Questions, answered.

It doesn’t yet. Listing, buying and messaging are free. There are no ads, and Throttle doesn’t sell your information.

Listing, buying and messaging will stay free. If paid extras are ever added, they’ll be optional, they won’t be paid placement and they’ll be announced on this site first.

Why Throttle exists

Throttle is new, and it’s launching first in Dallas⁠–⁠Fort Worth. Listing is free, so there’s nothing to lose by posting your car here too.

Every listing has its own link you can share anywhere: text it to a friend, post it in a group or put it in your bio. Nobody can pay to be placed above you, and you can bump your listing to the top for free once every 7 days.

How selling works

No. Buyers message you in the app, and phone numbers, emails, links and social handles are removed from listings and messages automatically.

Your listing shows your city and a distance, never your address, and the location is blurred on your phone before it’s saved. Photos are resized on your phone, and location data is removed before upload.

If you’re a dealer, you can show more: with business mode on, your business address, hours and phone number (behind a Show number tap) appear on your dealer page.

Buying and selling safely

Yes. Listing, buying and messaging are free. No listing fees, no buyer fees, no subscriptions, no paid placement, no card needed.

Bumping a listing to the top is free too, once every 7 days. The only cost you might see is your carrier’s: sign-in codes come by text, and message and data rates may apply.

Cars, trucks, SUVs and vans: pickups, SUVs, sedans, coupes, hatchbacks, wagons, vans and convertibles. Vehicles only, so no parts, motorcycles, RVs or boats.

It has to be a vehicle you own or are authorized to sell, and any VIN you enter has to be its real one. Prices are real asking prices in whole dollars, from $500 to $2,000,000, checked when a listing is posted and whenever it’s edited. “$1” and “call for price” listings aren’t allowed.

Community standards

It helps, but you don’t need it. Scan the VIN barcode on the driver’s door jamb or type the 17 characters. When you enter the VIN, the year, make, model, engine and drivetrain are decoded from it using NHTSA’s public VIN decoder and locked on the listing.

No VIN handy? Pick the year, make and model from the catalog instead, and choose the body, drivetrain, fuel and transmission yourself. Your listing then labels those details “Entered by the seller” instead of “From the manufacturer’s record.” Either way, you can post it in minutes. About a minute if you have the VIN.

Between 3 and 15, all of the actual vehicle. Shoot in daylight: front three-quarter, rear three-quarter, both sides, interior, the dash with the car running and the odometer.

Photos are resized on your phone, and location data is removed before upload. You can also add one photo of the VIN plate to help show the car is yours. It’s optional, and it isn’t shown on your listing.

Listings are set to run for 60 days. Renewing restarts the clock.

While it’s up, you can bump it to the top for free once every 7 days, mark it pending or sold and take it down any time. Its analytics show views, saves, shares and messages, and where the views came from.

Yes. Edit the price, condition, description and photos any time. When you cut the price, buyers see a Price dropped badge on your listing for 7 days.

The VIN and the specs decoded from it are locked once the listing is posted. If the VIN itself is wrong, contact support from the app and pick Correct a VIN.

No. Anyone can search and filter without an account. Sign in to save vehicles, message sellers or post your own.

Search near your location, a city or a ZIP code, from 5 to 500 miles. Filter by price, year, mileage, make and model, body, transmission, drivetrain, fuel, title and seller type.

How buying works

No. Listing details are the seller’s statements. Sellers state the title status and mileage, and Throttle doesn’t check titles or inspect vehicles.

Every listing shows its title status, and rebuilt, salvage, flood and lien titles carry a badge, so they aren’t hidden. Before you pay, see the vehicle in person, run the VIN through NHTSA’s free recall lookup and get a vehicle history report.

NHTSA recall lookup

Yes. Save up to 10 searches, and each one shows how many vehicles are new since you last opened it. Tap the heart on any listing to keep it in Saved.

Throttle is for local, in-person sales. Offers to buy sight-unseen and ship are almost always fraud.

You can search up to 500 miles away, but plan to see the vehicle, meet the seller and pay in person.

Yes. Business mode is a free setting on your account, not a separate account, and you can turn it off any time.

It gives you a public dealer page for your lot, CSV import for your whole inventory and a dashboard with views, messages and days on lot.

Business sellers have to say so. Posing as a private seller isn’t allowed, and buyers can report it.

Tools for dealers

Export a CSV from your DMS with one vehicle per row. VIN, price and mileage are required. Trim, exterior color, description, photo links and stock number are optional, and the app matches your columns to its fields for you to check. Include title status too: a blank cell, or no title column at all, is listed as title unknown.

Before anything goes live, a dry run shows which rows will be created, which will be updated and which need a fix. Photo links go in one column separated by semicolons, and a vehicle goes live once it has 3 photos.

Re-import to update price, mileage and description. Photos already on a listing are left as they are. Rows match on stock number first, then VIN. You can run one import every 10 minutes.

Tools for dealers and the CSV template

Turning on business mode means confirming you’re a licensed vehicle business that follows the advertising rules where you sell. Dealers add their license number and state, and their page reads “Declared dealer.”

“Licence verified” appears only after Throttle staff check the license number, and it comes off if the dealer changes the number or state. A badge describes a license, not a person, so meet in public and look the vehicle over as you would with anyone.

So nobody has to hand a phone number to a stranger, and so there’s a record if something goes wrong. Phone numbers, emails, links and social handles are removed from messages automatically.

Someone pushing to text, call or switch apps before you’ve met is a good reason to slow down, and you can report it.

Throttle staff may read conversations to look into reports, prevent fraud, help with support or meet legal requests.

Privacy policy

If a message you’re about to send mentions escrow, a wire transfer, a cashier’s check, an overpayment or shipping, Throttle explains how that scam works before it goes. When a message mentions meeting up, the conversation shows a safety checklist.

New accounts without a verified phone number can start 3 conversations in their first 48 hours, and every listing, profile and message has a Report button.

The most common car-sale scam is the overpayment: a buyer sends too much and asks for the difference back. Never refund the difference.

Buying and selling safely

Throttle doesn’t handle payments, deposits or escrow, and it isn’t a party to any sale. Buyers and sellers deal directly and pay each other in person.

Meet in daylight, somewhere busy. Many police stations have a marked safe exchange zone. Take cash at a bank, or a cashier’s check verified at the issuing bank, and sign the title at the same time as the payment.

Never pay a deposit to hold a vehicle. Anyone who sends you to an escrow website is almost certainly running a scam.

The safety guide

Tap Report on any listing, profile or message, pick what’s wrong and add anything else we should know. A person reads every report. We aim to look within one business day.

Blocking stops someone from messaging you or starting a conversation with you, and their listings no longer show when you browse. Block from your conversation with them, or turn on “Also block this person” when you report a listing or a person. You can unblock people under You › Blocked people.

Community standards

No. Throttle doesn’t sell your information or share it for targeted advertising, and there’s no advertising SDK in the app. Your mobile number is used for sign-in and fraud prevention, not marketing.

You’ll still find a “Do not sell or share my information” switch under You › Privacy & data. It records your choice anyway.

Privacy policy

In the app, go to You › Privacy & data › Delete account, and your listings for sale come down right away. No app? Email a deletion request as the delete account page explains. We confirm it’s you and schedule it within 5 business days, and your listings come down once it’s scheduled.

You have 30 days to change your mind. If you deleted in the app, sign back in and tap Keep my account. If you emailed, reply to us before the 30 days are up. Meanwhile, people you’ve messaged see “Deleted account” in place of your name, and nobody can send you a message.

After the 30 days, your profile, listings, photos and saved items are deleted. Messages you sent stay with the person you sent them to, shown as from “Deleted account,” because they’re part of that person’s conversation too. Photos in them are deleted, and the messages are kept for as long as that person’s account exists.

Reports you filed are kept but no longer linked to your account. Reports about your account, your listings or your messages keep your account’s id. We keep reports, moderation records and copyright notices as long as we need them for safety, fraud prevention and legal obligations.

Delete your account

Yes. In the app, go to You › Privacy & data › Download your data. The JSON file covers your profile, settings, listings, saved vehicles, saved searches and the messages you sent.

It’s usually ready within minutes, and the download link works for 7 days. You can ask for one every 24 hours.

Throttle is coming soon to iPhone and Android. For the whole US, launching first in Dallas⁠–⁠Fort Worth.

Join the launch list and you’ll get one email when it’s live, nothing else.

Get notified

With your US mobile number. Throttle texts you a one-time code, so there’s no password. Message and data rates may apply.

On iPhone, you can also sign in with Apple. You don’t need an account to browse.

Adults. Accounts are for people 18 or older, so you confirm your age when you create one. If you don’t, you’re signed out. Browsing is open to everyone.

The first time you post a vehicle, import your inventory or message a seller, you agree to the six community standards. They apply to every listing, including dealer imports.

Community standards

No. Throttle is for the United States only. Sign-in takes US mobile numbers, listings use US ZIP codes, prices are in US dollars and distances are in miles.