Cars.com Sell & Trade vs PrivateAuto
Quick summary
Cars.com Sell & Trade has a verified free tier; PrivateAuto does not.
Verdict
Which one should you pick?
Choose Cars.com Sell & Trade when you want dealer offer vs. private listing — it has a verified free tier.
Worth knowing: Instant offer excludes salvage/reconstructed titles, vehicles older than 17 model years, flood/hail/fire damage, and vehicles under $1,000; listings exclude pre-1992 vehicles
Choose PrivateAuto when you want safer private-party sales — verified pricing: $29 listing + $150 closing.
Worth knowing: Not an instant-offer buyer — seller must find their own buyer and pay listing + closing fees; 'does not hold funds in the manner of an escrow service' and title transfer must happen in person
No universal winner — both entries are human-verified (dates in the Verification row below); weigh the limitations against your own setup.
Field by field
The verified fields
What it is
Cars.com Sell & Trade
PrivateAuto
Pricing
Cars.com Sell & Trade
Free
- Free instant dealer offer
- Free private listing — 'no costs or hidden fees to selling your car yourself'
PrivateAuto
$29 listing + $150 closing
- $29 per listing (one-time)
- $150 per deal closing fee (or $75 each if split with buyer)
Free access
Cars.com Sell & Trade
PrivateAuto
Platforms
Cars.com Sell & Trade
PrivateAuto
Standout feature
Cars.com Sell & Trade
Instant offer valid 3 business days with no obligation to buy a replacement vehicle, plus the free-listing alternative
PrivateAuto
Facial-recognition identity verification plus 'Verified Funds' confirmation before meeting, built to kill common private-sale scams; buyers use it free
Limitations
Cars.com Sell & Trade
Instant offer excludes salvage/reconstructed titles, vehicles older than 17 model years, flood/hail/fire damage, and vehicles under $1,000; listings exclude pre-1992 vehicles
PrivateAuto
Not an instant-offer buyer — seller must find their own buyer and pay listing + closing fees; 'does not hold funds in the manner of an escrow service' and title transfer must happen in person
Verification
Cars.com Sell & Trade
PrivateAuto
“—” means the official site does not state it — we leave it blank instead of guessing.
Straight answers
Common questions
Do Cars.com Sell & Trade or PrivateAuto have a free tier?
Cars.com Sell & Trade does, and PrivateAuto does not. A free tier can mean the whole product or a heavily capped version, so check the pricing detail on each card rather than the yes or no alone.
How much does Cars.com Sell & Trade cost?
Cars.com Sell & Trade has a free tier, and its paid pricing starts at Free as listed on its own pricing page. Tiers change — the card above shows every tier we verified, with the date we checked.
How much does PrivateAuto cost?
$29 listing + $150 closing, as listed on PrivateAuto's own pricing page on the verification date shown above. We record the tiers a site publishes and leave anything it does not publish blank.
What does Cars.com Sell & Trade support?
Cars.com Sell & Trade's own site lists Web, US local dealer network, Private marketplace listing, Caramel partnership for financing/delivery. We only record platforms a site names explicitly — a generic "100+ games" claim is not counted as support for any particular title.
What does PrivateAuto support?
PrivateAuto's own site lists Web, iOS, Android, US nationwide private listings. We only record platforms a site names explicitly — a generic "100+ games" claim is not counted as support for any particular title.
What are the drawbacks of Cars.com Sell & Trade and PrivateAuto?
Cars.com Sell & Trade — Instant offer excludes salvage/reconstructed titles, vehicles older than 17 model years, flood/hail/fire damage, and vehicles under $1,000; listings exclude pre-1992 vehicles. PrivateAuto — Not an instant-offer buyer — seller must find their own buyer and pay listing + closing fees; 'does not hold funds in the manner of an escrow service' and title transfer must happen in person. These are the limitations each product's own materials made plain, not a verdict on quality.
Is Cars.com Sell & Trade or PrivateAuto better?
Neither is better in the abstract, and this page does not name a winner. They differ on the verified fields above — price, free tier, platform support and stated limitations — and which of those matters is a question about your setup, not about the products.
