Bring A Trailer Reviews 122

Horrible communication and pushy to sell cars at no reserve auctions. This tells me they have somone buying cars on the cheap first choice probably an investor

BUYERS BEWARE SCAM WEBSITE! They pull all comments down that points out any imperfections. They are ruthless scam company and of course out of CALIFORNIA! I will report them to the BBB! They spoof listings. They have fake bidders pushing prices up to screw buyers! I HAD EVERY COMMENT REMOVED! Don't ever buy on this site unless you want to loose THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS! customer service contacted me saying you not allowed to post anything negative..this is so they can get way over retail for thier junk cars TO SCREW PEOPLE FOR LAGER COMMISSIONS..I AM WORKING ON PUTTING THEM OUT OF BUSINESS!

After being on here for a couple of months trying to buy a specific type of car, it became really obvious how much this site is manipulated by mostly dealers. It's just another "public auction" scam site. You will see over and over again a dealer list a vehicle, then an obvious shill account come and bid up the price. By obvious I mean a shill account that has bid on dozens of different types of vehicles, but never won anything. BaT clearly doesn't have analytics to see these accounts, or doesn't care as they bring up the price to increase their own commissions.
Dealers keep prices inflated. It is easy to search the VIN online and see what really happens to a car. A dealer will buy a car at wholesale auction, detail it, and say the don't know anything about it. Set a high reserve and when it doesn't sell just kick it to wholesale auction for a fraction of the non winning bid, and try again with another. The are expecting that 1 car they made really high margins on to pay for all the others that didn't sell. Dealers make all kinds of excuses to refuse to have the car inspected. I've been told "I'm on holiday", "we only allow inspections 24 hours before auction end", "we only allow inspection if the reserve is met", "I can't allow inspection because I don't want to ruin my relationship with Bat" Pure lies.

Been selling cars all my life and have the worst experience in my life with bring a trailer. I was taught by my grandfather who sold cars for more than 50 years. They're not in business to do business. They're after a quick buck and a quick sale in fostering their unnerving entitled West Coast behavior. They have no logic or deductive reasoning on how to set auction reserves. Save your time and aggravation as there are better auction houses out there.

I was recently bidding on a vehicle, totally shield bidding!! I was the very last bidder, the clock kept resetting!! I looked at the other bidders… they never won an auction, but did a ton of bidding!!! Total shield!! AND there aren’t any deals!!! Don’t kid yourself!

I have contacted BAT on five prior occasions regarding a serious breach of confidentiality
related to my vehicle listing, yet I have received no response from anyone at your company.
Specifically, a BAT employee disclosed my confidential reserve price to a third party prior to
my listing going live. This constitutes a clear breach of contract and a violation of basic seller
trust.
In addition, I have repeatedly raised concerns about BAT’s deliberate suppression of my
comments on auctions, particularly those involving so-called “Partner Sellers.” This continued censorship has directly affected my ability to participate fairly in auctions and recently influenced the outcome of a sale to my detriment and to the benefit of a Partner Seller.
During the most recent auction, a commenter asserted that the current bid price was too low and encouraged higher bidding, citing a 2022 sale of a similar 700-mile car for $238,000. In response, I researched all black 1989 Ferrari 328 GTS sales on BAT since that time and identified seven subsequent sales, each closing below $130,000. I provided the mileage and sale dates using data sourced directly from BAT’s own website.
Despite the accuracy and relevance of this information, BAT refused to publish my comment.
This selective moderation served only to shield a Partner Seller and artificially support a
higher valuation for the vehicle.
This conduct mirrors my earlier experience as a seller, in which BAT improperly disclosed my reserve price.

By suppressing factual, relevant commentary on Partner Seller listings, BAT is failing to operate as a neutral marketplace and is instead favoring high-volume or preferred sellers.

This undermines the integrity of the auction process and violates BAT’s obligation to provide a fair and transparent platform for all users

I had a very disappointing experience with Bring a Trailer. The platform does not seem to encourage open and honest discussion, comments feel restricted, and I was limited in my ability to ask questions or participate fully in bidding.

There is also virtually no customer service or any meaningful way to speak with someone directly. Trying to get assistance feels impossible, which is unacceptable for a platform handling high-dollar vehicle transactions.

The community aspect was equally frustrating. Instead of thoughtful discussion about the vehicles, it often feels like people are more focused on getting attention or collecting likes for their comments.

On top of that, the buyer’s premium is excessive for what the platform provides. Overall, I would strongly recommend exploring other avenues for purchasing vehicles before committing to Bring a Trailer. There are better, more transparent options available.

This past December I was the winning bidder on a Bring a Trailer auction for a 1959 Morgan plus 4 DHC (drop head coupe). Within minutes of the auction close I was contacted by another BAT member who was familiar with the car, he pointed out Advantages: Inexpensive, lightweight, stable (does not warp easily in dry conditions), and provides a smooth, knot-free surface for laminating or painting.
Disadvantages: Poor moisture resistance (swells/deteriorates), low strength-to-weight ratio, poor screw-holding capability, and releases volatile organic compounds (VOC), when the car was restored cheap particleboard ( was substituted for the original marine grade plywood used by the Morgan factory in the rear body frame section. At some time the rear axle had impacted the cheap particleboard causing visible damage. I was continuously hounded by bring a trailer and the seller to complete the purchase. I then informed the seller and BAT that some sort of price adjustment would be called for to replace the fiberboard with plywood to repair the damage and insure the structural integrity of the car. And offered $24000 to accept the car in its present condition (an offer that I now regret making), The seller refused and so I in turn refused to complete the sale.The seller (who is not the owner, but a friend of the owner's son) then re-listed the car on BAT ( now including photos of the damage ) which only achieved a high bid of $17000, resulting in a No Sale. BAT is now refusing to refund my bidder and winner fees. I must now bring a small claims action against BAT to recover these funds; I had purchased a 1960 Morgan through BAT in October for $21000, which had many upgrades that this car was missing, so I am not a serial non-payer, I just want a car to be accurately described in the listing ! Why does BAT allow third parties to post cars that they have no first hand knowledge of and omit obvious faults, if this car was described in the original listing including the damage photos, I would have not bid on it at all... BAT needs to clean up their act, I will now see them in court, if they bother to show up !

No explanation why I could not list with them. Customer service is the worst I have ever seen. Customer follow up is terrible. I have never left a bad review on a company in my life but this definitely the worst.

No seller support whatsoever. Also, there are the Trolls who disparage your vehicle and place low bids with no intention of winning/buying anything. I would place my experience with BAT in the category of Horror Show. It's better to go with a reputable consignment lot.

I purchased a vehicle through Bring a Trailer (BaT) and utilized their checkout and delivery service, which proved to be a massive mistake. Upon delivery, police intercepted the carrier because the driver was transporting a stolen vehicle and narcotics alongside my car. During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that the VIN tag on the car did not match the original tag shown in the auction listing.

Despite the severity of this issue, BaT’s customer service was non-existent. They have no phone support, and my multiple emails went completely ignored. Furthermore, their 'checkout service' acted as a middleman dealer that delayed my title for an entire month, rendering the car undriveable. Because the transaction was processed through this third party rather than the private seller, I was hit with significantly higher dealer-related taxes and fees. Once BaT took their cut, they completely abandoned the buyer.

The car also had bubbling paint due to some rust (not pictured or mentioned), several fuel leaks, a dipstick that was cut off and didn’t touch the oil, and the clutch went out on the first actual drive once I finally was able to get it registered.

I am not surprised at all of the other one star reviews after my experience.

EDIT: In response you your reply, @BaT:
I already emailed that email address multiple times with no response. Maybe actually check and respond to emails. Another thought…. Why not have a phone number a customer that is spending thousands can actually call? Why would I waste my time sending another email that will not be responded to. Respond and take action on my first emails sent months ago, and I will happily update my review showing that you tried to make it right.

Bring A Trailer's customer service is horendeous

BAT is BULL.....Today it was an 06 BMW M5 that supposedly sold for $150,5555 there is no way in hell that was a real bidders who will actually close, and when I posted a few comments after that auction about my skepticism they were abruptly removed what the hell is going on here bat?

Many beautiful cars however the auction process is flawed. It seems to be run by a group of dealers that puff each others listings. Comments tend to be skewed towards glowing reports versus neutral observations regarding features of the listing that bear further examination. It’s definitely buyer beware here as often negativity is masked in order to sell the vehicle. Truly disappointing.

Scam website, you have zero protection. They block all helpful comments from people about condition of the vehicle that may help you to avoid mistakes.
They only carried that seller gets top price.

Potential buyers should look at the reviews for Bring-A-Trailer. I find it odd that you can leave questions asking the seller to disclose specific mechanical and bodywork issues and the seller can totally ignore the questions. If you don't want to expose issues, just don't answer questions right. Best to Read the reviews.

Allowed these blatant liars and trolls continue to make comments w/false information, lies, unwarranted attacks & made up bs to sabotage the sale of my vehicle. Even after the auction has ended this is going on! This entire experience, from before the auction went live to even after it's over, has been nothing but a headache, waste of time, disgusting and disturbing experience. BAT did the opposite of generate real interest or buyers. Actually did the opposite. I believe this bs will now hurt any future ads I post for my carThey also blatantly refused to remove clear bs comments even after being flagged. To top it off, they removed some of MY comments that were anything but attacks. They have also gone non-responsive after they got my money.

I was scammed by an unscrupulous dealer. I paid top dollar for a motorcycle which was completely misrepresented, and lost 50% of my $8700 upon realizing its true value when assessing the problems it had when I received it. The dealer was one of BaT's long-time alumni dealers. They make huge profits off these dealers. BaT requests that all dealers and private sellers are 100% transparent about the overall condition of their vehicles. My bike had fuel leak problems from the petcock as well as many long gouges in the paint which were touched up. These issues were not addressed by dealers. I contacted the dealer, and they denied that the bike had issues before it left their dealership. Since it took only 7 days for it to arrive at my home, there's no way that the dealer's private shipper made five long gouges in the front fender then touched them up. Nor would the fuel suddenly begin leaking in that short period of time. They gave me their shipper's name, phone number and email. I attempted to ask the shipper about the pre-shipment condition of the bike by phone and email. They refused to answer me, even after one week of attempts to get an answer. No pre-shipment inspection list or photos were available for me to see when the bike arrived. Here's how bad BaT is...I made truthful comments about my experience with that dealer on one of their other bike auctions, and BaT banned me from making any remarks on their site, no matter what was being sold or who was selling it. BaT didn't like me being truthful about one of their pet dealers, obviously. Interestingly enough, I found another buyer who had a worse experience with the same dealer. What I was banned for must have raised some eyebrows, because that dealer went off the radar from BaT's auctions. Another note. BaT refused to remove the dealer from their site, and didn't assist me in the least with my problem. I'm 71 years old, and you can bank on my truthfulness here.

I used to enjoy this website years back when it used to be a site listing unusual cars selling elsewhere. The owners have ruined it being greedy. There is no reason to pressure sellers into no reserve auctions or control the listing content wording so tightly. It means they make their money no matter what, but at the expense of their customers. I am not a high volume seller or buyer, but will stay clear of this business until they revise their business practices. 1.4 Stars isn't anything to be proud of! They aren't the only place to buy and sell cars and word is spreading fast on forums if you do a search about what actual customers think about BAT. Do better or continue to spiral down.

The auctions themselves are great, and selling a vehicle on BaT is actually kind of fun. But, once the vehicle is sold it's not as represented. BaT touts their checkout process, and the buyer told me it seemed like the only option for payment (very misleading). The 3rd party vendor they use is unresponsive and has a needlessly complicated and time consuming process for paying the seller. Payment was needlessly delayed.