AutoTrader publishes an email address and a Randburg address, and no telephone number at all. Everything else runs through the enquiry form on its own site, which asks you to pick an enquiry type first.
AutoTrader contact details
- Email: [email protected]
- Johannesburg office, headquarters: 154 Bram Fischer Drive, Randburg 2194
- Postal: P.O. Box 4825, Randburg 2125
- Enquiry form: the Contact Us page on autotrader.co.za
There is no published switchboard. If you have been given an AutoTrader telephone number by someone else, it is worth treating with care, because the company does not print one.
AutoTrader does not sell the cars
This is the thing that decides where a complaint goes. AutoTrader is a listings platform: the seller is either a dealership or a private individual, and the contract of sale is with them, not with AutoTrader. A car that turns out to be misdescribed, a deposit that has not been refunded, a vehicle that fails after purchase — all of those are matters with the seller first.
- A problem with a car you bought: the dealer, then that dealer group’s head office, then the Motor Industry Ombudsman of South Africa.
- A problem with a listing itself — a fake advert, a scam seller, a wrong price: [email protected], which can act on the listing.
- A private seller who has vanished after a payment: that is fraud and belongs with the SAPS as well as with AutoTrader.
The deposit scam
Classified car platforms attract a persistent fraud: a listing well below market, a seller who cannot meet in person, a story about being out of town or in the military, and a request for a deposit to hold the car or to arrange delivery through a courier. Do not pay a deposit for a vehicle you have not seen. Insist on viewing the car and the papers in person, and check the seller against the vehicle registration document rather than against what the advert says. AutoTrader carries a Safety and Security page under Customers setting out its own guidance.
The rest of what AutoTrader runs
The site covers used and new cars, bikes, trucks, tractors and vans, boats and caravans, plus a car finance calculator, car finance, car insurance, K53 help guides, dealer ratings and reviews, and a Sell My Car and Value My Car route for private sellers. A query about the finance or insurance product is a query for that provider rather than for AutoTrader, and the site says which provider it is on the product page.
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