AutoNation Review: Is It Legitimate? (2024) (2024)

With over 300 dealership locations across the country, AutoNation is a one-stop shop for millions of drivers who want to buy or sell a car. In our AutoNation review, we at the MarketWatch Guides team will cover the company’s car buying and selling processes and compare its vehicle pricing to market value averages. We’ve reviewed the best places to sell your car and will recommend a few of our top picks, as well.

AutoNation Review and Ratings

AutoNation offers everything you’d expect from a national car dealership: a large inventory, intuitive online shopping tools, fast cash offers and free home deliveries in certain areas. We reviewed AutoNation’s experience when you buy a car and sell a car separately. Below are the details of each rating.

Our AutoNation Car Selling Rating: 8 out of 10

Overall, AutoNation is a trustworthy national dealership with reliable customer service in most locations. It has a strong online platform for buying or selling a car and offers good prices for car sales and trade-ins. We rate it 8 out of 10 and rank it among our top 10 picks for selling your car.

Our AutoNation Car Buying Rating: 8.6 out of 10

AutoNation is also a great option if you want to buy a car. You can purchase a vehicle in person from a dealership or search inventory online. AutoNation can ship cars to customers for an extra cost. Plus, customers within 25 miles of a participating AutoNation dealership can get free contactless delivery with Store-to-Door Delivery^℠. Overall, we rate AutoNation’s car shopping options 8.6 out of 10.

AutoNation Pros and Cons

Below are a few pros and cons of AutoNation we found in our review.

Is AutoNation Legitimate?

AutoNation is a reputable car dealership that has been around since 1996. You can buy and sell cars at any AutoNation dealership across the country. This dealership has served millions of customers and the vast majority had good experiences.

AutoNation provides fast cash offers online, but you’ll have to visit a location to get an inspection and finalize the sale. Certain services can vary by location, so we recommend looking up reviews for your local AutoNation for more details.

AutoNation Overview

Founded: 1996

Services: Vehicle buying, selling, trading in, financing, leasing

Vehicles Purchased: Fair to excellent condition

Vehicles Sold: New and used

Based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and founded in 1996, AutoNation is a national car dealership that has grown to have over 300 locations. In addition to selling at physical stores, AutoNation sells cars online through AutoNation Express and can ship vehicles to most locations. The company offers financing options, micro-leasing and vehicle protection plans. With its RepairSmith program, AutoNation can send certified mobile mechanics to make repairs at your home or work.

How Does AutoNation Work?

In this section of our AutoNation review, we’ll go into detail about the company’s cash offer/trade-in and car shopping experiences.

Selling a Car With AutoNation

Selling your car to AutoNation is fairly simple, as long as you live close enough to an AutoNation location to make it worth it. In this way, it’s similar to CarMax since it requires you to visit a dealership location. In contrast, some online car buying companies like Carvana can pick your vehicle up from your house.

1. Get an Offer

You can start your request for a cash offer by entering your car’s license plate or vehicle identification number (VIN).

Next, you’ll provide more information about the car:

• Basic details: Trim, exterior color, seat color, seat material and mileage
• Special options: Sunroof, navigation, EcoBoost, larger wheels and more
• Condition: Exterior condition, interior condition, modifications, accident history, number of keys and any mechanical work needed

Then the system will ask if you want to sell your car or trade it in for a new/used car. After that, you’ll provide your contact information including email, phone number and zip code. Your zip code will determine which AutoNation location responds to your request.

2. Review Your Offer

You’ll get a phone call and/or email from an AutoNation store within 30 minutes during business hours. So, you’ll get a fast cash offer, but not an instant one. Our team received email offers within five minutes, so the system was pretty fast.

This offer is good for seven days or 500 miles — whichever comes first. That gives you some time to shop around and compare your options.

3. Make an Appointment

If you like the offer, respond to the dealership location that reached out to you and make an appointment. You’ll see on the offer letter that the following documents are required for the appointment:

• Valid registration and driver’s license
• Title if you own the car outright
• Lienholder name, phone and account number if you have an outstanding loan

AutoNation can buy cars that have current loan balances and pay lenders directly. However, it won’t pay more than the offer amount. If you owe more than AutoNation is offering, you’ll have to cover the extra yourself.

4. Get an Inspection and Get Paid

The last step is to visit an AutoNation dealership location for an inspection. This might rule out AutoNation as an option if you live too far away.

AutoNation staff will inspect your car to make sure it matches the description online. Be aware that the offer is dependent on your car’s condition, so it can change if the inspection reveals additional issues. If there are no issues, you’ll get the full offer amount.

One nice thing about AutoNation is it can pay cash offers via Zelle, so you can get money in your account by the next day. Some companies pay by ACH transfer or a mailed check — both of which can take a few business days to arrive.

Instead of getting cash, you can apply the offer to a trade-in. We recommend you shop that location’s inventory to see if there’s a car that will work for you ahead of time.

Buying a Car With AutoNation

Now we’ll look at AutoNation’s car buying experience, from comparing vehicles online to AutoNation’s different final sale options depending on your area.

Shop Online With AutoNation Express

AutoNation Express shows tens of thousands of new, used and certified pre-owned cars that are available for purchase across the country. You can also view Carfax reports and service histories for each vehicle.

You can also filter the selection by:

• Make
• Model
• Trim
• Year
• Mileage
• Features
• Specs
• Fuel type
• Distance
• Keywords

AutoNation displays no-haggle prices, which means the sticker price is what you pay. While that can be a downside for some people, it can also take some of the stress out of buying a vehicle. To complete a purchase, you’ll contact the dealership that has the vehicle you want. AutoNation automatically sorts cars by proximity to your zip code, so it can be helpful to enter that information first.

AutoNation Store-to-Door Delivery

Some AutoNation locations participate in Store-to-Door Delivery, which provides delivery to customers within a 25-mile radius of the location. To see which cars qualify, input your zip code and filter cars within 25 miles. You’ll have to contact the dealership directly to see if it offers Store-to-Door Delivery.

Get Prequalified

You can get prequalified online to shop for vehicles that are in your budget for monthly payments and total cost. Prequalification doesn’t require a credit check. Like the cash offer system, the prequalification system requires your zip code to locate your nearest dealer for financing. However, because prequalification doesn’t hurt your credit score, you aren’t locked into using a specific dealer location for full financing.

Buy Online or In-Store

While it might look like you have tens of thousands of vehicles to choose from, your vehicle selection might be limited to dealerships within a few hundred miles of your location. To purchase a car, you have to contact the dealer that has it.

A dealership across the country may recommend you shop from a store closer to your area instead. That said, if you’re serious about buying a particular vehicle from far away, you might have to pay to ship the car to a closer location first.

If there is no AutoNation in your area, you can complete the purchase process online and get the car shipped, though it might require a fee.

AutoNation Extended Warranty

AutoNation offers a vehicle protection plan to cover repairs after the car’s factory warranty expires. There are five levels of the AutoNation Vehicle Protection Plan:

• Platinum
• Gold
• Silver
• Powertrain
• Engine

Some warranty companies and manufacturers offer three plans or less, so it’s nice that AutoNation offers five. Plans also come with roadside assistance, rental car reimbursem*nt and trip interruption. You can go to any AutoNation dealership for repairs or visit any licensed repair facility in the U.S. or Canada.

AutoNation Mobility (Micro-Lease)

Drivers in Southern California and South Florida can take advantage of AutoNation Mobility to get micro-leases that don’t have traditional 36-month terms. Instead, you can get six- or 12-month terms. The lease comes with a limited warranty and a maintenance plan.

Does AutoNation Provide Good Value for Vehicles?

In our AutoNation review, we took a look at its value from both perspectives of shopping for a car and selling one. In terms of shopping for a car, AutoNation’s prices tend to be in line with Kelley Blue Book (KBB) private-party values or higher for certain vehicles. That said, we found AutoNation gave good cash offers for well-maintained cars without extremely high mileage.

AutoNation’s Car Selling Prices vs. Market Value

Overall, AutoNation gives good cash offers unless you’re selling a very old car with many miles. For example, it offered our team more than the KBB trade value for a Ford F-150 and a Toyota Camry, both of which had about 65,000 miles. However, it only offered $1,300 for a 20-year-old Honda Accord with 185,000 miles. Below are the details:

AutoNation Car Buying Prices vs. Market Value

Below, you can see how AutoNation prices compare to KBB private-party values for different vehicles. You’ll notice AutoNation’s price is a bit higher for the Camry and significantly higher for the Ford F-150. On the other hand, AutoNation’s price on a Honda CR-V is slightly less than KBB value.

You can compare these prices below. The Ford and Toyota had about 65,000 miles while the Honda had 29,000.

AutoNation Customer Reviews

Generally speaking, the majority of customers have positive experiences with AutoNation. We recommend looking at AutoNation reviews for your local dealership to see how its customer service is rated. AutoNation has a corporate Better Business Bureau (BBB) page with a C- rating and a nearly 1.2-star customer review score. However, this page only accounts for 25 dealership locations in Florida, and there are just over 100 reviews.

Since not all AutoNation dealerships have “AutoNation” in the business name, customers may not think to review AutoNation’s BBB page in the first place. Below are a few Google ratings from AutoNation locations in different cities.

Positive AutoNation Customer Reviews

Positive AutoNation reviews on Google praise the staff for being knowledgeable and friendly. Customers say they received good prices for their trade-ins and they appreciated not having to haggle with a salesperson on the cost.

Negative AutoNation Customer Reviews

While most people have good experiences, some don’t. For example, some AutoNation reviewers on the BBB said their newly purchased cars had mechanical issues. Others had trouble with the service department taking a long time or not fixing the issue on the first try. To be fair, these few reviews on the BBB account for a small fraction of AutoNation customers.

Our team reached out to AutoNation for comment on its negative reviews and BBB rating but did not receive a response.

AutoNation Review: The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, AutoNation provides reliable car buying and selling services across the country. The only limitation compared to online dealers is that you have to bring your car to an AutoNation location if you want to sell or trade it in. We recommend checking out AutoNation reviews for the dealerships nearest you as you shop for a car or look for somewhere to sell yours.

AutoNation Competitors

We recommend comparing AutoNation with Cars.com and Carvana if you’re wanting to sell a car or buy a new one.

Cars.com: Editor’s Choice

Cars.com has one of the largest new and used inventories out there. It has over 10,000 dealers in its network so you can find vehicles in almost any metro area. This means it’s likely you’ll find a dealer in your area to sell or buy with. Cars.com provides instant cash offers for selling or trading in your vehicle, though it may not buy old or high-mileage vehicles. Overall, Cars.com is one of the best car buying and selling apps out there.

Peddle: Good Choice for Older Vehicles

AutoNation might not want to take your old clunker. If that’s the case, we recommend checking out Peddle. The company has purchased over 2 million old and junk cars from people across the country. Peddle sends a tow truck driver for free who comes with a check in hand. Peddle is the best option to scrap your car whether it runs or not.

AutoNation: FAQ

Below are some frequently asked questions about AutoNation:

Our Methodology

Because consumers rely on us to provide objective and accurate information, we created a comprehensive rating system to formulate our rankings of the best platforms to sell your car. We collected data on several providers to grade each company in five key areas. The end result was an overall rating for each provider, with the car selling platforms that scored the most points topping the list.

Here are the factors our ratings take into account:

• Industry Standing: Our research team considers ratings from industry experts and years in business when determining this score.
• Platform: Platforms that offer a variety of features, including instant offers and multiple sales options, are more likely to meet consumers’ needs.
• Cost: To compare providers’ average offer prices, our team conducted a secret shopper analysis for a variety of vehicle types. We also considered the fees companies charge to use their platforms.
• Support: Car selling companies that offer strong transaction support received the highest scores in this category. This includes offerings like free pickup service as well as how quickly you receive your payment.
• Customer Experience: This score is based on customer satisfaction ratings on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot as well as our team’s experience reaching out to each platform.

*Data accurate at time of publication.