There was a stark difference between the used car dealers that have embraced click and collect and an online sales journey and those that haven’t in February.

Latest figures from Car Dealer used car data partner CarCondor.co.uk points to a growing divide between car dealers that have taken the online sales process seriously during lockdown and those that ignored it.

CarCondor says overall used car sales were up five per cent last month compared to January with total used car stock numbers increasing too.

The data firm says the Top 200 used car dealers sold 125,635 models between them in February, compared with 119,645 in January.

Arnold Clark was the most stocked used car dealer once again during the month with 29,960 cars in stock.

CarCondor’s William Gomes said: ‘While stocking issues are still a reality for many dealers, the one big difference we noticed among dealers who performed best and worst this month was the quality of their online journey for users. 

‘Almost without exception, dealers who performed worse this month have a sub-par online journey for click and collect or fully online purchases. 

‘We believe that sales will continue to increase due to pent-up demand, as we’ve seen a sudden increase in online traffic in the last few weeks, suggesting users are getting ready to visit showrooms as soon as they open.’

Members of the Car Dealer website can get access to the Top 100 list below, as well as more detailed used car data free of charge on the CarCondor website. Details are in the My Membership section of this website once you’ve signed up.

Cinch moves up

Arnold Clark topped the most stocked list with Evans Halshaw (second) and Sytner (third) leapfrogging the latter’s used car supermarket arm CarShop, which dropped two places from January.

The fastest selling car during the month was the Ford Ranger (previously the Nissan Navara) and there was no change on the best selling car front, which was the Ford Fiesta.

The Fiesta was the overall winner of the Car Dealer Used Car of the Year category and you can watch our host Mike Brewer test it in the video above.

• Who won what in our Used Car Awards?

Of the online used car platforms Cinch was the most stocked in 12th position, Cazoo was 14th and Carzam 44th. If you include the latter’s partner, Big Motoring World, it would have been top out of the trio. 

Of the big listed dealer groups, Vertu Motors was the most stocked with used cars, ahead of Inchcape, Marshall, Lookers and then Motorpoint.

You can see all of these dealers’ stock numbers in our table below.

The average time dealers in the Top 200 took to sell was up one day to 58 days compared to January and prices rose too.

The average price of a used car sold during February was £15,746, up 1.62 per cent on the month before.

CarCondor found the amount of new stock added to the Top 200 used car dealers’ forecourts was up 2.72 per cent at 114k cars in total, compared to 111k in January.

Web traffic also rose to the used car dealers’ websites up two per cent during the month.