8:02 am, September 15, 2026
It’s fair to say that the world of used car supermarkets has faced its fair share of challenges over recent years.
Some of the sector’s biggest names have fallen by the wayside, while others have limped on, bogged down by difficult market conditions.
However, it is not all doom and gloom for everyone. While from the outside, things may look tough, it is still possible to make a success of selling big volumes as budget prices.
Enter Car Planet.
Having been founded in 2022 by the Miah brothers – Taslim, Faheem and Tamim – the firm is now selling upwards of 125 cars a day.
The Watford-based firm has enjoyed major success by blending old fashioned values, like good customer service, with an ultra modern approach to AI and technology.
For the brothers, the motor trade has always been in the blood.
Their father and uncles ran their own small dealership from 2009, typically holding 25 to 30 cars and specialising in German prestige models.
As children, the brothers would accompany their father to auctions and get an early taste of the trade.
‘As kids, our dad would take us to the auction and get sort of three members breakfast and get a feel for it – the real-life bidding, the buzz,’ recalls Faheem, now Car Planet’s chief commercial officer.
‘But then our dad always wanted us to focus on education. He came as an immigrant when he was about 10 or 11 years old, and he wanted us to make the best out of the education system here. He went to university, and we went down a corporate path.
‘My middle brother was a civil engineer, Taz was at EY, and I worked as a commercial manager at Amazon. We did that for a number of years, but we always knew we’d come back to starting our own business, through to entrepreneurship, because it’s in our blood.’
The brothers began planning Car Planet during the Covid pandemic, using their evenings to work on the idea while they remained in their day jobs.
‘We were all at home, so really started focusing on this once we’d finished with our day job in the evenings.
‘We were planning, planning, planning, and then we saw the opportunity.’
Driving growth with AI and in-house tech
Car Planet launched in June 2022 and quickly began to grow, selling around 30 cars in its first month, which more than doubled by month two.
Since then, the brothers have continued to reinvest in the business, with the operation now selling around 1,500 cars per month.
But as volumes have increased, so too has the way the firm sells cars.
Over recent times, AI become a key part of the way Car Planet operates, with the brothers using it across all parts of the business.
‘We’re using it in every single part of our business,’ Faheem told Car Dealer. ‘We’re using it to change the way we buy cars, change the way we even sell cars, adapting our sales approach.’
The approach has even seen the firm develop its own cutting edge AI tools, including Audiofy, which can analyse conversations between staff and customers.
The programme can also score salespeople, give feedback on their performance and handle customer objections.
The business has also built its own dealer management and transport management systems, while its website is now also handled in-house, having previously been provided by Click Dealer.
Speaking about how AI has changed the business, Faheem added: ‘One tool that we’ve built, which is very, very powerful, is Audiofy.
‘What it does is it listens to every single telephone conversation, and now we’ve even developed it to listen to every single desk interaction in the showroom.
‘It scores the salesperson, or the call agent, or the aftersales handler on how we’re dealing with things, from meet-and-greet score to the way they handle objections.
‘It follows that whole journey so that we can see how we’re putting the customer first and how we can improve.
‘We use a lot of data and AI in whatever we do to sharpen the way we buy cars, the way we prep cars, the way we sell the cars and finance.’
Aiming big
Despite the rapid growth, the brothers are not resting on their laurels.
Car Planet is now aiming to be the UK’s biggest used car supermarket by 2030 but before that, the bosses want to reach 3,000 units per month by the end of next year.
Faheem admits the goal will come with challenges but is adamant that it is essential for the firm to keep aiming big.
I think we need to keep doing what we’re doing,’ he said. ‘In four years we’ve grown from about 30 to 40, cars in stock all the way up to 2,000 cars.
‘We want to be the biggest used car supermarket group in the UK by 2030. By 2030 we’ll have comfortably over 5,000 cars as well.
‘I think in terms of top line figures, I’d say we are aiming for £1bn in annual revenue and £50m in profit.’
He added: ‘We have grown very aggressively but most importantly, we’ve grown profitably, and that’s what we’re all about.
‘We don’t want to be one of those dealerships that grow unprofitably and then end up going bust. We need to make sure we do it in a profitable manner.’
Customer challenges
Despite working hard to provide good customer service, Car Planet has still found itself subject to some complaints from buyers.
Car Dealer reported in July how one disgruntled customer staged a protest outside the Hertfordshire site after claiming a £13,000 second-hand car he bought developed several problems within days.
Other customers have joined a Facebook group to voice their own complaints but the group still retains a 4.6 star score on Google.
Faheem says the firm remains committed to offering the best customer service it can and has recently partnered with a local ombudsman for additional support.
He said: ‘We’ve got a dedicated sales team, so obviously they deal with every single inquiry. We’ve got more than ten people in that team, so they’re in close contact with customers.
‘Obviously, you’ve also got the Consumer Rights Act, so we abide by that, and quite often it’s good to go above and beyond that.
‘At the end of the day, you’ve got to look at it in a way where if you do look after that customer, even if it’s above and beyond the law, it’s going to look after us in the long term.
‘They’ll come back to us and buy another car from us. They’ll refer us to a friend or family, and that person will come and buy a car from us and do the same thing. And it kind of spreads and it multiplies.
‘We’ve also recently partnered up with the local ombudsman, so we’re onboarding them just for additional support, making sure we’re going about things in the right manner and supporting customers as well as ourselves.’