September 2025 – Dealer Auction’s latest Retail Margin Monitor balanced consistent themes with emerging trends. The Vauxhall Mokka X and Mazda CX-5 secured the top two positions in the sub-£10,000 retail bracket, with average retail margins of £2,625 and £2,500 respectively. And it was more good news for Mazda, as the CX-5 became the fastest-selling model of the year – selling in just 25 days to sale on average.
Top-performing July models from Mercedes-Benz moved aside and Vauxhall, Mazda and BMW took up the reins! Even though the Mokka X has been a consistent performer in the tables over the course of the year – securing fourth place in January, second place in May and fifth place in June – this is the first time this popular family SUV has secured the top spot. What’s more, the BMW Series 3 maintained its strong third place from the previous month. All of the top three models have continued to prove their reliability in dealership sales and proven popularity with customers.
As well as these consistent performers, there were also some newcomers in August, with the Citroën Berlingo, Peugeot 308 and Land Rover Freelander 2 all making their debuts in the top 10.
Dealer Auction’s Marketplace Director, Kieran TeeBoon, commented: “Consistent performing models are always great to see, as they provide dealers with a clear idea of what’s popular with customers and what’s continuously generating good levels of profitability. However, seeing new models emerge within the data is also very encouraging news for dealers. We’re seeing a lot of diversity in the market, allowing dealers to offer a wide variety of models that are proven to generate profit. And it’s not just about profit success, it’s also about fast-moving models, where Mazda has particularly excelled!”
Turning our attention to the top 10 models retailing above £10,000, the top three positions jostled around slightly. The Land Rover Discovery Sport, Land Rover Evoque and Mercedes-Benz C-Class took the top spots, with average margins of £4,040, £3,675 and £3,000 respectively.
At brand level, Land Rover kept its top ranking for profit-making brands with models with a retail value of under £10,000 for a second month running. It achieved an average margin of £3,025, followed by BMW (£2,450) and Mercedes-Benz (£2,425).
TeeBoon concluded: “September has reflected excellent ongoing success for dealerships with both consistent performers and newcomers coming into the mix to diversify the dealership portfolio. And with the SMMT reporting the used car market returning to pre-pandemic levels in the first half of 2025,1 it will be interesting to see if profitability for both higher-end and more mainstream vehicles remains relatively balanced.”
Source:
1Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (2025) Used car market bounces back to pre-pandemic level in first half. Available at: www.smmt.co.uk/used-car-market-bounces-back-to-pre-pandemic-level-in-first-half (Accessed: 2 September 2025).
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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:
The 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.
