7:28 am, July 16, 2026
Used car auction site Motorway’s co-founder has told dealers that he believes reserve prices are important and will remain an integral part of its daily sales.
Motorway CEO Tom Leathes wrote to car dealers yesterday evening in the wake of news that rival Carwow has shaken up its daily auctions with a series of radical changes.
Carwow has removed reserve prices from its sale and instead now only displays retail valuations from Autotrader and Brego instead.
Dealers say they are now having to ‘bid blind’ in the sales in the hope their margin expectations meet the seller’s reserve. Buy Now listings have also been removed.
Many dealers have expressed frustration at the changes in private forums while, speaking to Car Dealer, IMDA chairman Umesh Samani branded them ‘meaningless’.
Motorway’s Leathes said he believed it was ‘important’ for dealers to know what the seller’s expectations were in advance.
He said: ‘We know every bid has a cost. Dealers invest significant time reviewing vehicles, valuing stock, allocating buying budget and deciding where to compete.
‘We don’t think those decisions should be made blind. Our job is to provide enough information for every bid to be a considered one – and to maximise your bid-to-complete ratio.’
Leathes told dealers that it had introduced a number of new initiatives to help smooth sales including promoted listings where sellers are charged an additional fee to list their cars, but this shows dealers they have ‘strong intent’ to sell.
The firm is also attempting to collect documents early so they’re ready as soon as the sale ends as well as asking sellers to upload additional photos above the standard 16.
Leathes added: ‘These signals, alongside the reserve price itself, are there to help dealers decide where and how strongly to bid.’
Carwow said yesterday that during testing of its new auction format (pictured below) it had seen more bids placed and believed that high reserves put dealers off bidding.
CEO John Veichmanis told Car Dealer that its new style of auction would also make conversations with customers who wanted to set unrealistic prices for their cars easier.
He said: ‘If six people bid on a car and it’s nowhere near the reserve, we can go back to the customer and say: “You’ve had six bids and none are close to your reserve. This is the best you’re going to do.
‘Whereas if they put a high reserve on and get no bids, that’s not effective. It’s now much easier to have a quality conversation about a car’s value after the auction than before it. I think that’s better for dealers and sellers ultimately.’
Veichmanis will be appearing as a guest on this week’s Car Dealer Podcast to talk about the changes further. You can catch that later this week wherever you get your podcasts.
