At a glance:
- Petrol Peugeot 2008 leads profits for 2025 with average retail margin of £2,275.
- Nissan Qashqai petrol, diesel and hybrid versions perform well across different retail price points, as well as being the speedy sellers.
- Three of the top 10 profit-makers also featured in Dealer Auction’s best-sellers list, showing dealers are using the platform data to their advantage.
- New ‘Best Buy’ metric identifies Audi S8 and Land Rover Defender 110 as hidden gems for profit, speed to sale and competitive pricing.
January 2026 – Dealer Auction’s Retail Margin Monitor has revealed the most profitable trade vehicles for 2025. The petrol Peugeot 2008 took the top spot in the sub-£10,000 retail bracket followed by the Ford Kuga (2024’s number one) and Nissan Qashqai (also the fastest mover of the top 10), underlining the popularity and performance of family SUVs.
The monitor identifies the highest retail margins seen on used vehicles bought via the Dealer Auction wholesale platform each month. For this annual round-up and going forward, the platform has added the fuel types to the table, due to alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) – like hybrids and electric vehicles – coming to the fore. For this reason, certain models may appear more than once.
Interestingly, while the petrol and diesel Qashqai both appeared in the sub-£10,000 retail bracket, the hybrid version also appeared in third place in the over-£10,000 chart, with an average margin of £3,350, highlighting its widespread appeal. The usual suspects took the top spots of the over-£10,000 chart, led by the Land Rover Discovery Sport (£3,850) and Range Rover Evoque (£3,575).
Dealer Auction’s Marketplace Director, Kieran TeeBoon, commented: “This report is a brilliant gauge of long-term trends, but it’s important to look at the most up-to-date insights to stay ahead of the curve. Monthly variations reinforce this. For example, the Peugeot 2008 saw a late surge in popularity. What’s more, December 2025 saw three new entries – the highest amount we’ve seen all year. Could the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Astra and Volkswagen Polo be on your radar for 2026?”
Looking at the platform’s top 10 for sales volume for the year, there were several familiar faces from the margin charts: the Qashqai, Golf and Sportage. This shows dealers are using the data to spot the opportunities early and act on them, says TeeBoon.
He continued: “Pressure points around regulation, emissions and taxation didn’t disappear in 2025, but they certainly sharpened decision-making. The crossovers between our most profitable models and our best sellers are evidence of this. The data is doing its job!”
Dealer Auction’s new metric, ‘Best Buy’, uses a unique formula to compare the key metrics of trade price, estimated margin and speed to sale to identify the top performers across the board.1 For 2025, the Audi S3 was the top-performing model in the sub-£10,000 retail bracket, while the Land Rover Defender 110 stood out in the over-£10,000 retail bracket. Other models for dealers to watch going forward are the Jaguar E-PACE, Tesla Model Y and the SEAT Tarraco.
TeeBoon explained: “When building stock, profit potential will always matter. But by adding greater depth to the data we publish, we’re hoping to help dealers take advantage of all potential profit-making vehicles and highlight those hidden gems that might not have been considered.”
At brand level, in the top 10 makes for models with a retail value of under £10,000, Land Rover took the crown with an average retail margin of £2,875, followed by BMW (£2,300) and Mercedes-Benz (£2,275). Notably, Land Rover topped the monthly margin table every month during the second half of 2025, making the annual result little surprise.
The 2025 Retail Margin Monitor comes hot on the heels of industry predictions for 2026 and beyond. Autotrader have predicted that the combined new and used car market in the UK will recover to 2019 levels this year expecting 10.2 million new and used transactions.2 The used car industry is also anticipated to see a notable increase in stock volumes, filtering down from a surge in new car registrations over the previous two years.
TeeBoon concluded: “We’re entering 2026 with a healthy market, hopefully one of 2019 activity levels. Our annual platform round-up gives dealers even more reasons to be cheerful: trade demand remains robust, with genuine opportunities to uncover margin in the right stock.
“It is, however, an increasingly complex market. Brand competition is intensifying and consumers are more willing than ever to switch, creating a more conquest-driven landscape. To succeed in 2026, dealers need to be sharper, faster and more data-led than ever – using real-time insight to sway choice and convert these open-minded consumers into buyers!”
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Sources:
1How we calculate Best Buy:
Best Buy highlights the vehicles that offer the strongest buying opportunity on the platform. We rank vehicles based on three factors: how competitively they’re priced against CAP Clean, the average retail margin between the sold price and the Autotrader retail valuation, and how quickly they sell at retail. This means our Best Buy focuses on vehicles that are well priced, deliver solid margins and turn over quickly. To keep the data robust, only vehicles with at least 10 sales in the month are included.
2Autotrader (2025). UK car market set to finally return to pre-pandemic scale as 10m transactions predicted for 2026. Available at: https://plc.autotrader.co.uk/news-views/press-releases/uk-car-market-set-to-finally-return-to-pre-pandemic-scale-as-10m-transactions-predicted-for-2026 (Accessed: 11 January 2026).
About Dealer Auction
Dealer Auction is the UK’s leading digital remarketing platform. We give buyers and sellers more choice, better insight and greater margins. Dealer Auction is an independent company, created through a joint venture between Cox Automotive and Autotrader. For more information, visit www.dealerauction.co.uk.
Launched in January 2022, Dealer Auction’s Retail Margin Monitor tracks the potential retail margin that can be achieved on vehicles bought via Dealer Auction’s open network. We track models meeting two key criteria: more than 20 units sold with a retail price of less than £10,000 (we also track any standout models that retail at more than £10,000). We then compare the sold price for each model with the Autotrader market average to reveal the potential margin. For the brand table, we compare models with more than 50 units sold of models retailing at less than £10,000. We crunch the numbers at the start of every new month.
This edition analyses data from 1 to 31 December 2025 for the monthly analysis. The yearly analysis data from 1 January to 31 December 2025 uses unit parameters of 250 for models and 500 for brands.
