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If you’re looking to buy a car online, you’ll likely end up using either cinch or Cazoo to facilitate that purchase. This is because both these brands have exploded in popularity since their fairly recent inception and have now started to dominate online car buying in the UK.
Offering both outright purchases and finance deals, the flexibility and sheer choice of cars have helped these brands excel into the household names they are today. That said, if you are in the market to buy a car online, you can only buy from one.
As cinch and Cazoo emerged roughly simultaneously, they have become fierce competitors in the online auto industry. Although both offer fantastic services and rates, they’ll fight hard for the top spot.
To help you decide which of these two brands is suitable for you, here’s a comparison provided by us at Car Adviser to better see what to expect from each company and determine which one is right for you.
Cinch and Cazoo offer a comparable car buying experience; however, slight differences can help one be better suited for you.
Starting with cinch, you can dive right in and search through their catalogue of over 7,000 vehicles. Or, if you have a car in mind, you can filter the search by selecting specific makes and models to bring up more focused results.
Cinch also offers a ‘Help Me Choose’ tool, a questionnaire that helps you figure out what aspects of a car is essential for you and will then find vehicles that match these parameters. Some questions will include choosing your preferred body type, the number of passengers that usually travel in the car, and your price range. This is an excellent tool for those starting their search from scratch.
Once you’ve inputted your search parameters, you’ll be presented with all the available cars that fit your criteria. In this view, you’ll see a photo of each vehicle and get some essential information about it, such as the year it was made, its current mileage, gear type, fuel type, and both the outright cost or PCP price.
If you find a few cars you like the look of, you can also compare the cars on cinch. Doing this creates a nice table for you to inspect the differences between the vehicles and make your final decision.
Once you are happy with your choice, you can continue to checkout to pay for it. Cinch offers delivery of the car to your home, and you can select a timeslot of when you want it to be delivered. Once it’s arrived, you can inspect it and check it out before agreeing to the final purchase.
On the surface, Cazoo’s buying experience is similar. You can search all their cars from the start or select your desired make and model to limit the results. Once you’ve done your initial search, you can apply filters, such as the price, year, mileage, colour, drive type, and more.
When viewing the snapshots of each car, you’ll also be privy to some basic information about the car, like its mileage, registration date, fuel type, and drive type.
With Cazoo, you can also access a 360 view of the interior and exterior of the car, helping you better understand what it’s like. Cazoo also offers close-up images of imperfections, making them a transparent website.
When going through the checkout with Cazoo, you can choose to pay either outright or with one of their two finance plans. You can also decide whether you want the car to be delivered to you or if you’re happy to pick it up for free.
When buying a car with Cazoo, you pay for it at checkout and then finalise the deal when picking it up.
Both brands offer a robust and effective car-buying process, with their online marketplaces being informative and easy to navigate. The best one depends on your preferences. If you like the ability to easily compare cars that you’re interested in, then cinch should be considered your best option.
The business is also good if you need clarification on what car you want, as their ‘Help Me Search’ questionnaire can illuminate what aspects of a vehicle you find important.
Suppose you want a lot of detailed information about the vehicle you will buy, such as images of its imperfections and 360 views of the car. In that case, Cazoo will be the best option, especially for those who may be nervous about buying a car online.
Selling a car from Cazoo is an easy, quick process designed to be stress-free and efficient. To sell a car, you only need to enter your registration number and provide details about your car’s condition, service history, and mileage.
From this information, Cazoo will then offer a price to buy your car. Unlike many other options for selling your car, this price is locked in for seven days. Furthermore, this offer is haggle-free, meaning you won’t have your offer reduced or chipped away over time.
During the seven days, you’re free to search for better options before coming back to and completing the sale. Once you accept the price, you can drop the car off at one of Cazoo’s branches or organise it to get picked up from your location. This pick-up does cost £149 and is only available for cars valued under £25,000.
When the car is handed over, you’ll get instant payment, where you can quickly use the cash you’ve obtained to spend on another car or any other item you want. You can have your vehicle handed over within 48 hours of your initial valuation, meaning the selling process is quick and easy.
You can sell all types of cars to Cazoo, including vehicles that have outstanding finance. When you do this, the value of settling the finance will be taken away from your offered price. Cazoo can only buy cars with finance if the value offered for the vehicle is higher than how much you owe on the finance plan.
When comparing cinch to Cazoo’s car selling feature, cinch pails in comparison. This is because the company does not offer a car-buying service but directs you to its sister company, We Buy Any Car.
That said, you can part-exchange your current vehicle when buying a new one from cinch. This can help you save money on your next purchase, but it isn’t great if you’re not looking to replace the car you’re trying to sell.
Once you purchase your vehicle, the part exchanged car will be taken away once your new car is delivered, usually simultaneously.
Because cinch does not offer a car-selling service of its own, it’s the weakest in this category, with Cazoo being the best location for you to sell your car.
When buying cars from either cinch or Cazoo, you can expect to get high-quality vehicles that perform well and are in excellent condition. This has helped both brands become popular places to buy cars online for those living in the mainland United Kingdom.
Both online marketplaces only sell used cars; getting brand-new vehicles is impossible. This is what makes both these options cheap to buy from.
When buying a car from cinch, a highly trained technician has fully reconditioned all the vehicles on offer. This means they’re all in great condition and have had any issues or faults fixed or replaced where necessary. This helps to ensure that their range is safe to buy from and equally reliable.
Cazoo is equally thorough when choosing and inspecting the cars they want to add to their available options. All of their vehicles are fully reconditioned, allowing you to be comfortable no matter what Cazoo car you get. In fact, Cazoo is so thorough that only 5% of the cars they enquire about owning are bought, meaning that they only sell the top crop of cars.
Until recently, cinch only offered cars younger than seven years old that haven’t exceeded 70,000 miles on the clock. Although they do not provide this guarantee anymore, the business still prioritises young, modern cars, which is excellent for those looking to get something current and with all the safety technology and features that come with modern cars.
Cazoo doesn’t have this focus on modern cars. However, none of the vehicles sold on their site is older than 2014, meaning that you can equally get a modern quality car from Cazoo.
All the cars sold by cinch have at least six months left of their MOT, meaning that you won’t be in a position where you need to get the car serviced so soon after buying it. They also all come complete with a full service history, so you can be aware of any issues the vehicle may have had in the past.
When buying with cinch, the cars come with a 90-day warranty and breakdown assistance. You also get immediate 3-day insurance when you buy the vehicle, meaning you can start driving the car straight away. Cazoo also offers a 90-day warranty minimum, and many of their vehicles have a longer period than this, making them even better options. Cazoo cars also come with RAC roadside assistance, one of the UK’s most trusted breakdown cover providers.
With cinch, you can also drive the car for 14 days and still get it refunded, giving new owners ample time to determine if it is for them. When buying a car with Cazoo, you only get a 7-day refund period, which is still a good amount of time to figure out if the vehicle is right for you, however, it isn’t as long as cinch, and could make the process of test driving your new car feel a bit rushed.
cinch does not offer cars that have been written off, meaning that whatever you buy is structurally safe to drive. You can’t buy written-off cars from Cazoo either, and they also don’t sell vehicles that have been imported, have outstanding finance, or have mechanical or electrical faults that will cause an MOT failure.
If you’re after an electric car, cinch has a massive range of EV vehicles that you can get. All of these cars come with a cinch charge card that gives you access to over 20,000 charge point connectors across the Mainland UK, making owning an electric car a lot easier. Although Cazoo also offers electric vehicles, they do not offer this level of support and functionality.
When comparing the cars on offer from these two companies, it’s clear that they’re both very similar and offer vehicles of the best quality. Although Cazoo provides high-quality options and conducts thorough mechanical checks on every vehicle, the fact that most cars on cinch are newer and can be test driven for longer makes them the best choice in this category.
Both services offered by either cinch or Cazoo will cost you, making buying or even selling your car more expensive.
Starting with Cazoo, as you can purchase cars through finance, where you pay off the vehicle in monthly payments, you will need to consider how interest rates affect how much more you’ll have to pay for your car.
Although the interest rates are factored into the monthly PCP prices advertised for each vehicle, you will have to think about how much more expensive this rate will make your car. On average, the APR – the annual percentage rate of interest charged to you – is 10.9%; however, this can be even larger if your credit score isn’t perfect.
As cinch also allows you to purchase cars on finance, it’s a good idea to compare their percentage rate to see which provider offers the best value. Cinch has a slightly lower APR of 9.9%, meaning you will pay less interest through your repayment term.
However, when entering a finance agreement with cinch, you must consider the annual mileage limit and how much you’ll be charged if you go over it. With cinch, you’ll be limited to 8,000 miles for a year. If you go over this, you’ll have to pay extra, which is currently 3p per mile exceeded. This limit is relatively low, as most cars will average 10,000 miles a year after regular usage, so you will likely need to pay this additional charge when getting a vehicle on finance with cinch.
That said, both providers allow you to buy their cars outright, which will save you from having to pay interest or worry about these extra charges. Although, you still may have to pay fees when buying a car outright, depending on which website you buy from.
When buying a car from Cazoo, if you want that car to be delivered to your home address, you will have to pay a fee of £149 for this service. This is a pretty high home delivery fee and is one of the highest in the country among the top providers who offer home delivery. You can pick up your car for free, but it means more hassle. Furthermore, Cazoo also charges an unavoidable admin fee at checkout worth £99.
Cinch offers free home delivery, making them the better choice if you want to save money on additional expenses and fees. There are also no transaction or admin fees with cinch. This all comes together to make them the best choice in this category, as you won’t have as many costs added to the amount you have to spend to buy one of their cars.
One of the best ways to get a feel for how good a brand performs is to look at past reviews and aggregate scores the business has gotten from some of its old customers. This is even better when comparing two companies head-to-head, as you can see which one has reached the more favourable reviews and ratings.
The reviews cinch and Cazoo have obtained on Trustpilot build a clear picture of which brand is better in the eyes of the public and let you know how satisfied past users of the online marketplaces have been. Trustpilot issues an average rating out of 5 stars for all businesses registered on the website.
When comparing cinch and Cazoo, you’ll see that they currently have an identical rating of 4.6 out of 5. At first, this may make it harder to determine which is better, but you can look at a few other things to help you come to a more precise conclusion.
Firstly, it’s worthwhile looking at the total of reviews each business has, as the more extensive the pool of data, the more likely the score will be a more accurate and fair average reflection of the business’s quality. When doing this, you’ll see that Cazoo has around 33,000 reviews, whereas cinch only has 22,000 or so.
Although both have a large enough pool of reviews for their average score to be reliable, Cazoo being able to boast that they’ve pleased more people makes them the more trustworthy and reliable brand.
That said, you can also look at the percentage of 5-star reviews each business has compared to the rate of 1-star reviews. At the time of writing, 84% of all reviews for cinch are 5-star, showing that most people have had an overwhelmingly positive experience with them. Furthermore, only 4% of people gave a 1-star rating, indicating that poor experiences are infrequent.
However, Cazoo has a better spread of 5-star reviews, with a whopping 88% of reviewers giving them full marks. Although 5% gave a single star, it still shows that Cazoo currently has the edge when reviews are concerned.
Despite Cazoo being the slightly better performing online car marketplace out of these two, the truth is that these scores are so close that you’ll likely have as good an experience with either brand. You should perhaps consider the other factors when deciding which option to use for yourself.
It's impossible to say which out of cinch or Cazoo is the better place to buy a car, as they both have pros and cons and offer features that may suit one individual's needs over another. When choosing who you want to buy a car from, you'll have to think about the experience that you want to have and also other factors, such as costs and reliability.
Cinch is an excellent choice if you need clarification on what car you want, as you can make use of their 'Help Me Search Feature'. However, if you know what car you want and instead prioritise the ability to see each car in extreme detail, then Cazoo may be the best for you.
Cazoo do offer more services, so it could be the winner if you want to sell your current car, but if you're in the market for a new vehicle, both of these companies are good, and you'll likely have a great experience no matter who you choose to buy from.
Both Cazoo and cinch are relatively new car-selling marketplaces and have emerged thanks to advancements in online technology. Of the two, cinch is the youngest, starting in the summer of 2019. Cazoo has been around for a little longer, starting in 2018, and has used that extra year to build a greater reputation and brand awareness in the UK.
The prices offered by both cinch and Cazoo are fairly cheap, and those low prices have made them an attractive and successful option in the UK. It's hard to say which brands offer the best prices as their valuations may differ depending on the car.
When comparing similar cars, such as a 2016 Ford Fiesta that has under 40,000 miles, the cheapest you can get on cinch is £8,450 when buying outright. For the same car on Cazoo, the cheapest is £8,200. That said, you have more options on cinch, and the average price for this particular model is slightly less than what is offered on Cazoo.
Of course, this example doesn't mean that Cazoo will have the cheapest options for all car types. You'll have to compare to determine who is the cheapest for you.
No, you're unable to haggle with either online marketplace. The advertised price is the amount that you'll have to pay, and they will be unlikely to budge even if you find an imperfection or issue with the car that wasn't advertised online.
With Cazoo, you can buy a car within 72 hours and have it delivered to your home within that time, ready for you to drive. Cinch also offer a similar timescale, and both companies are rapid options for buying a car and take considerably less time than buying from a private seller.
If buying from reputable sources and from websites that are secure and legitimate, then buying a car online is perfectly safe. In fact, buying online has become a super popular way to acquire a vehicle, especially as cinch and Cazoo lead the market share of the industry in the UK.
When buying online, the only thing you need to be conscious of is if the quality of the car advertised online matches what it looks like when you pick it up. Cazoo and cinch offer precise details about any blemishes or issues and give you ample opportunity to view and inspect the car, so you can be sure that you're getting a quality and safe car.
If you have a funny feeling about a car you're buying online, be sure to search its registration plate on a Vehicle Tax Checker to ensure that the DVLA records match the car's details.
Although the cars sold by both companies are used models, they follow the needed steps to ensure that they're reliable and are unlikely to break down on you.
Each car that Cazoo owns goes through a strict multiple-step review process, where any issues or wear and tear are fixed to ensure the vehicle is of excellent quality. cinch are equally as strict and only purchases around 5% of the cars they view, meaning that you can only choose from some of the best-used cars in the UK when you buy from these websites.
cinch and Cazoo do not sell cars that they do not own. Although some car-selling websites will advertise vehicles sold by individual dealerships, Cazoo and cinch own all the cars they sell. This allows them full responsibility for their quality and makes them a safer, more reputable place to buy the vehicles.
The company that owns cinch also own webuyanycar.com. As the UK's leading car-buying platform, it means many of the cars sold to We Buy Any Car will be refurbished and listed on cinch, but only if the business deems the vehicles to be of the right quality. Cinch will also buy cars of the Motor Trade, where cars are sold at auction, and may also have cars supplied to them by dealers.
Cazoo will also buy cars from the Motor Trade and the general car buying marketplace. Still, they can also get cars directly from manufacturers who may be selling them at a discount because they couldn't be sold at their showrooms.
If you need more convincing about cinch or Cazoo for any reason, there are plenty of other alternatives for buying a car. If you still want to buy a car online, you may have luck using marketplace websites like Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, and eBay Motors. Be aware that you'll be buying from individual sellers, which may not be as secure as purchasing from cinch or Cazoo.
Alternatively, you can also go the traditional route and buy cars from local dealerships. Here you'll be able to haggle, negotiate, and view the vehicles in person before putting in a bid. You can also get a better price with a dealership if you put in the work and look around and compare.