CarGurus: Used & New Cars Reviews

by Crivard903

We’ve searched and found 2 cars to purchase with CarGurus. 1 of them 2 years ago, 1 purchased just yesterday. I tried to list a car for sale today and attempted almost 10 or more times. Re-entering info on the website, tried creating an account multiple times, tried signing in with Apple ID, downloaded CarGurus (which is basically just a forwarding screen of the website) never received an email or text to confirm sign up, still wouldn’t hold my information, still won’t create an account... was ready to use, tried every avenue available to create an account and simply never passed the sign in screen. Huge hurdle and disappointment. No time to waste. Will be using another platform. Sorry not sorry.

by GiaBorrero

The when I first downloaded CarGurus a couple of year ago it was so easy to use but in the last couple of month it’s started showing I had more cars saved than what I really had, showing messages that weren’t there, comparing saved vehicles was so much easer before because you could click on a vehicle and just scroll between the saved vehicle now you have to exit out of every car you saved because if you click next it will show sponsor vehicles instead of the ones you had already saved, the other thing that was easier to use was removing saved now what used to be a 1 step process got turned into a 3 step process, and the last thing that made the whole thing easier to use before was the fact you could use filters on you saved list now the only thing you can do is change the way they sort the list... really disappointing

by Mjordan.6

Why would you allow sellers to list vehicles without even a single picture of the car they’re listing? I see listings all the time with a picture of the front of the car, and nothing else. Those are annoying, but at least there’s a general idea of what you’re getting into. Then I see listings that have no pictures, and very little to no info about the car besides the make and model. Half of the results in searches could just be makes and models, you have no idea what you’re looking at.

Fret not, there is an option to filter out the listings without photos. It only took my 1700 search results and literally made it “9 available listings” all of which were tens of thousands outside of the maximum price range I specified. Thanks this app for allowing a good chunk of people to waste everyone’s time, and for your questionable efforts to help sort through the rubbish.

Other than that I have few complaints other than UI issues that I’m sure you pay people to figure out for you. If you have patience, you can definitely find your next car here. If you don’t, find another place.

by Boz1200

I’m trying to sell my car and have noticed a number of bugs in CarGurus (iOS), such as when typing a longer response to someone, eventually your typing continues off the screen and you can’t see what your typing and cannot scroll down. So I have to start up my computer and respond there. Another bug I found was when I clicked on an image in the message thread I could not get OUT of the image. There’s no “x” button to close it, and you can’t hit a “back” button because one does not appear. You can’t event refresh the screen. You have to just close the whole app out and open it again. Makes me wonder if I chose the right app/service to sell my car 🤔.

by Lilpaceman

CG used to be my go-to when looking at cars or helping friends find cars but it seems like CG has sold out, and I don’t say that lightly. I set the criteria to show me trucks under $5,000 and a minimum of 100K miles and the first 2 pages are nothing but trucks with under 30,000 miles and priced at $40K+ and all because they are “sponsored listings”, and the few that show up in the price range, are not real. The list price is actually the down payment and the real price is in the description and it’s usually $15K-$20K.

90% of the listings are not within the simple criteria I’ve set so unfortunately I am going to delete this app.

I write this in hopes that enough people will agree and the creators will fix the issue.

by Gearhed78

App is nice for the convenience of not needing to sign in like you would with the website. The setup is ok except for one thing that really needs to change is when you look at one vehicle listing and want to go back to the other listings, the “ All results” option is very close to the car gurus home page option and i quite often accidentally press that instead of the All results and it causes me to go back to the homepage and I have no way of getting back to where I was searching. Causes me a lot of frustration when I have many filters picked. I know I have the option to save my filters but sometimes I forget to do that. Another thing which has to do with the filters is how the filters options always changes depending on what you search for or how you search. For example when you want to search by body style it doesn’t allow you to put in the price. You have to search by price first then pick the body style but then you lose other filter options. I still will continue to use CarGurus however I hope to see some improvements in the near future.

by Doobie Reed

I HATE that when I put in a certain mile range to look at cars in, I get cars outside of that range that are in Texas or Florida. I understand they will ship/deliver a car, but any dealership will ship a car . I want to only look at cars that are in my search radius. If this app is going to continue to do crap like that there needs to be a filter option where I can select it to not see those cars. CarGurus can be kind of spotty at times, but like I said I do use it A LOT. I hate that when you select a car to look at, the “All Results” button to go back to the list of cars is right underneath the this app home button, which when you hit it by accident sends you back home and refreshes your filters you used to search for a particular car. That can be very frustrating when you select 4or 5 filters and accidentally press the wrong button bc the back button is so small and I have to start all over. Hope y’all take some of these thoughts and improve your platform. I have bought and sold cars from y’all, and anything to make it better is a win for everyone.
Thanks

by Alligator42908

I like how everything is placed, but the whole app is just glitchy. And it’s always been like that, I’ve had CarGurus for years now and I haven’t remembered a time that it wasn’t glitchy. Maybe at the start but I don’t remember. Sometimes when you exit out of a car that your looking at it brings you right up to the top. Doesn’t matter if you were 500 cars down, It’ll bring you all the way to the top. So you’ll have to scroll all the way back down to where you were at. As you can imagine it’s pretty annoying, especially when you’re far down. Like CarGurus otherwise.

by Ludicrous6

I’ve used CarGurus for a little over a year now and it’s mediocre. The filters I place do not filter out correctly. For example, I’ll place a filter for nothing more than $40,000 and will still get results for over $40,000. Also when I filter out distances, it will give me nationwide results. Occurs on multiple occasions. If I’m looking at my results and then press back to results, the page opens up back at the top and I have to scroll back down. This is more of an annoyance. I’ve also found that when I contact the dealer via the already populated template with multiple questions regarding the vehicle, I’ll get a response from the agent of please call to discuss the details. I’ll continue to email and they’ll tell me that they cannot see the questions I asked. It would be nice to remove vehicles permanently that I’ve already seen and not interested in.

by O'myword

I think this is one of the best apps when searching for a car...or was. I used CarGurus a couple years ago to buy a car and CarGurus was fine. Now CarGurus has many bugs. The most glaring issue is that cars that I favorite don't always show up in the favorites section - and it's not bc they were sold. Depending on my sort option "best deals" "lowest price" "lowest mileage" etc I will get different results. A car will show up under one sort option but then be nowhere to found under another sort option. I'll also get price drop notifications on cars that were favorites but again cannot be found on my favorites list. It's a bit maddening. Wish they could fix these bugs bc CarGurus is still better than most - but now it's unreliable which is a deal breaker.

by Narriissaa

Let me start by saying I love CarGurus. It helped me find my first car. It’s really simple to use and helps the user find great quality cars for good prices near them. My issue with CarGurus sadly, is the signing in issue. I sign in with my Google account, and started saving favorited cars there. Every time I enter CarGurus I’m always signed out. And I have to sign in again. It’s annoying. Other times it signs me in with my Apple account, so now all my favorite cars are shuffled between two accounts. It’s frustrating and hard to keep track of. Lastly, CarGurus crashes, A LOT. There isn’t a day when I’m on CarGurus and it doesn’t crash. Like I said before, I really enjoy CarGurus and wish these minor in-convinces could be fixed to make a good app a great app.

by Red4Green

The problem I’m about to describe is not unique to this app. It applies to the whole genre of used car apps. If this app wants to stand out, they should consider addressing the following:

I’ve been looking for a few months for a used car and sometimes the ‘good’ or ‘great’ deals on these apps are misleading. Just spoke with a dealer about a used car that appeared to be $1600 below market on a couple car apps. It was flagged as a “Good Deal.” They don’t mention on CarGurus what I was only able to find out when I pressed the sales guy for details: there’s a $700 dealer fee, a $400 fee to process registration, and a $750 penalty for paying cash. The dealers are smart and have figured out how to game these apps to attract potential buyers with “Good Deals” and hopefully keep the fees hidden until the buyer is hooked on making the purchase. It’s frustrating and a fundamental flaw with these apps. The solution to this problem seems simple: require the dealers to list all fees along with the list price of the car, and factor those fees into the deal rating. Only then can a real comparison be done.

by 6Odiesel

I don’t understand why I have to sign in every time. I’ve tried my Google and Facebook account, both sign out every time I exit it. This isn’t Fort Knox, doesn’t need a sign in every time. Also filtering is hit or miss. I’ll put in filters and it will work, I’ll look at a vehicle then go back to look at another and sometimes it still has my filters, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I’ll add filters and the number of vehicles goes down like it should but then I add another filter and the number goes up? Should obviously go down since I’m getting more specific. Also if I set a price of $25k I shouldn’t get ads for $40-$70 trucks.

by Coco171625

I like using CarGurus better than AutoTrader because of the interface but there are definitely things they need to improve on. Depending on which search option you use, random filters might not show up, for example mileage. Also, some screens don’t have a back button, so if you tap a link that moves you to one of those screens, your only choice is to restart your search. There are also times when it seems your filters are disregarded and results show up outside the selected price range.

by JVern85

I really enjoy CarGurus, I’m on it all the time shopping around. If I could just make one suggestion that I hope would be a simple fix. This particular addition would make this app hands down a 5 star app!!

When you are searching for vehicles by brand; You have the option to choose max vehicle mileage, max price range, and transmission type. When you search by body type these options aren’t available in the search filter. When you try to explore by body type it is almost overwhelming trying to find the range you are looking for. On top of that there have been many times that I finally get to the price range or mileage I’m looking for. CarGurus would randomly refresh causing me to begin the forever scroll through vehicles I have no interest in. Again I love CarGurus and will continue to use it I just think all your customers would benefit greatly from this adjustment. Thanks!

by Mkkph

I was able to find my Tesla model 3 on CarGurus. It was a bit frustrating trying to find it on my own and getting financing on my own through the banks. I bought the car through shift from CarGurus and it was so seamless. Got approved right away for 3% financing with Bank of America. And got my tesla the same day delivered to my house! This is amazing I cannot believe how awesome CarGurus is and my car! Thank you so much for creating this amazing platform that is helping people finding their dream cars!

by Saturn28

This site has been great in allowing me to search widely for the car I’m looking for. It allows you to plug in all kinds of criteria to narrow down your search based on miles away from you, trim levels, mileage, year made, etc. it’s helped me zero in on local dealerships when looking for a car to test drive w/o having to contact each dealer or search each website separately. Very helpful in searching for the right car (especially in such a tough market right now.)

by Breezy0322

Definitely my favorite app to search for cars. Ended up finding my future car using this app. The filtering options make it far less overwhelming to search through the hundreds of listings to find what you’re actually looking for. The only other site I found myself actually using after downloading and searching for them all was Edmunds and I pretty much just used that to look up reviews on makes and models after using this app to find the cars I was interested in.

by Bugfootwonder

CarGurus used to be really great. However in recent months I’ve seen issues with it I thought maybe it was just my phone but I got a new phone and still seem to have the same issues. Slow app asks if I want to sign in every time as it says I’m already signed in. If I look at a vehicle and try to hit the back button I have to go back to the main page and start my filters all over again. Just seems like maybe needs some updates I’d like to see it go back to how it was in 2018 that was the best set up for CarGurus . Make it different than all the other car apps. Other than that I still use CarGurus it’s a better set up than true car. The picture format is better than all the other apps by far so I’m still giving it 5 stars because it’s CarGurus I use the most

by Morrrittzzzsayenough

If you initiate a New car search from the initial screen, the new version fails to display any vehicles no matter which make/vehicle you choose. Once it does this there is no option to increase the search mileage from the default of 50 miles. If I click on a prior to version upgrade “New car search” it returns a valid result set. Also there appears no way to communicate with the developer regarding bug fixes. When I go to “report a problem” it fails. I’m on IOS 15.3.

Update: I’m on 2.33 now and the issue is resolved.

by New Home Owner2013

I find CarGurus to give me more frustration than its “ability”. Let me begin
1: I am not able to create an account with my user name and password. I am only allowed to sign in with Facebook (which I’m banning). I have written to the help center and the very thing I told them, in detail, that wasn’t working they instructed me to do. This just tells me they scanned my plea for help and gave me a manuals instructions. I can’t save any of my searches. When using filters despite the search criteria I implemented CarGurus still shows me many vehicles that are out of my criteria. Lastly, when flipping from search filter to then selecting the years filter CarGurus flips out and forgets all the previously selected and shows me whatever it feels I want to see.
I have a iPhone 7 so my phone isn’t too old can’t seem to understand why so many problems other than the fact I am unable to save because I am unable to create and account. I don’t recommend CarGurus until they fix the bugs OR get better customer support and actually pay attention to this who trying to tell them something. Move on!

by Still Disappointing

I have had several vehicles listed for a few weeks and have received many messages and even a couple offers but none of my responses are getting back to the buyers. Buyers can send a message to the seller but do not realize that unless they sign up for an account and make a password they will not be able to see any responses from the seller. I have had people ask for my phone number and try to send me their’s and the site will not let you send personal information because they are so concerned about their hundred dollars. Every single message I have responded back to a potential buyer still continues to show unread. Great site for research but horrible if you actually plan on selling anything unless you are a dealer where people can look up your contact information through the Internet.

by CO JW

A lot of people seem to like using car gurus to list their cars they have for sale. I can’t understand why since it is the least user-friendly car search app out there. The filters never truly filter, i.e. if I am searching for an SUV I get a ton of sedan hits along with it. You can’t ask it to show you cars based on the lowest price to highest any other way for that matter, they are just randomly listed and you have to look closely at each one to make sure it meets all of your parameters. But the worst problem I continually have with CarGurus is when I enter search filters I invariably go back to the listings and find that one or more of my filters did not take. Compared to the other apps, this one is so frustrating to use. Developer, please do something about these things and bring it up to par with the other car search apps!!

by Ayeitsdelrey

CarGurus is great, if you can get it to work properly. I’ve been using CarGurus for probably 2+ years now, and still haven’t seen many improvements made whatsoever. CarGurus is sooo glitchy. Crashes constantly, extremely difficult controls, takes forever to load small things such as car color! I know it’s not my phone causing all of the glitches and what not, I have a brand new iPhone X, and it was also extremely glitchy on my old 6s+. CarGurus isn’t all negative though. After you get used to it, and discover it’s quirks, it’s very useful. I am giving a low rating due to the fact that no improvements have been made over a period of roughly two whole years. Such a bummer, but I really hope to see improvements soon, as I really appreciate CarGurus.

by House Mania

Great app but new version/redesign is prone to bugs.

For starters, CarGurus is much slower than it used to be and some of the filters do not work properly. E.g. I searched all Used & CPO 2018 & 2019 Toyota Camrys within 50 miles of me with a V6 engine and it said there were only 11 results but it actually displayed 100s of results. Further, the initial 11 results did not even fit my search criteria and the results were in no particular or relevant order.

When viewing a listing, CG took away the capability to visit the dealership’s website directly from the listing. It used to have a direct hyperlink. I realize CG’s goal for the user to stay on CarGurus as long as possible but the old feature made it easier to check whether the dealership’s site posted additional photos, had more information regarding the description, or most importantly, provided a carfax, something this app doesn’t list.

It made viewing car photos a lot easier and you no longer have to click through the slow slide show. You can now click on the 1st photo and brings them all up on one page.

A lot of the listings used to have “AutoCheck” (similar to CarFax) provided on the listing for free but not so much anymore. Also, you now have to tap “All Stats” just to see the mileage, color, drivetrain, transmission, engine, options, and other important details regarding the car. Why CG decided to hide the mileage at first glance is beyond me.

by Brandon R.V. Galloway

I’ve used CarGurus for awhile now and even to replace a car. I’ve also used it for fun. It’s a cool app if you want to find eclectic cars that you may not have heard of. However when it comes to actually finding a car to purchase CarGurus is more than aggravating. Some filters are only available some of the time. One second I can choose what type of transmission the car has, and the next moment that option has been repealed. I also noticed, while goofing around with CarGurus, when you select “all cars” it only shows you a portion of cars. Typically, only the newer versions? I’ll look up a specific make and model within certain stipulations and then search again under the same make but all models and suddenly it’s gone. Even if I haven’t altered the filters. This upsets me most of all because I know when I select “all cars” I’m only truly seeing a select few.

by SharingDietRecipes.com

I have a love Dash hate relationship with CarGurus. I like using the search functionality, although it’s frustrating that it limits my range 200 miles on certain searches, when I live in the middle of BFE and the nearest car dealership is over 100 miles away. So what I have to do is put in multiple ZIP Codes for major metro areas within driving distance in order to get the search results. Kind of a PIA but doable.

Real hate part of this relationship comes in when the system white screens on me, which it does every few days. Mostly when I go to view a Carfax, or other link which goes to an external URL but provide CarGurus provides no way to return to CarGurus . So you end up stuck in limbo until you delete CarGurus , and then reinstall it. I think I’ve re-install CarGurus at least a dozen times. I wish the developers would fix the issue, until then I can only get CarGurus 2 stars.

by Mennis1516

DEVELOPERS READ!!! CarGurus seriously needs a huge makeover. Don’t get me wrong, I love what it provides and the idea of it, but it’s in no way functional. There’s no way to go back to the search page without going all the way back to the home page, completely having to redo your filters and how you sort the results. I just wonder if the website is as bad as this. But it wasn’t always like this. It used to have a back button at least to where you wouldn’t have to redo everything again. But even then, the back button wasn’t in a dedicated place. You had to scroll up in order for it to be available. Developers please, you have a good idea here but a bad execution. Get it done right please! It’s only a two star because, and I reiterate, it’s a good idea. Better than Autolist and TrueCar. I hope developers read this

by AmandaUchiha

Car gurus is a great site, but CarGurus is having some serious glitches. CarGurus will never fully load and has that little loading circle in the middle of my screen the whole time. I can press on the filter button, but for some reason it will show me a car instead. When I try to press “all results” once I’m done looking at a specific car, it won’t take me back to all results. I know it’s not my phone because all of my other apps work perfectly and don’t have loading problems. Just getting on this app on my laptop is easier than using CarGurus .

by TKC Mags

Love CarGurus! Lately when I go to launch CarGurus , it will fail and says “try again”. No matter how many times I click the try again button, it won’t work. I even tried closing CarGurus and tried again.

When CarGurus does work, its great! Love all the filters options that you can use when searching. It narrows down the selection of vehicle’s that I am looking for. I also like how it tells you if the cars are overpriced or below value. I’ve purchased two cars that I found through this app. My family has asked me how do you find these cars with low miles and such a great price. I told them this app!

by Fdahseff

CarGurus is absolutely amazing it shows you all the cars of your choice and price rand in a select area with whatever options,mileage,trim level,color ect. But they just added these new filter Menus which are much less convinent when you want to say find a specific price you instead of just sliding and letting go on the price you like you have to slide wait realize the price is not what you want and then move it again and again because it doesn’t show you the price you selected but otherwise I do recommend anyone interested in cars or is in the market for a car or just wants to see how much discount you can get I still have CarGurus but please go back to the old filter menu

by Nandowelan

CarGurus is great in general and easy to navigate around. One thing that would be cool is to have a feature where you can choose and hide the cars you’ve already looked at and decided not to buy so that when you come back to the search, the cars that you’ve already discarded are not there cluttering the search results. I think it’s convenient because I’ve been looking for a Nissan 350z for the longest time and was really picky as to what I want and need in the car and if that certain thing was not found, I would avoid and discard it from my selection. Sadly each time I would do a search, the same car I’ve already decided not to get is still there and sometimes because if the huge selection I forget I ever looked at the car. When this happens it gets me hyped and instantly get disappointed when I find that it’s the same car I didn’t want the first time I saw it. I don’t know if that makes sense. Anyways, other than that it’s great.

by NHazen

CarGurus is just great. My friend’s been looking for a 4 runner since before he got his permit and hasn’t found one in his requirements. Year later on this day he texted me to ask for help on finding one. In ten minutes I was able to get him a car that met most of his requirements (900 dollars over budget) my guess is within the next month he will be driving on the roads and enjoying Dallas traffic.

This one is specifically for CarGurus creators. You do an amazing job at making car shopping easy and I would like to say thank you for helping my friend one step closer to getting his first car.

by Jamesmccurdy1

this app is great. I was able to get a real bead on the market price for the new car I wanted and then easily reach out to dealers to make contact. No gimmicks or sending my name or info to them without my knowledge.

While I was shopping, it gave me constant updates on my saved searches for different cars and let me know how long the cars were on the site.

Overall, it’s great. A few flaws: I do wish the photos were bigger, but I can go to the dealer websites to get those if I needed them. That would be an improvement.

Also, there were times when my searches would suddenly revert to a non-filtered search which was odd (I was looking for a Kia Optima SX and it would sometimes give me all Kia Optimas, so I’d have to reset the search.) A pain, but not a consistent problem.

As for selling, I was able to reach a huge audience and sold my Dad’s old classic Saab for him in no time flat and for the asking price. The car went to a mechanic and a good home.

this app is a great app and a ton of help for me this year. I love my new car, and was very pleased with the selling process on my old one. Thanks!

by Left Coast Ken

I’m currently looking to replace my current truck & have been using six different apps to make sure I’m hitting all potential sellers & deals. By far Car Gurus allows you to customize your search parameters well beyond what most apps allow (I want an extended cab, but have no interest in a std. can or crew cab), allowing me to see only those trucks in which I have a real interest & not have to sort through an additional 100 vehicles in which I’m not interested! Excellent app apparently written by people who have actually looked for used cars! Though I didn’t use it as such, I would imagine it would work equally well for finding a new vehicle.