3:14 pm, March 10, 2026
Car Dealer Live 26 is set to be a day packed full of inspiring sessions to get you firing for the rest of the year – but what’s on the agenda?
The event, sponsored by Autotrader, takes place in just over a week on March 19 and features manufacturer bosses, franchised and independent car dealers.
Held at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, the event is designed to inspire and educate guests with a series of panel interviews, headline speakers and research sessions.
The night before Car Dealer Live (March 18), guests who have booked a hotel room at the official hotel are invited to a social get together with others attendees.
This will start at 6pm with signposts at the venue showing guests where to go.
Car Dealer Live opens at 8am on March 19 for coffee and pastries where guests will be able to begin networking and chat to exhibitors in our Networking Area.
Several suppliers to the motor trade will be showcasing their businesses and you can chat to them during breaks in the day.
These include:
- Autoglym – the car care professionals
- Brego – the used car valuations specialist
- DealerKit – the car dealership DMS built for dealers, by dealers
- Jigsaw Finance – a car finance broker with access to 30 funders
- UVeye – a 24-camera, AI-powered visual inspection solution
- Rallye Digital – a firm producing dynamic pricing displays for dealers
The Live Stage programme starts at 9am with a welcome from Car Dealer editor-in-chief James Baggott.
This will be closely followed by the first headline interview of the day with Nicola Dobson, Peugeot UK’s managing director, who’ll be chatting about her brand and the year ahead.
At 9.20am, our franchised dealers take to the stage with Hedin CEO Richard Ennis and Luscombe Motors MD Sam Luscombe taking questions from Rebecca Chaplin.
At 9.40am, our first research session of the day takes place with headline partners Autotrader.
Chief customer officer Ian Plummer will be joined by Waylands marketing director Vicky Hart to discuss technology, electrification and supply shortages.
At 10am, AI experts Impel will be discussing what happens in dealers after leads land – and how technology can help. Impel’s James Leese will be joined by a dealer guest to discuss their latest findings.
At 10.20am, James Baggott will be chatting to our second headline interviewee of the day Sohib Ghafouri, the founder of used car dealership Infinity Motors. They’ll be talking about how he has built his business from a five car operation into one stocking more than 300 cars in just a few years.
A coffee break takes place at 10.40am where attendees can fuel up on caffeine and chat to other attendees in our networking area.
Then we start again at 11am with Motorway’s co-founder and CEO Tom Leathes who will be talking us through how the auction platform has grown so rapidly – and what’s next.
Plus, he’ll be revealing research carried out for Car Dealer Live into used car dealers’ concerns for the year ahead and his thoughts on how to tackle them.
At 11.20am, we’ll be hearing from two social media experts. Danny Bond, founder of used car dealership DB Automotive and James McConville, boss of Solo Car Sales, will both talk about how they use social media to great effect in their showrooms and ultimately how it helps them sell more cars.
At 11.40am, our car manufacturers take to the stage with executives from Suzuki, Dacia and Xpeng all giving James Batchelor their opinion on the big topics affecting the new car industry right now. Electric cars, Chinese brands and the importance of car dealers to a brand’s success will all be on the agenda.
After that, we break for lunch and more opportunities to chat to the other attendees or take your chance to check out the amazing cars in the British Motor Museum. Car Dealer Live tickets include entrance to the museum.
We start again at 1pm with our Chinese challenger brand panel. Executives from BYD, Omoda & Jaecoo, Chery and Geely will be on that panel chatting about how these new entrants have grown so rapidly – and what’s next for them here in the UK.
At 1.30pm we hear from partners Cox Automotive who’ll continue that Chinese car brand theme with details of how they think they will change the face of the industry. Backed up with some fresh consumer research they’ll look at how these new brands are gaining traction so quickly.
At 1.50pm, our third headline interview of the day takes place with Electrifying.com founder Ginny Buckley talking about how dealers can help sell more EVs, her take on the electric car market and how to overcome some of the challenges it presents.
We’ll be hearing from the team at Keyloop about the challenges dealers face with data and how they can streamline their operations to make it easier at 2.10pm.
And then there’s a final coffee break for a caffeine pick-me-up ahead of the last few insightful sessions of the day.
These kick off at 2.50pm with our independent dealer panel. This year it features IMDA chairman and used car dealer Umesh Samani, Steven Douglas, the founder of dealership Really Easy Car Credit, and George Manning, director of car supermarket Hilton Garage. They’ll be talking about the challenges and opportunities facing used car dealers in 2026.
And we end the day at 3.10pm with a fascinating session with Google’s Huxley Stewart. He’ll be talking about how consumers are using AI to search for their next car – and importantly how car dealers can ensure they remain part of that search.
The event closes at 3.30pm.
Tickets
Tickets to the event are available now and cost £165 for trading car dealers. Supplier tickets are £335.
Hotel room packages are also available with a room the night before the event. A social get together will be held the evening prior to the event for those attending to catch up with colleagues and network with like-minded professionals.
Pricing:
- Dealer ticket: £165
- Supplier ticket: £335
- Streaming ticket: £225
- Dealer + Hotel package: £325
- Supplier + Hotel package: £495
(prices ex vat)
Book your tickets now by logging on to the CarDealerLive.co.uk website.
