get a better price. The platform makes it easy to create a listing and upload photos to attract buyers. The listing fee to sell a car on the site is $4.95.

Overall, CarGurus provided mixed offers for the vehicles we tested. We received an offer of $11,123 for the 2016 Chevy Equinox, which was equal to the KBB value. CarGurus offered about $4,000 over the market value of the 2015 Ford F-150 but $3,500 below the market value of the Honda Civic. This is why it’s a good idea to compare a few different cash offers when you sell your car.