Autotrader UK: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 829 public Trustpilot reviews published 2026-07-26 to 2026-09-26. TrustScore 4.6 from 110,059 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is Autotrader UK legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report issues categorized as 'Other,' which accounted for 37% of the 90 complaints identified in the 829 reviews analyzed. Support-related problems were also frequent, with 18% of complaints citing unhelpful assistance and 12% noting that support was unreachable. Additionally, 14% of complaints involved account or app difficulties, particularly regarding identity verification. While reports of 'Other' issues and support problems were rising, complaints about account and app problems were falling during the period.
How to reach Autotrader UK
These are the contact details Autotrader UK publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-27 — phone 0345 111 0003, email [email protected], address Auto Trader, Tony Wilson Place, 1 First Street., Manchester, M15 4FN, GB.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2014-06-18, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, uses Trustpilot’s AI-assisted replies, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-26. Trustpilot ranks it 83 of 204 in Online Marketplace. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-27 and found 82 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Forum footprint: 1 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “Audi A3 - where to get one cheap?”.
Elsewhere: 3.6★ on Google (149 reviews)
TrustScore over time
4.6 → 4.6 across 9 census measurements since 2026-08-31. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-31 (95%, 3.5d) · 2026-09-05 (95%, 3.6d) · 2026-09-08 (96%, 3.6d) · 2026-09-11 (96%, 3.6d) · 2026-09-14 (94%, 3.6d) · 2026-09-17 (95%, 3.6d) · 2026-09-20 (95%, 3.6d) · 2026-09-23 (95%, 3.6d) · 2026-09-27 (95%, 3.6d).
Severity: 16% of this company’s 90 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
1★ share of negative reviews over time
Share of 1–3★ Trustpilot reviews that were 1★
In February 2026, 55% of 38 one-to-three-star reviews were 1★; in September 2026, 50% of 50.
Counted from February 2026 onward — the period for which our capture of 1★, 2★ and 3★ reviews is complete for all three. Months with fewer than 10 such reviews are omitted.
Reviewers here waited a median of 0.8 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (647 reviews record both dates).
Measured reply time: across 416 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 2.1 days — the company profile reports an average of 4 days. The two are measured differently: ours counts only replies we captured to negative reviews.
Reply quality: of 417 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 43% engaged with the specific problem and 29% were generic templates.
Review provenance: 730 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.69★, while 31 organic (uninvited) reviews average 2.19★.
16% of its 594 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: other makes up 37% of this company’s complaints vs a 22% median across 249 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 7,149 of this company’s 110,059 Trustpilot reviews (6%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about Autotrader UK?
Other
33 reports · 37% of complaintsrising since 2026-09“As per other reviews, just a portal for scammers to get hold of you and try to defraud you.”
The company replied on 2026-09-01: “Hello Jack, Thank you for leaving us a review. It's disappointing to hear that you've had a negative experience while using our platform recently. This certainly isn't the experience we want sellers…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“x6 scam calls, x1 credit card fraud!”
The company replied on 2026-08-24: “Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback. Our aim is to ensure you have a smooth experience when selling a vehicle online. I am sorry to hear this has not been the case for you. We have a…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Unfortunately, all con artists”
The company replied on 2026-08-25: “Thanks for taking the time to leave us a review, John. I understand that you haven't had the performance you expected from your advert, and I'm sorry to hear that your enquiries have mostly been from…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unhelpful
16 reports · 18% of complaintsrising since 2026-09“There has been over 20 emails with a Carlos, who failed to tell me to just add SDV8 to the advert.”
The company replied on 2026-08-18: “Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback. Our aim is to ensure you have a smooth experience when selling a vehicle online. I am sorry to hear this has not been the case for you. To get more…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The first issue was they didn’t turn up on the day it was meant to be delivered.”
The company replied on 2026-08-18: “Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback. Our aim is to ensure you have a smooth experience when buying a vehicle online. I am sorry to hear this has not been the case for you. When matters…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
“complete nightmare trying to advertise untrained staff no one knows what the hell they are doing”
The company replied on 2026-09-26: “Hello Jas, We appreciate you leaving a Trustpilot review and for providing us with your feedback. Your feedback is important to us and helps us discover where we need to invest in our products and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
Account/app problems
13 reports · 14% of complaintsfalling“I’ve had a complete nightmare trying to complete my advert in terms completing my identity verification.”
The company replied on 2026-09-21: “Hello David, We appreciate you leaving a Trustpilot review and for providing us with your feedback. Your feedback is important to us and helps us discover where we need to invest in our products and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I could not get the address on initially as it says I am a trader (which I have never been)”
“It was difficult to log in and I could not find my add.”
The company replied on 2026-09-14: “Hello Debbie, We appreciate you leaving a Trustpilot review and for providing us with your feedback. Your feedback is important to us and helps us discover where we need to invest in our products and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
Support unreachable
11 reports · 12% of complaintsrising since 2026-09“I reached out to auto trader for some assistance but because I’m Pay as you go trader and only have 4 cars listed with them at one time, they completely ignored my email.”
The company replied on 2026-09-04: “Thank you for leaving us this Trustpilot Review, Robbie. It's really unfortunate to hear that your advertisements haven't been performing as well as you'd like recently. There are many factors that…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
“Communication has been awful. I’ve been promised same-day callbacks on several occasions that simply never happened.”
“No one to report to on AT, they seemingly don’t care”
The company replied on 2026-09-14: “Hello Dan, We appreciate you leaving a Trustpilot review and for providing us with your feedback. Your feedback is important to us and helps us discover where we need to invest in our products and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
Misleading pricing
9 reports · 10% of complaintsrising since 2026-09“Put it on at three different prices, no interest.”
The company replied on 2026-08-24: “Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. I’m sorry to hear that your advert didn’t generate the level of interest you were hoping for and that the experience didn’t meet your expectations.…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I applied a 30 mile radius filter.. and the majority of cars I was shown were hundreds of miles away.. presumably featured ads.”
The company replied on 2026-08-10: “Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, James. I understand that you're seeing results outside of your distance radius preferences. That could happen for two reasons: 1. The results matching…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“For me, false advertising.”
The company replied on 2026-08-24: “Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback. Our aim is to ensure you have a smooth experience when buying a vehicle online. I am sorry to hear this has not been the case for you. I can see…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to escalate.
Overcharging
4 reports · 4% of complaintsrising since 2026-09“The cars clutch slipping oil leak water leak . Took it back to get my money back and he charged me £325 to take it back”
The company replied on 2026-08-25: “Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, Christopher. I understand that you're having issues with a car you purchased from a trade seller, so this review might not be for Autotrader directly.…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I reached out to auto trader for some assistance but because I’m Pay as you go trader and only have 4 cars listed with them at one time, they completely ignored my email.”
The company replied on 2026-09-04: “Thank you for leaving us this Trustpilot Review, Robbie. It's really unfortunate to hear that your advertisements haven't been performing as well as you'd like recently. There are many factors that…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
“Paid like 100 pounds to upload a car in your site had like 2 calls absolute rip off!!”
The company replied on 2026-09-25: “Thanks for taking the time to leave us a review, Alan. I'm sorry you haven't got as much interest in your advert as you expected. It's great to hear you sold your vehicle, even if it wasn't sold…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
Compare Autotrader UK with…
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-27.