Auto Trader, just be careful kids

What can I say, Auto Trader aesthetics is amazing. That GUI of theirs is something amazing, however, it’s just a better looking gumtree. Don’t get me wrong, I love gumtree. They fully let you know that they are not responsible for any purchases made on their site, anyone is allowed to advertise and just in general keep an eye out because if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Auto Trader on the other hand doesn’t.

I saw an advert for an amazing deal for a ‘2019’ Renault Kwid Climber on their site from a My Dream Car “dealership” in March 2020 for R85 000. I made the purchase because naive me thought that Auto Trader had some sort of screening process for the companies that advertise on their site. The car turned out to have been in an accident which the company didn’t disclose to me, a few deadly serious issues later and I am just at the beginning of my spending on car and I’m well over 7 grand. See my review on My Dream Car.

Given, Auto Trader is a huge site... which also makes it all the more the reason that I expected a more professional platform. At least they could add simple code to verify the legitimacy of a company before allowing one to advertise. Just saying.

I sent the company a few emails concerning this “dealership” to let them know that it has done this before and it was just simply ************* and shouldn’t be given space to deceive other potential customers. Again, see my review on the “dealership”. Auto Trader simply sent me emails reassuring me that Auto Trader itself is a legitimate company and that they would gladly help out by telling the police the same thing if it needs be. I further told them that the issue wasn’t the legitimacy of the platform but the quality. They told me that they were looking into the “company” in question and left it there.

So faith level in the platform is at 40%. As long as I view it as a free for-all-site like my beloved gumtree( I really like gumtree), alls good.