Auto Trader Valuations
Giving partners the power to make smarter retail decisions, faster
What makes Auto Trader Valuations unique and trusted?
Unrivalled visibility of market pricing
As the UK's number one automotive marketplace, we provide the most robust view of vehicle pricing across the industry. Our daily observations of over 1.3million vehicles and 20,000+ daily price changes are reflected through our award-winning valuations1. This consistent monitoring and depth of data enables us to offer unrivalled visibility of the live retail market.
Rapid response to market shifts
In today's marketplace where we've witnessed prolonged supply constraints alongside consistently high levels of demand, pricing fluctuations can be volatile. It means that retailers can no longer have confidence in guide prices or estimates when sourcing and pricing stock. This makes live Auto Trader valuations critical to success in the current market.
Accurate vehicle data
Our valuations are based on advanced vehicle data that is unique to Auto Trader. This allows us to surface a valuation to the exact specification of a vehicle, rather than the standard specification at a derivative level. To increase our visibility of factory fitted options, we work with manufacturer partners to secure data on the exact build specification of each unique vehicle2. We refer to this as enhanced VIN specification data.
No opinion, no bias. Always data-driven.
Unlike some other data providers, our valuations are a data-driven reflection of the live retail market. No opinion or bias, we simply use the scale of our pricing observations to replay current market pricing to help you move with the market. This ensures retailers and consumers (supply and demand) dictate what a vehicle is worth, not Auto Trader.
Three simple straightforward valuations
1. Retail Valuation
The Auto Trader Retail Valuation is a live view of what a retailer could expect to sell a vehicle for to a consumer.
Calculated from advertised retail prices of similar vehicles available for sale over the last 28 days.
2. Trade Valuation
The Trade Valuation informs a retailer of what they could expect to buy or sell a vehicle for in the wholesale market.
Calculated by comparing actual trade transaction prices of similar vehicles to live retail prices over the last 28 days.
3. Part-Ex Valuation
The Auto Trader Part-Exchange Valuation is a guide of what a retailer might expect to offer a consumer to trade-in their vehicle.
Calculated to track below our retail valuation to ensure a retailer can retain enough margin.
How to use Auto Trader Valuations when making retail decisions
Use a trusted source of valuations when negotiating
More than 1 million consumers visit Auto Trader every month for a trusted independent valuation.4
You can use the Auto Trader brand and reputation as the most trusted used car marketplace to support negotiations with customers over their part-exchange. Either export a valuation in Portal via the Retail Check tool or use our part-exchange valuation to power buying or part-exchange journeys on your consumer facing websites.
Work retail-back when sourcing
3 in 4 retailers use the Auto Trader Retail Valuation over anything else when sourcing stock.3
In this instance retailers are working backwards from the retail valuation to set a maximum buy price. To reach the maximum buy price, simply deduct your desired profit margin, plus your estimated preparation costs from the Retail Valuation. Remember, the Trade Valuation is only an indicator of the wholesale price you could expect to pay.
More on buying profitable stockPrice to the live market
85% of retailers ranked our Retail Valuation as extremely important or important when making retail decisions.3
Pricing relative to the live market is crucial when listing stock. If you are pricing well above or below comparable vehicles, it's likely consumers will overlook your listings in search. It's also vital to monitor any pricing movements for your forecourt stock regularly, ensuring you always stay within your pricing strategy and maximise your opportunities to sell versus your competition.
More on pricing to the live marketMaximise margin with Trended Valuations
Trended Valuations provides a powerful view of historic and forecasted prices, helping you to improve and protect margin at every step of the journey. Whether you’re sourcing, pricing or disposing of vehicles, knowing what a vehicle could be worth in the future can help you minimise risk and highlight margin opportunities.
What do retailers think of Auto Trader Valuations?
Beyond the ad
Where to look-up and retrieve Auto Trader Valuations?
Auto Trader Connect
If you create and manage stock in a 3rd party system, you can now look-up and retrieve Auto Trader Valuations within your existing software and applications using the Auto Trader Connect platform.
Retail Essentials
To look-up vehicle specific data you will first need an integration with Auto Trader Connect - Retail Essentials.
Valuations
Your technology partner(s) will then need to integrate Auto Trader Connect – Valuations into your existing sourcing and pricing processes, allowing you to consume Auto Trader Valuations.
Trended Valuations
Technology partners can now integrate Trended Valuations into your existing systems via Auto Trader Connect, enabling a powerful view of historic and future valuations.
Auto Trader Portal
If you create and manage stock in Auto Trader's Retailer Portal, you can consume valuations at vehicle or forecourt level.
VRM Look-up – Individual vehicle look-up
VRM Look-up allows you to look-up a valuation for a specific vehicle. The tool provides our valuations alongside key retail metrics that allow partners to make confident retail decisions.
Forecourt view – Look-up valuations for your entire forecourt
The Auto Trader Retail Valuation and the current price position are now displayed in your stock list in the forecourt view. This allows you to review pricing relative to the live marker for your entire forecourt from one window.
Vehicle insight – Easy to read insights on all your vehicles
Vehicle Insight provides at-a-glance decision making to improve performance and save time. Bringing together key performance indicators in one single view, making our valuations data even more accessible.
1 Auto Trader observe over 1.3 million cars and vans, 116,000 vehicle updates, 39,000 vehicles added or removed and 20,500 price changes daily. This includes vehicles listed on Auto Trader, over 3,000 retailer websites, retailer forecourts, OEM, fleet and leasing websites, and major auction houses across the UK. 2 Applies to the following brands as of 04/01/23 - BMW, Mini, Fiat, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Chrysler, Renault, Dacia, Alpine, Volvo 3 User research conducted with Auto Trader retailers via Portal and Email Jul 22 n=240 4 Auto Trader Internal data Jul 21 – Jul 22
DISCLAIMER: Some features of valuations are limited for Vans, including being condition adjusted and supported by enhanced VIN spec, contact your account manager for further information.