Auction Direct USA was launched in 2005 by a small circle of maverick businessmen in the automotive business. These men, together with a combined 70 years of auto experience with wholesale auctions and auto retailing, loved the car business but not the current practice used to sell cars. In fact, they considered the current car selling practices to be downright unethical.

In an attempt to create a viable alternative, the Auction Direct USA founders created a “customer-driven” sales process to provide a truly unique and satisfying automotive purchase experience for every guest, in every way.

Today, dealerships in Jacksonville, Florida, upstate New York (Rochester), and Raleigh, North Carolina aim to provide a fun, open atmosphere with a tremendous selection of cars at low prices—all guided by the brand’s principles of trust and open information exchange.

Keep reading for pros and cons, plus Auction Direct reviews from customers.

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The Good

Black Book Pricing Tools
Auction Direct Pricing Model
Vehicle Quality and Inspection
Express Store
Parts and Service
Dream Car Program

Black Book Pricing Tools

Auction Direct USA focuses solely on buying and selling used cars. A prime feature is the Trade In Value Tool. While Kelley Blue Book uses the blue book, this tool uses the black book. The Black Book provides the following:

The used vehicle's worth on the automotive market
Used car values for both foreign and domestic vehicles
The most accurate car trade in value

Auction Direct USA uses the same information to make sure the prices of all their used cars are competitive in each customer's local city. Another feature is the full market value where customers can price their vehicles before buying or trading in. It is composed of the following steps: Provide the year, make, model, options and condition to get an estimated value online.

In addition to the main car pricing features, Auction Direct also offers the following products: consumer financing, extended warranty contracts, and vehicle protection plans.

Auction Direct Pricing Model

Auction Direct attacks most consumers’ biggest issue with buying a car by offering a one-price, no-haggle, commission-free buying experience. The purchase price you have to pay is clearly listed, with all fees itemized.

Vehicle Quality and Inspection

This company offers only quality used vehicles that have a clean title. Each car comes with a free CARFAX vehicle history report.

Before listing each vehicle, Auction Direct does a 125-point inspection, as well as detailing and reconditioning service.

Express Store

If you aren’t near an Auction Direct Used Car Superstore, you can still shop with this dealer via the Express Store section of the site. Users can buy a car fully online, without visiting the car lot or talking to a salesman. You can even get a trade-in offer within three business hours.

Car shoppers have to upload a copy of their driver's license in order to complete the online buying process, which includes several finance options.

Parts and Service

Each of Auction Direct's locations has on-site parts and service operations where cars can be brought in for repairs before and after sale. Locations have a number of service bays ranging from six to sixteen. The service operations perform the initial rigorous 125-point vehicle inspection.

Dream Car Program

Auction Direct's innovative Dream Car program finds the ideal car for prospective buyers in three steps: first, customers contact Auction Direct and let them know what they want.

Second, the company will locate and buy the dream car by searching hundreds of wholesale outlets such as bank liquidations, off-lease sales, and dealer auctions. Vehicles are promised to be available for delivery within 7-10 days. Purchased used vehicles are able to be shipped to and from anywhere.

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The Bad

Limited Locations
No Mobile App

Limited Locations

One drawback with this car dealer is availability. Only three main Auction Direct locations are in operation:

Jacksonville, Florida
Raleigh, North Carolina
Rochester, New York

Keep in mind that if you live in the area, but don’t want to drive to the retail lot location, the team offers free delivery if you are within 100 miles.

No Mobile App

With a website that is dedicated solely to selling used cars, creating an app would be a smart idea to attract more customers and make mobile contact easier from anywhere-especially since there are at only three locations.

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The Bottom Line

AuctionDirect.com is a good resource for any used car owner looking to sell directly. It cuts down on the red tape and confusion of finding a dealer or individual and vetting them properly. Not only that, its tools and services are geared to make sure used car sellers and buyers are well-informed and properly prepared to get the best deal during the sales process.

If you want an easy way to sell or buy a car, Auction Direct takes care of most of the work for you.

It would be wise to calculate the additional costs of having your vehicle transported to either one of their three dealership locations or the gas costs of driving yourself there from far away.

Have you purchased a vehicle from Auction Direct? Would you recommend this retailer to friends or family? Let us know with a quick review below.

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S J ,

Knowingly sold me a car with bad rotors. I wondered why the back rotors looked so rusted when I got the car. Just found out why today because I had to get them replaced plus the brake pads after 8 months and less than 6k miles of driving. Stupid me trusting this dishonest dealership and thinking it's just rusty and no problem. Mechanic (not Auction Direct's thank God!) asked me if I left the car outside and rarely drove it. Nope. I park it in my garage and drive it almost everyday. He said they were in rough shape but that is how they came. I guess it was just a matter of time. Completely unacceptable from an honest (which this is NOT) car dealership. No problem. I got the warranty. After talking with a representative with an attitude, it is not covered. Auction Direct uses a third party warranty provider (United States Warranty Corp). Just look at its reviews online and you will never want to ever deal with such a scam company. Auction Direct salespeople are nice until you sign and they get your money then they could care less. Tim is a smooth talker but once he is done with you then goodbye and never see you later. Also, he straight up lied about cosmetic repairs that he said the company would take care of. Communication is terrible between departments. It took two months to get the cosmetic repairs that they promised after having to finally talk to management. My car sat in the parking lot for weeks while I thought they doing the repairs. Service department at Auction Direct are completely incompetent. One of workers said he tried calling me multiple times which is a lie then said there must be something wrong with my phone. I will never give them a penny of my business ever again! If you choose this horrible company then good luck you are on your own! I just hope I don't have any more surprise repairs because I'm sure the warranty company will weasel they're way out of having to pay anything. It's not worth the risk in my opinion but if you stupidly do then DO NOT buy any warranty from this dishonest dealership. I would never sell a warranty from a third party that I didn't completely believe in. Just look at all the negative reviews and you will see the exact same problems. I don't know if the positive reviews are fake or they just lucked out but I have had horrible business from all departments and multiple people working here. I find it hard to believe anyone could have a positive experience from this company. Final Note: I'm including pictures of the original rear calipers when this car was bought since the pads and rotors were the only things replaced. Just look how rusty they are and rotors were exactly the same. NO CAR BEING SOLD WITH 28K MILES SHOULD HAVE A PART THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS! PERIOD! This is completely irresponsible and dangerous. The warranty they sold me doesn't cover this and I think they know that. I believe this company is switching good parts with old parts that are just laying around or from trade ins because my front ones do not look anywhere close to this bad. Maybe the previous owner parked only the front half of the car into a garage....STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! The entire company should be investigated.

5 years ago

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Ryan MacNamara Shortsville, NY

KBB (Kelly Blue Book) should be ashamed to even be associated with this place that they call a dealership. I mean most people expect to go to a dealership and get ripped off its part of going to a dealership, 99% of people are to lazy and naive to do anything different. So I went into have my car appraised by the dealer for their KBB Instant Value to see what they would offer me. Upon arriving to the dealership they pulled the car into the back prep area and red lined the motor to the floor not once but on two different occasions (not hard to hear it when its a V8 in a enclosed building) which this was completely unnecessary and uncalled for. Then they come in and try putting the VIN in to the system yet another issue. Even though the VIN was provided 24 hours in advance of me arriving. So they disappear with my car and keys for 20 minutes which more than likely they were out joy riding in the car because they are so used to average economy cars and not something with nearly 400HP. So after 20 minutes they come back, they say we ran some numbers and we have a offer for you. The vehicle that was brought to them to appraise was a 2014 Dodge Charger Pursuit Hemi V8 RWD with 109K miles. Keep in mind it was just inspected 2 days prior, and was at a dealership for a full go over at 106K, so its not like they could feed me some line that it needed this and that. I am not joking they offered me $1500 dollars, Yes I typed that correctly $1500 for a 2014 Dodge Charger HEMI V8. They fed me some BS that it was in 6 accidents???? How the heck was it in 6 accidents when the CARFAX and every other single VIN checker shows that it was never in a accident, it has a clean title, nothing. The thing that the VIN check does show is a complete service history of every oil change and maintenance item done on the vehicle something a vast majority of the crap they sell doesn't. So the vehicle was never in a accident they made that up, along with a lot of other bogus crap from the beginning. Considering they have a 2014 Dodge Charger Base with 49K for sale right now for $15206 they are obviously completely ripping people off or they are on drugs. So my advise for Auction Direct is to take a hike and save people the headache of trying to offer $1500 for a 2014 Dodge Charger HEMI with 109K on 1/30/18. I could wrap the car around a tree total it and not claim it on insurance and sell it to a junkyard for more than $1500.

8 years ago

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gfran366 Lima, NY

Dealer took $300 from me in a down payment and failed to refund.

5 years ago Edited October 21, 2021