March 2025 – Dealer Auction has revealed that the MINI Hatch provided dealers with the highest profit potential in the sub-£10,000 retail bracket in February 2025. The latest edition of the Retail Margin Monitor showed the premium supermini offered dealers an average retail margin of £2,050, followed by the Ford Kuga (£2,025) and BMW 1 Series (£1,975). The Nissan Qashqai was the fastest seller, retailing in 28 days on average with a healthy average margin of £1,750.
It was a competitive top 10, with just £50 separating places 6 to 10. There was also plenty of variety compared to January 2025; only four vehicles retained their spot in the chart. Most notably, the previous month’s top profit-maker, the Mazda CX-5, dropped out.
Dealer Auction’s Marketplace Director, Kieran TeeBoon, commented: “While February 2025 looks like a major shake-up, it could in fact be a return to the ‘norm’. When we look more closely, the latest data actually bears more resemblance to the 2024 annual round-up. Could January 2025 have been the anomaly? Time will tell!”
It was a similar trend for data for models retailing above £10,000, which also bore major similarities to the 2024 round-up. While January 2025 saw stalwart Land Rover models failing to make the top two spots for the first time since 2023, order was restored in February. The Discovery Sport topped the chart with an average retail margin of £3,850, followed by the Range Rover Evoque (£3,375).
Interestingly, the Ford Kuga and Kia Sportage appeared in both the under- and over-£10,000 categories, highlighting their widespread appeal. TeeBoon commented: “This overlap emphasises the Kuga and Sportage’s strong demand across different buyer segments, budgets and preferences. This versatility is a real advantage for dealers – whether it’s an affordable older model or a more recent higher-spec version, they continue to attract steady interest and turn over well.”
In contrast to the model charts, the platform observed month-on-month consistency for brands. In the top 10 makes for models with a retail value of under £10,000, 90% of the same brands stayed in the chart from January, and the only change was Mazda, which – mirroring the CX-5’s fall from grace in the model table – dropped out of the brand chart, while Volvo entered the fray.
BMW continued to rule the roost at the top of the chart; its average profit of £2,100 was followed by MINI (£1,975) and Audi (£1,925).
In the top 10 for makes with models retailing above £10,000, the usual suspects performed well: Land Rover came top with an average retail margin of £4,200, followed by BMW (£3,350) and Volvo (£3,300).
TeeBoon concluded: “The UK’s used car market is resilient, boasting six consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth. But with so many different forces at play, it’s no time to be complacent. By using all the data available and the tangible evidence of the most profitable makes and models, dealers can truly set themselves apart.”
Take us for a test drive.
Curious about what you see? Then why not try Dealer Auction for free for 30 days?
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.
