Best Used Car Websites in the UK

Last updated 20 July 2026 · Published 3 October 2020 · By Elaine, Motor Trade Editor

The best used car websites in the UK in 2026 are Auto Trader (the biggest, with over 450,000 cars), Cazoo (the relaunched marketplace that absorbed Motors in May 2026), CarGurus, cinch, Motorpoint, heycar and carwow — plus classified platforms like eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace if you’re hunting for a private-sale bargain. Which one is right for you depends on whether you want the widest choice, the best price transparency, or the ability to buy fully online with a money-back guarantee.

Looking to sell your car instead? We’ve reviewed the best car buying websites here.

The market has changed a lot since we first wrote this guide. Cazoo’s original buy-online-and-we-deliver business collapsed in 2024; the brand was bought by Motors, relaunched as a marketplace in April 2025, and in May 2026 Motors rebranded its entire platform as Cazoo. heycar nearly closed in 2025 before being rescued by Volkswagen Financial Services. So if you haven’t shopped for a used car in a few years, here’s how the landscape looks now — and if you want a refresher on the process itself, start with our guide to the best way to buy a car.

Best used car websites compared (2026)

1. Auto Trader

If there’s one company that dominates the UK used car space, it’s Auto Trader. With decades of reputation behind it and more than 450,000 vehicles listed as of July 2026, it remains the largest and most visited vehicle marketplace in the UK by a distance.

Its strength is technology — powerful search filters let you narrow by fuel type, running costs, boot size, even emissions, and its free valuation tool gives you a sanity check on any asking price. Most cars are advertised by franchised and independent dealers, but plenty of private sellers use it too. You can also sort out insurance and finance while you’re there.

Pros: unbeatable choice, trusted valuations, strong search and comparison tools. Cons: the sheer volume can be overwhelming, and popular cars attract competition fast; it’s a marketplace, so the buying experience depends entirely on the seller.

2. Cazoo (formerly Motors)

Cazoo has had quite a journey. The original company — famous for selling used cars entirely online and delivering them to your door — ceased retail trading in 2024. Motors then bought the Cazoo brand, relaunched it in April 2025 as a used car search marketplace with more than 300,000 listings, and in May 2026 went all-in: the long-running Motors platform rebranded as Cazoo, with the legacy motors.co.uk site being wound down by the end of 2026.

Today’s Cazoo is the clearest challenger to Auto Trader. It doesn’t sell or deliver cars itself — it connects you with dealers across the UK, with lifestyle-led search filters that make it easy to shortlist by what you actually need rather than just make and model. Because you’re buying from the individual dealer, check their warranty, returns and delivery terms before committing.

Pros: huge dealer stock, modern search experience, genuine alternative to Auto Trader. Cons: no more Cazoo-delivered, Cazoo-backed purchases — your consumer experience depends on the dealer you buy from.

3. CarGurus

Bargain-hunters, start here. CarGurus ranks listings by deal quality rather than by who paid for prominence, rates each car against real market values, and shows you how long a car has been on the forecourt along with its price-drop history. That’s powerful ammunition when it’s time to negotiate — a car that’s been listed for 90 days with two price cuts is a very different conversation to one that went up yesterday.

Pros: unmatched price transparency, unbiased deal ratings, price history on every listing. Cons: smaller inventory than Auto Trader or Cazoo; it’s dealer stock only, so no private-sale bargains.

4. cinch

cinch is the biggest remaining fully online used car retailer in the UK — unlike the marketplaces above, cinch actually owns and sells you the car. Every vehicle is inspected by its technicians and comes with a minimum of six months’ MOT, a 90-day warranty with breakdown assistance, and a 14-day money-back guarantee — if the car isn’t right, they collect it and refund you in full. You can have the car delivered to your door or collect it from one of 100+ locations.

Pros: genuinely simple fully online buying, strong returns policy, consistent quality standards. Cons: stock (around 9,000 cars at the time of writing) is a fraction of what marketplaces offer, and prices tend to sit at the convenience end of the market rather than the bargain end.

5. Motorpoint

With Motorpoint, finding the right car is easy. It specialises in nearly new cars — low-mileage, late-plate vehicles at a healthy discount to their new price — and backs them with a price promise: find the same quality car cheaper elsewhere and they’ll refund double the difference.

All cars are checked before sale, and you can buy entirely online with home delivery or visit one of 22 stores across England, Scotland and Wales for a test drive — a useful halfway house if you like the online experience but still want to sit in the car first.

Pros: excellent value on nearly new cars, price promise, physical stores if you want them. Cons: limited to newer stock — if your budget is under a few thousand pounds, this isn’t the site for you.

6. heycar

heycar survived a near-death experience in 2025. Majority owner Volkswagen Financial Services initially announced it would wind the platform down, then changed course and acquired heycar’s assets, keeping the marketplace fully operational — it now lives at heycar.com/uk. It remains a dealer-only marketplace, so there are no private sellers, and it pairs its listings with a large library of in-depth model reviews to help you choose.

Pros: dealer-only stock, strong editorial reviews alongside listings, backed by VWFS. Cons: much smaller inventory than the big marketplaces, and its recent instability is worth knowing about — though its current owner is about as financially solid as they come.

7. carwow

carwow built its name helping people buy new cars at pre-negotiated prices (and later as a way to sell your car to dealers), but it’s now a serious option for used cars too. It lists used stock from its network of thousands of trusted dealers at fixed, upfront prices — you contact the dealer directly to ask questions or arrange a test drive, then buy with home delivery or collection.

Pros: fixed no-haggle pricing, large dealer network, clean modern experience. Cons: newer to used cars than the established marketplaces; as with Cazoo and CarGurus, your purchase is ultimately with the individual dealer.

8. Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace has become one of the biggest venues for private car sales in the UK. The appeal is obvious — it’s free, local, and sellers aren’t anonymous, since every listing is tied to a Facebook profile you can look over before you get in touch.

That said, it offers the least buyer protection of any platform in this list, and it’s a favourite hunting ground for scammers precisely because so many first-time sellers and buyers use it. Never pay a deposit before viewing, always meet at the seller’s home address (which should match the V5C logbook), and run a proper history check on any Facebook Marketplace car before money changes hands.

Pros: free, local, huge volume of private listings, sellers have visible profiles. Cons: no buyer protection for vehicles, scam-prone, quality varies wildly.

9. eBay and Gumtree

Sites like eBay and Gumtree remain excellent hunting grounds, particularly for cheaper cars, project cars and anything unusual. eBay offers both classified adverts and auction listings, plus seller feedback histories that give you some sense of who you’re dealing with — but be aware that eBay’s standard money-back guarantee does not cover vehicle purchases, so treat a car bought on eBay with the same caution as any private sale. And resist the urge to panic-bid; auction adrenaline has talked plenty of people into bad cars.

Gumtree is free-form local classifieds, dominated by private sellers. The same rules apply as with Facebook — view before you pay, match the seller to the logbook, and run a history check on any Gumtree car first. It’s also worth reading up on the most common used car scams before you start messaging sellers on any classifieds site.

Pros: genuine bargains, unusual stock, eBay seller feedback adds some accountability. Cons: minimal protections for vehicle purchases, more scams than dealer platforms, condition is a lottery.

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Use Car Guide to check your next used car

Whichever site you buy from, it’s essential to verify a car’s history before committing — especially on classified platforms where nobody has vetted the seller or the vehicle.

A listing might look complete, but a comprehensive check will reveal what’s missing or wrong. That matters, because a patchy history can point to a serious problem — a stolen or written-off car, outstanding finance, or a mileage anomaly.

Free checks only scratch the surface. Our AI-powered car check gives you an in-depth Buyer’s Report on any vehicle, including its MOT history, past owners, valuation and more — plus what it’s likely to cost you in running and repair bills down the line. Check a car before you buy it.