Motorway or Autotrader?
Where's the best place to sell your car online?
Here, we compare online marketplaces Motorway and Autotrader.
*All data is accurate as of 10/06/25
What is Motorway?
Motorway is an online used car marketplace that was founded in 2017. It allows car owners to sell their car through their website through a daily auction. Once Motorway has received the details about your car, they will send an indicative price which you can accept or decline to auction your car at. Once you accept a bid, your car is sold to their car buying partners.
How is Motorway different to Autotrader?
Autotrader
Autotrader is the UK’s largest automotive platform, that puts your car in front of over 10 million people each month.
On Autotrader, you can buy new and used cars, as well as sell your car through private sale, directly to dealers or by part-exchange. You can also get a free valuation to find out what your car is really worth.
Motorway
Motorway allows car owners to sell their car through auction to a network of 7,500+ dealers.
Motorway allows you to auction your car. They also offer a free valuations tool, an MOT checker tool, a vehicle tax checker tool and a ULEZ checker tool.
Choice of stock
On Autotrader, you can buy, sell and lease vehicles. We have over 400,000 new and used cars to choose from.
On Motorway, you can only sell your car so there’s no option to buy a car or any other vehicle.
Autotrader
Autotrader allows you to sell cars, vans, bikes, motorhomes, caravans, trucks, and farm and plant machinery. We also hold new, nearly-new and used vehicles available to buy outright, the option the lease cars and vans, and buy cars on PCP and HP deals.
Motorway
Motorway allows you to sell cars through their website. They don’t hold any stock as the sale is managed directly though their car buying partners.
Valuing your car
Both Motorway and Autotrader provide a free online car valuation to sellers. For your car’s valuation, both Motorway and Autotrader need your number plate and mileage to get you started.
Autotrader
Autotrader’s valuations are 100% data driven. We combine data from over 800,000 adverts from a range of trusted sources, over 3,500 dealer websites, values from major car auctions and ex-fleet and leasing car values to provide you with an accurate valuation.
Motorway
Motorway’s valuations are powered by live data from their marketplace.
Motorway
With Motorway, you can get a free valuation and sell your car in a daily auction to their network of 7,500+ dealers.
Service fee
If you’re looking to sell your car privately, Autotrader offer a range of ad packages, from Basic through to our Ultimate package. The price to advertise depends on how much your car is worth, so you don’t have to pay over the odds to advertise a car that’s only worth a few hundred. Our full price list is available here.
On Motorway, you can’t sell your car privately.
Autotrader
On Autotrader, you can sell your car fast for free to our trusted network of dealers.
Motorway
On Motorway too, you can sell your car for free to their dealer.