Facebook Marketplace or Auto Trader?
Where’s the best place to sell your car online? Here, we compare Facebook Marketplace and Auto Trader.
* All data below is accurate as of 01/02/2023
Who are Facebook Marketplace?
Facebook Marketplace are a platform, similar to Craigslist and Gumtree, from Facebook that allow their users or businesses to list anything from cars to clothes for sale. Facebook Marketplace launched in 2016 and act as a “venue” for buyers and sellers, leaving it to them to sort details like price, delivery and collection.
How is Facebook Marketplace different to Auto Trader?
Facebook Marketplace offer a range of items – from a bed to furniture, cars, kitchenware and beyond.
Auto Trader provide a platform to buy and sell vehicles for a smooth buying and selling experience, and offer a broad range of vehicles from cars, bikes, vans to plant machinery and more.
Auto Trader
On Auto Trader, you can clearly choose the vehicle you’re interested in and search by total price or monthly price. You can also refine your search based on different vehicle specs with over a dozen categories to choose from including gearbox, fuel type and car colour so you can find the perfect car for you. To contact dealers, you can call them or reach out using our platform by texting, sending an enquiry or using live chat.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace displays any and every type of vehicle - ranging from cars, bikes to boats - under one search. You can use filter your search for a particular vehicle type and filter down your search based on basic details such as price, vehicle make, model and mileage. To contact dealers on Facebook Messenger, you can only use your personal Facebook Messenger.
Finding the best deal
Auto Trader and Facebook Marketplace allow users to search by price, vehicle type, condition, make and model, mileage and other filters.
Facebook Marketplace’s search results are usually ‘close to you’, but you can change your location and expand your search.
Refine your search with our extensive filter options
Auto Trader offer dozens of search criteria in total and, to help you compare cars in your results. With the distance filter, you can view cars from dealerships within a reachable distance. If you have a particular car model in mind, you can directly search for it by choosing the make and model. You can also filter your search based on car specs such as fuel type, mileage and body type. Other options include method of payment and delivery options, among others.
Find the best priced deals
Adverts on Auto Trader feature price indicators. These show you whether the price being asked is fair or not. Always double-check the advert though, you may find a rare or unusual car up for grabs under a “higher price” flag. If you’re not looking to buy a car outright, we include the options to search car leasing, personal contract purchase (PCP) and hire purchase (HP) deals with Auto Trader.
Choice of stock
Facebook Marketplace haven’t made public how many cars are listed on their site.
Auto Trader have hundreds of thousands of listings from dealerships and private sellers.
In addition to used, approved used cars and new cars, we also stock bikes, motorhomes and caravans, trucks, and, plant and farm machinery.
Auto Trader
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Facebook Marketplace
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Valuing your car
Facebook Marketplace don’t offer a car valuation service, though they state that they’ll “suggest a price range based on similar items in your area” if you upload a vehicle.
On Auto Trader, online car valuations are free.
Checking vehicle history
When listing a vehicle on Facebook Marketplace, they ask for a car’s year, make, model and mileage, and transmission. So, the buyer must do a vehicle history check independently.
Before cars are listed on Auto Trader, they have a mandatory basic vehicle check.
Saving and comparing adverts
You can save Facebook Marketplace listings, including vehicles, to your profile.
On Auto Trader, you can save and compare unlimited cars with an account, or save up to four vehicles without one.
Save adverts and never lose a good deal
You can save unlimited adverts you come across if you sign-up for a free account on Auto Trader. Even without an account, you can save up to four adverts. On Facebook Marketplace, you can save searches only if you’re logged in.
Compare your saved searches
You can compare features like fuel type, gearbox, age and mileage between your saved cars. You can also see the dealer reviews and location side-by-side, along with the price indicator to know how the different cars are priced.
Get notified when a car of your choice is listed
Get a notification straight in your inbox when a car make and model of your choice is listed on Auto Trader. This can be helpful if you’re after something specific and can’t find it on Auto Trader. You can simply select the make, model and model variant you’re after and save the search – leave the rest to us!
How do we compare?
How do we stack up against other automotive websites?
* Please note this is a non-exhaustive list.
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Who are Auto Trader?
Offering used cars from private sellers and trusted UK dealerships, brand new cars and more, Auto Trader have over 40 years of experience as the UK’s largest automotive marketplace.
About Auto Trader
We're experts on cars, with over 40 years experience in the automotive industry, so you can count on us to bring you the best deals.
Autotrader Trustpilot rating: Excellent
Score is based on 99,291 reviews