Dealers securing used car stock in just one day after major product updates on carwow

·       Average time from vehicle listing to dealer sale is now 25 hours - just over a day - on carwow’s ‘Sell My Car’ platform

·       Dealer demand for used cars on ‘Sell My Car’ continues to grow; number of offers made by dealers on the platform increases by 45% over past year

·       £660 million worth of used cars have been sourced on ‘Sell My Car’ since it was acquired by carwow in June 2021 

New data released by carwow has found that dealers are securing used car stock directly from car owners quicker than ever before with its ‘Sell My Car’ platform. In March 2022, it was found that the average time it took from a consumer listing their current vehicle for sale on the carwow platform to the dealer agreeing the sale was 41 hours, but by September, this had nearly halved, to just 25 hours.

Since being acquired by carwow in June 2021, Sell My Car – the consumer-facing portal – has grown rapidly. With thousands of used cars listed each week, the number of offers made by dealers on consumers’ used cars has increased by 45% over the past year, and £660 million-worth of used cars have been sourced on the platform since its launch. As well as strong used-car demand, carwow believes the increase in speed to sale has been due to focusing on the quality of its used vehicle listings, as well building more efficiencies in the platform for its dealer partners to transact. 

carwow’s average selling time has sped up in every region of the UK, with the largest drop in time to sale reported in Scotland from 45 hours in March 2022 to 27 hours in September 2022 – a reduction of almost 18 hours. The South West and South East have closely followed, with both regions seeing their time to sale speed up by a huge 17.5 hours. 

Sally Foote, Managing Director of carwow UK, said: “With more than 12.5 million active website users, carwow enables dealers to connect with more vehicle sellers than any other marketplace. The strong demand for used cars is set to continue, so we’ve been working hard to ensure our platform makes the car buying and selling process as easy and seamless as possible for all parties. 

“We’ve recently made significant updates to make it quicker and easier for dealers to find used quality car stock. This includes a new look partner portal and improving the quality of vehicle listings. Our team has been working with sellers to set more realistic asking prices based on the condition and spec of their vehicles and we’ve added the ability for sellers to list any damage and service history, providing even more information for dealers. We’ve also added the need for pre-qualification to ensure that our consumers have a high intent to sell and a photo upload wizard to help sellers take better quality photos. We hope all of this will give dealers a greater degree of confidence to bid. 

“We have hundreds of used-cars listed by drivers every day. As well as the ever-popular BMWs, Audis, and Volkswagens, we do get more niche premium brands being listed too, including second-hand Teslas, Porsches, Bentleys and Aston-Martins. Though, for the most in-demand makes and models, dealers will need to have fast fingers, as the time to sale can often be registered in minutes, if not seconds. We know that getting quality stock quickly is really important for dealers and that's why we're continuing to prioritise making improvements to Sell My Car that provide evermore certainty, transparency and save dealers’ precious time.”

carwow data also found that dealers are most interested in securing cars aged between three to five years, with this age range receiving the most bids on Sell My Car throughout 2022. Meanwhile, the most popular mileage range for dealers looking for used car stock was between 10,000 to 40,000 miles.