May 2025 – The latest Retail Margin Monitor from Dealer Auction has revealed that the MINI Countryman provided dealers with April’s highest profit potential in the sub-£10,000 retail bracket. The subcompact crossover achieved an average retail margin of £2,650, the highest margin recorded for a model this year. It was also the fastest mover in the chart, selling in 29 days on average. Completing the emphatic performance, MINI also secured second place in the top 10 makes chart.
Dealer Auction’s Marketplace Director, Kieran TeeBoon, commented: “It’s certainly been a strong start to the year for MINI, with its hatchback model taking top honours in February and the brand itself being a firm fixture in the top 10 for sub-£10,000 retail. Its performance will be food for thought for dealers, as competition for desirable stock intensifies.”
But the MINI Countryman wasn’t the only mover and shaker in April – the new-entry Nissan X-Trail rocketed straight to second place with an average margin of £2,600. The Škoda Octavia was another new entry and was a quick mover – selling in 32 days on average.
Meanwhile, last month’s most profitable model (and 2024 champion), the Ford Kuga, continued to perform well – clocking its highest margin of the year (£2,550) and ranking third in the table.
In the top 10 for models retailing above £10,000, the usual suspects ruled the roost. The Land Rover Discovery Sport topped the chart with an average retail margin of £4,125, followed by the Range Rover Evoque (£3,925). The Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Volvo XC60 also continued to perform well.
At brand level, BMW continued its reign for the fourth month in a row. It topped the chart for makes for models with a retail value of under £10,000, with an average margin of £2,350 – its highest margin this year. It was followed by MINI (£2,275) and Volvo (£2,260).
TeeBoon concluded: “April was an exciting month for the used car market, with sales reaching a record high.* Amid this thriving market, it’s more important than ever for dealers to find stock that delivers high margins – and moves quickly! Using the available data and insights to explore all avenues of profit can help dealers ride the wave.”
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*https://www.am-online.com/news/uk-used-car-sales-hits-record-levels-in-march
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 Auto Trader. 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 £25,000. We then compare the sold price for each model with the Auto Trader market average to reveal the potential margin. For the brand table, we compare models with more than 50 units sold. We crunch the numbers at the start of every new month.
Notes:
1The average ‘Auto Trader Retail Rating’ uses three key metrics to determine the consumer demand for the vehicle:
- Average days to sell – Calculated for the whole of the UK and then adjusted for the variations Auto Trader have observed locally in your area.
- Live market supply – Comparing the national supply level for the vehicle over the last seven days with the usual level of supply Auto Trader have seen in the market over the last six months.
- Live buyer demand – Analysing how many people are currently searching for the vehicle on Auto Trader, comparing consumer search behaviour over the last seven days against the level of interest over the last six months.
