Every vehicle on our platform comes from a regulated financial institution. Here's exactly what our vetting process looks like.
One of the questions we get most often from new buyers is: where do these vehicles actually come from? It's a fair question — and the answer is the foundation of everything we do.
Every lot on Cars Auction originates from a regulated financial institution: a bank, credit union, or licensed specialty lender. No private sellers. No dealer trade-ins. No grey-market inventory.
Our lender approval process has three stages:
First, we verify regulatory standing. Every lender partner must hold a current license in their state of operation and must not have any active enforcement actions from the CFPB, OCC, or applicable state regulator. We pull this data from public records at onboarding and review it quarterly.
Second, we review their title and release process. We need to know that when a vehicle arrives in our catalogue, it has a clean, unencumbered title that can transfer to the buyer without delay. Lenders submit a sample title package from a recent title package for our legal team to review before going live.
Third, we do an operational review. We visit or video-audit the lender's storage and staging facilities, review their inspection protocols, and confirm that every vehicle receives a condition assessment before listing.
Why this matters to buyers:
When you win a lot on Cars Auction, you're not buying from a stranger on the internet. You're buying from an institution that is legally accountable, that held the vehicle's title as collateral, and that has every incentive to provide accurate condition information.
That's the difference between a auction marketplace and what we've built here.