7:46 am, March 30, 2026
The search for the best used car buyer is back as Car Dealer launches Battle of the Buyers 2.
Powered by Carwow, the competition pitches six buyers head to head in an attempt to find out whose the best at buying cars.
Taking part in this second instalment of the competition are Jamie Caple from Car Quay, Ibby Mohammed from MI Carz in Birmingham, Scoot Sibley from Redgate Lodge and Steven Douglas from Really Easy Car Credit.
And, at the last minute, Carwow’s John Veichmanis also joined the battle from his sick bed.
They will all enter the fray alongside Joe Wallington and myself, from the Clever Car Collection, as we attempt to beat the experts.
You can watch what happened in our video above.
Car Dealer brought together the teams at Carwow’s central London offices two weeks ago for a day of bidding and buying.
The plan was a simple one – each team would bid on two cars for less than £8,000 in the hope they’d win at least one in that day’s auction.
The winner will be decided based on points. The car that sells the fastest will get six points, the slowest will get one point, while the car that makes the most money will get six, and the least, one.
All of our teams won at least one car in that day’s auction. I won’t spoil the video and tell you what they bought, but there were some absolute shockers.
We used Autotrader’s Bulk Retail Check to run the Carwow auction catalogue through its data checks to work out what we should buy. We wanted to ensure we bought cars that would sell the fastest so looked for very high retail ratings and very low days to sell.
The other teams went for a mix of tactics. Sibley, Caple and Douglas all aimed for big margins with cars they suspected from gut feeling would sell quickly.
Mohammed went for very unusual cars that would stick out online and hopefully attract a buyer. Carwow’s team used their own data and expertise.
Most of our normal buying rules were broken – no red cars (we’ve now got three) and no Ingenium engines (we nearly had one).
Carwow arranged to collect all of the cars using its transportation system. This was rather stressful as I find it hard to assess the reports and negotiate on the price where needed remotely.
We also signed up to NextGear Capital’s stocking loan facility too. The firm has just partnered with Carwow and built the process into its Wallet function.
It is incredibly easy to use. The process of getting approved for the loan was pain-free and their representative, Matt King, helped at every step of the process.
When we pay for cars the stocking loan pops up in the Carwow Wallet and you can easily select it to fund the car you’re buying. It takes seconds to add and is just as smooth as using your own cash.
It does make me a little nervous. I have written about far too many car dealers that have folded after their borrowings so we’ll be using it very carefully.
The cars have arrived with us at CCC HQ now – you can see that happening in the video – and we’re working away at preparing and advertising them all at the moment.
All the cars will be advertised on our channels at exactly the same time, priced at the same percentage of Autotrader’s retail price for fairness.
The first to take a deposit will win the fastest seller – as long as it actually eventually goes through to a deal – and the most profit will be calculated after prep costs, which will include a service, any repairs needed and MOT.
I suspect, if all goes to plan, the cars will be up for sale by the close of play tomorrow. Let battle commence!
