11:44 am, October 8, 2025
The used car market is currently in a ‘robust’ position heading in 2026 but dealers need to keep on top of differing trends across the industry.
That is according to Auto Trader’s Catherine Faiers, who says that volumes and values are both currently trending upwards.
Sitting down with Car Dealer’s James Batchelor, the automotive giant’s chief operating officer added that demand remains strong, which is translating into quick days-to-sell figures for retailers.
‘I think the market at the moment is pretty robust,’ she said.
‘We are seeing used car transaction volumes up year-on-year at on overall market level, we are seeing good levels of consumer demand.
‘We have seen the year-on-year growth rate soften slightly but still the absolute number of visits and engagement from buyers we’re seeing on our platform is strong.
‘Pricing has been a bit more positive than perhaps we would have expected. I think we’ve got used to a market where prices are broadly flat year-on-year – a pretty stable market. We’ve actually seen year-on-year growth over the last couple of months and we’re hopeful that trend will continue for the next few months of this year.
‘That’s very helpful for retailers and the consumer demand that we’re seeing in the market can absolutely support that level of retail pricing and that is all translating through into pretty fast speed of sale still.
‘We’re not seeing speed of sale accelerating in the way that is was but we’re certainly still seeing retailers selling cars pretty quickly.’
Despite the positivity, Faiers did insert a note of caution for dealers – encouraging them to look at the data on a more granular level.
She pointed to differing trends across age cohorts as a reason to apply nuance to the market and stressed the importance of ‘targeted strategies’.
She added: ‘As ever, we talk market data at a very high level but the detail is what really matters at the moment actually – the trends we’re seeing in sub-one-year-old cars, where we are seeing a little bit more pre-reg volume come through.
‘Equally some of the trends we are seeing for some of those older age cohorts – they are quite different – so our advice to retailers is always to look at the mix of your forecourt, be really targeted in the strategies that you are deploying for those different age cohorts of vehicles.’
In the rest of the wide-ranging chat, Batch and Catherine discuss what the few months hold for Auto Trader and how its new solutions will help retailers connect with more engaged car buyers.
You can view the full interview with Faiers at the top of this story or on the Car Dealer 2.0 YouTube channel
