Are you looking to earn some quick cash for your used car?
If you want to get a car off your hands and earn some extra money in the process, we’ve got you covered.
Alternatively, if you are searching for a car but can’t afford a new one, you’ve come to the right place.
Today, we will be going over the best used car websites in the United States for buying and selling used cars.
Financing is available from most of them, which means you can pay for your used car monthly, if you qualify, instead of all at once!
If you want to sell a car, many of these sites allow you to get an instant offer and cash within days.
Quick Summary
The best used car websites for buying and selling used cars include:
- Cars.com
- CarMax
- CarGurus
- Autotrader
- eBay Motors
- AutoTempest
For the full list, continue reading!
1. Cars.com
Cars.com is one of the largest websites for buying and selling used cars in the US market. When searching for cars to buy, simply filter for used or certified cars.
Certified cars can be a bit more expensive, but they’re a surer bet. A certified pre-owned car has been certified by a dealer and thoroughly inspected to ensure that it is working properly.
Certified pre-owned cars also usually come with other perks, such as a free vehicle inspection and an extended vehicle warranty that a regular used car would not have.
Different manufacturers have different certification programs, so the requirements to be certified can vary. Cars.com has a useful chart allowing you to compare certification programs from different car manufacturers.
In any case, Cars.com has tons of vehicles to choose from. There are even pickup trucks and electric vehicles available for sale.
You may be eligible for financing, even on a used car. Cars.com has partnered with several loan providers, such as Capital One, to offer financing to its customers.
Financing depends on the dealer you are purchasing from through Cars.com, as each lender in the Cars.com network has partnerships with specific dealers directly.
You can see if you prequalify before making a loan application without hurting your credit score. Prequalification is easy and takes just a few minutes.
If you want to sell your car, there are two ways to go about it.
The easiest way is to sell directly to a dealer. When you sell to a dealer, you will get an instant offer and complete the sale upon inspection.
You won’t have to deal with potential customers. The dealer will pay you for the car directly.
Another option is creating a listing and selling it on Cars.com yourself. That way, you may have more control over the price, but you will have to deal with customers directly.
Since the dealership is obviously looking to buy low and sell for a higher price, it is likely that you will get a lower price if you sell directly to a dealership. For many people, though, it’s worth it, as you avoid the hassle of dealing with customers.
In either case, when you submit your car’s details to Cars.com, the site will give you an estimate of how much you can sell your car for to either a dealership or a private customer.
2. CarMax
Another website I love for selling and buying used cars is CarMax. You can purchase used SUVs, sedans, crossovers, pickup trucks, and more.
You can easily estimate which car you can afford by using the simple calculator. It takes inputs such as your credit score, the initial down payment you can afford to make, and how much you can afford to pay in monthly payments (including interest).
You can also see if you prequalify for financing.
CarMax Auto Finance is a tool offeredby CarMax that allows you to manage and schedule monthly payments and get billing reminders.
If you want to sell your car, you can get an offer and leave with cash in hand immediately. The offer is valid for seven days, so you have a week to compare your options and decide on whether you want to go with that offer or another one.
You don’t have to buy or trade in a car at CarMax to sell your car, although you can certainly trade in your car for another one if you are interested in upgrading.
You can get an offer online. However, you will have to bring your car to a dealership in person for inspection, to ensure that the car’s condition matches the state you said it was in, for the offer to be valid.
3. CarGurus
Next on my list of favorite sites to shop around for used cars is CarGurus. CarGurus features used cars of all makes and models in your area.
With CarGurus’ new program, you can now purchase cars entirely online from across the country, expanding your reach and allowing you to access the best deals.
You can have a car shipped to you, and there is a seven-day money-back guarantee window in case you are not happy with the car you got.
You can also opt for a certified pre-owned car, which has been inspected to ensure quality.
If you don’t want to pay for the entire car upfront, don’t worry. You can prequalify for financing to see if you are eligible for a loan.
Prequalifying takes just a few minutes and will not affect your credit score. CarGurus works with a network of lenders, such as Capital One and Global Lending Services, to offer prequalification and financing.
If you own a dealership, you can sign up as a dealer on CarGurus and sell your inventory.
4. TrueCar
TrueCar is a website where you can shop for used cars from over 15,000 dealers. On the homepage, you can estimate your buying power by entering your down payment, credit score, and monthly payment into the calculator.
The calculation will be based on an estimated APR (Annual Percentage Rate), which will be based on your credit score. This APR will be shown to you, but keep in mind that APRs can vary depending on factors beyond your credit score alone.
You can also include a trade-in amount in the calculator if you want to trade in an old car.
If you want to sell your car, you can get an instant offer.
Members of the military can benefit from special incentives and discounts on TrueCar.
5. Autotrader
Autotrader is a marketplace where you can buy and sell cars. If you’re in search of a car, you can filter by make, model, and other details.
You can also calculate the price range you can afford to buy a car in by entering details such as your monthly payment and down payment.
If you want to sell a car, you can get an instant offer and walk away with cash in hand. Alternatively, you can trade in your existing car for a new one, with the value of your old car going towards the buying price.
Another option is selling the car yourself, directly to Autotrader buyers. The advantage of going down this route is that you have more control over the price.
However, Autotrader does charge you for placing an ad on the site. It costs $49/month for the ad (price subject to change), and it includes listings on Kelley Blue Book as well.
You also get a free vehicle history report with your listing.
However, the $49/month fee is not all inclusive. Even if you sell directly to a buyer, Autotrader takes a commission, which can be as low as one percent.
All buyers on Autotrader are verified. Their IDs are scanned to confirm their identities to help reduce fraud.
6. Kelley Blue Book
Kelley Blue Book is one of the most well-known car valuation websites. It allows you to check the estimated value of a car, including used cars, based on make, model, mileage, and other details.
However, a lot of people don’t know that it also allows private sellers to sell their used cars to buyers. It has useful filtering tools for buyers, such as the ability to filter by radius, drive, make, model, year, and other filters.
Furthermore, it has a helpful comparison tool that allows buyers to compare two cars.
There are two ways to sell a car on Kelley Blue Book. One option is to sell it to dealers.
If you sell it to a participating dealership, you can get an instant offer on your car. You can then get hard cash or trade your car in for a better one.
Alternatively, you can sell on Kelley Blue Book’s private seller exchange. You can run an ad and reach verified buyers.
7. eBay Motors
Did you know that eBay has an entire section dedicated to vehicles and vehicle parts/accessories?
eBay motors is a great place to find remarkable discounts on used cars, trucks, or motorcycles. It’s also one of the best places to shop if you are looking for collector cars, antiques, exotic vehicles, and even RVs or boats.
Furthermore, you can buy vehicle accessories at excellent prices.
Other than that, it has all of the great stuff eBay usually has to offer. For the best prices, check items that are marked as “or best offer.”
That indicates that the seller is willing to accept a lower offer than the listed price if you are ready to make an immediate sale. If a listing has been sitting for quite a while without any buyer, the seller may very well be willing to accept a lower offer in exchange for quick, hard cash.
However, make sure to check what kind of shipping is offered. Many buyers only offer local pickup.
That way, they can release the vehicle once you give them the cash. It’s also advantageous to you, because you get a chance to inspect the vehicle and perhaps even take it for a test drive (with the owner’s permission) to ensure you are getting what you are paying for.
However, some buyers may offer national shipping. It may come with a fee, but expanding your vehicle search nationally can also allow you to get a better price on your dream vehicle.
eBay Motors has tons of helpful filters. For example, you can filter by year, vehicle type, number of previous owners, body type, and more.
8. Carvana
Carvana is a website where you can find used cars for sale. These cars can be delivered straight to your home, saving you the hassle of finding a dealership in your area.
After all, if you don’t have a car, it might be a bit of a challenge getting to the dealership!
Home deliveries take as little as three days.
All cars are inspected by technicians, but if you don’t like the vehicle after it was delivered to you, you are protected by the seven-day money-back guarantee.
Alternatively, you can opt for pickup at a local Carvana “vending machine.” There are 33 of these vending machines located across the nation.
And yes, these are actual vending machines, just for cars!
The vending machines are large, stacked parking lots of cars.
Once you purchase a car online, you can pick it up at a vending machine. You will get a special token to insert into the machine and watch the automated system take out the car for you.
You can then take possession of the car. Remember, you have seven days to test it out, as you will still be protected by the seven-day money-back guarantee, even if you opt to pick up your vehicle from a vending machine.
You can see a short video demonstrating how these vending machines work here.
Financing is available. You can check if you prequalify in just a few minutes, with no impact on your credit score.
Do you want to sell or trade in your car? You can get an offer within minutes.
9. AutoTempest
Finally, let’s finish things off with AutoTempest as a kind of bonus. AutoTempest doesn’t sell cars itself but rather aggregates information from several used car sites.
It includes results from eBay Motors, Autotrader, TrueCar, Carvana, Cars.com, and other sites we did not mention in this article, like Hemmings.
Your dream car might not be available on a specific site. While you can always search through several sites one after the other, it is a lot more convenient and efficient to use AutoTempest to search through several sites at once.
You can then head to the respective site to purchase the car there directly.
Conclusion
If you’re interested in selling a car, any of the options above are great. Just know what kind of selling experience you want.
eBay Motors, for example, only allows you to sell to buyers directly. Other sites may also offer the option to get an instant cash offer for your car by selling to a dealership.
However, the cash offer might not be to your liking. It’s a good idea to submit your car for sale to several of these sites and compare the offers you get.
If you want to buy a car, all of these sites are awesome as well. Always check a car’s history report and make sure it has been inspected recently before buying it.
