6:50 am, February 18, 2026
mfldirect is the largest single-source supplier of used cars in the UK, selling around 250,000 vehicles each year. Yet despite this scale, many dealers have still not engaged on the platform.
At a time when sourcing good-quality used stock remains one of the biggest challenges facing the trade, it almost sounds too good to be true: between 700 and 1,000 cars sold every single day, all from one trusted source.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with Car Dealer (video above), business development manager Dean Richards explained why mfldirect has become such a vital partner for thousands of dealers across the UK.
Richards said: ‘Quite simply, mfldirect is the remarketing arm of Motability Operations, and we have the responsibility, once the cars are defleeted, to sell those cars back into the trade at the end of their lease.
‘Typically, these cars are sold back to our franchise and independent dealer partners, of which we have about 4,000 dealers currently. We sell upwards of 250,000 cars per year, so we are the single biggest source of used cars in the UK market, and our primary responsibility is just to make that process of buying as frictionless as possible for our dealer partners.’
He added: ‘We’re quite unique in that respect, because all the cars are direct from the Motability scheme, which means that all the cars are one owner, generally low mileage and dealer maintained.
‘And a lot of the cars are handed back with quite low mileage. So, as I say, it’s quite unique in terms of the stock that we sell. And actually, you’re dealing directly with the source, rather than any intermediaries, when you’re buying cars directly from mfldirect.’
And by this point, you’re thinking surely there’s a catch. However, there are no fees to join, no buyer fees, with the only additional cost being a delivery charge of either £175 for a mainland move or £350 for an overwater move. In many cases, vehicles arrive within two to three days of purchase.
The only real question now is: why aren’t you signed up yet?
In fact, around 4,000 car dealers are currently on the platform and Richards told Car Dealer that the times when they upload new batches of stock at 9am and 2pm, Monday to Friday, become key times in these buyers’ days.
“The first 20 minutes after a stock upload is our busiest time,” Richards said. “We sell more cars in that window than at any other point in the day.”
mfldirect offers dealers multiple ways to buy, depending on how they prefer to operate.
“We have our Assured Vehicles, which are underwritten to mfldirect condition standards and sold at a fixed price,” Richards explained.
‘About 18 months or so ago, we introduced what we call Inspected Vehicles onto the platform and these are cars that have detailed appraisals and inspection reports to give the dealer a bit more information prior to purchase in terms of the condition of that vehicle.’
He continued: ‘Typically, around 80% of the cars that we sell on mfldirect are sold as Assured cars, and then about 20% of the cars are sold as what we call inspected vehicles.
‘So when you buy an Assured car from us that is purchased at a fixed price, and when you buy an Inspected vehicle from us, you can either buy that as a fixed price, or we do actually a daily auction event on mfldirect, which runs Monday to Friday, and that gives dealers the ability to bid on cars as well.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to offer a platform that all dealers can use in the way that suits their business best,” Richards said.
There has rarely been a better time to get involved. After a traditionally quieter end to the year, mfldirect is seeing a seasonal uplift in the used car market this January.
‘We speak to lots of dealers,’ he said, ‘and I think it’s very early into the year, a couple of weeks into January now, and we’re typically coming out of quarter four, when it’s a quieter time from a retail perspective.
‘What we’re finding is that, typically, the first two weeks of January takes a little bit of time to sort of get going.
‘People returning after the Christmas break, people returning to work, people waiting for their paycheck in January.
‘But we’ve just sort of felt now, over this last week or so, that retail started to really kick back into action.’
You can click play on the video above to watch the interview in full where Richards talks in depth about the market changes mfldirect are seeing and what really sets the business apart from other stock sourcing platforms.
This was a sponsored post.
