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For the last 15 years, We Buy Any Car has been the number one car-buying service in the UK regarding reputation and usage. As a household brand, it’s the default location people head to when they want a car valuation or if they want to part with their motor.
However, over the last five years, a new alternative in Motorway has emerged and has quickly taken a large portion of the market share, thanks to their unique and intuitive way of selling your car.
With these two brands now going head to head, it’s worth comparing them to see which one comes out on top and is the best brand for you. Although you’ll be selling your car on either website, their services are pretty different. For some, Motorway may be the best option for their preferences and visa versa.
Here’s a detailed Car Adviser comparison between We Buy Any Car and Motorway, focusing on various categories to see which one comes out on top.
These two brands offer conflicting and different experiences with their car-selling processes. While We Buy Any Car prioritises efficiency and ease by providing a procedure with minimal steps, Motorway takes a more measured and unique approach that aims to get the user the best price possible for their car. The best option will depend on your priorities; do you value a quick and almost effortless sale, or are you happy to wait a little longer to maximise your gains?
We Buy Any Car flaunts its three-step process all over its site, which entices those looking for an effortless experience. To start, you need to get an online valuation. Here, you enter your registration and then get a valuation emailed to you based on your car’s age, model, make, and mileage.
If you’re happy with the price offered, you can book an appointment to inspect the car at your local We Buy Any Car branch. The business has over 500 of these in the UK, and most will be at most 13 minutes away.
Taking your vehicle to a branch is the only way to get your car inspected by We Buy Any Car, as the brand does not offer a home collection. This can be an issue if you’re far from a local branch or trying to sell a non-starter that can’t be driven to the branch.
At your appointment, a worker will inspect the car to ensure it matches its online description. This inspection should take at most twenty minutes, after which you will get your final offer. Typically, this offer can be lower than what was quoted online as they will usually find something with your car that reduces its worth. From here, you can either accept the offer or decline it.
If you accept the offer, the car will be left at the branch, meaning you must organise your own transport home. Payment can be swift with We Buy Any Car, but it could also take a few days.
This process can be rapid and be completed within 24 hours, making it a good option for those looking for a quick sale.
The experience when selling with Motorway is drastically different. To start, Motorway does not buy your car; instead, they advertise it to their network of UK-based dealerships for them to bid on.
To start selling with Motorway, you must enter your registration number to get an instant valuation. This can be seen as a guide price of what you can expect to get for your vehicle.
After that, you then need to make a profile for your car. The dealerships will be viewing this profile when bidding on your vehicle. The platform offers support on making a good profile, including tips on taking the best pictures of your car. You’ll add extra details on your car’s profile, such as its features, any issues, and more.
Once ready, you then set a reserve price. This price will be lower than your initial valuation and is essentially the minimum bid you need to receive for the car to be sold.
Once happy with your profile and reserve, the vehicle will go for auction for 24 hours, where dealers will compete to purchase your car. This process has the potential to get you more from your car, which is why many people find that the prices offered by Motorway are a lot higher than elsewhere.
Once a winning offer has been identified, you can accept or decline it. When accepted, you’ll get the dealership’s details that bid the highest and organise the collection. Most will be able to collect the car from your home for free, making it a more hassle-free experience.
During collection, the dealer will give the vehicle and final inspection and then offer their final price. Thanks to the robust profile you’ve created for your car online, this final price will likely be very close, if not exact, to the price the dealer bid on the vehicle.
If accepted, payment can be made swiftly, with many people getting their cash within a few hours.
When comparing the processes of these options, it takes time to say which one offers the best experience. Although We Buy Any Car is fast, the requirement to drop the car at a local branch is added hassle that isn’t required when selling on Motorway. Plus, people typically get better prices when selling on Motorway, making it the slightly better option in this category.
The car valuation process for both businesses is very similar for the seller. With both, you’ll be prompted to enter your registration plate number and the mileage your car has driven over its lifetime.
With this information, both websites will search their database to pull additional information about your vehicle, such as its model, colour, manufacturer, and age. Both businesses use this medley of details to generate your initial online quote.
With Motorway, they use live market data that tracks the trends and changes within the industry to give you an accurate valuation. Most people find that the valuation that they receive from Motorway is very similar, if not exact, to the final offer they get.
We Buy Any Car also monitors live market data when offering you your price; however, many past service users have found that the final price they’re offered after an inspection is drastically less than this offer, meaning that the valuation isn’t that reliable.
The offer from We Buy Any Car is valid for just four days. This is because the market can change so quickly, so you must redo your valuation to ensure that it aligns with current trends. There’s no obligation to go through with the sale once you’ve received your quote, and this is the same with We Buy Any Car.
The valuation process between the two brands starts to differ once you continue to agree to sell your car. With Motorway, your price is based on the assumption that your vehicle is in excellent condition. When getting your valuation, there’s no option to adjust this. If your car doesn’t meet these expectations, your final price can be slightly lower than expected.
You can add more details about the condition of your car when listing it and making a profile for the vehicle, but it will just mean that the final price you’re offered is less than the initial quote.
When choosing to sell with We Buy Any Car, you can adjust certain modifiers to provide more details about the condition of your car. After doing all this, you will get a more representative valuation based on these factors, helping you to sell your car more accurately.
When comparing the valuation process of these two brands, it’s hard to split them as they’re very similar. Both initial valuations are quick and use live market data to offer an accurate price. However, past customers have found that Motorway offers final prices similar to the initial valuation, whereas webuyanycar.com have a track record of offering final prices much lower than the initial valuation.
Providing that you’re selling a car in good condition and have multiple dealerships bid on the car, the valuation and final price is typically better with Motorway.
When selling your car through webuyanycar.com, you may have to pay a transaction fee for the service if your vehicle is over a specific value. This fee starts at £49.99 if the value of your car is over £100, and increases incrementally as the value of your car does.
This fee is capped at £74.99 for cars worth more than £5,000. Although this value is a small price for a high-valued vehicle, it can be quite a lot of money off your final price if you’re selling a car with a low valuation.
Plus, when receiving payment from We Buy Any Car, you must pay extra if you want it to be processed quickly. To ensure next-day payment, you’ll need to pay another £24.75. Although you can choose not to get this service, it does mean that you may only get paid for your car after five business days, which may not be suitable for those who need the cash for the car sale quickly.
You can also spend a further £29.75 for their Premium Payment service, which promises immediate payment. Although it can be great for those wanting their money quickly, it’s another optional expense that can increase the cost of using webuyanycar.com.
Motorway, on the other hand, operates somewhat differently. With this car-buying service, no fees or charges need to be paid. This is because when Motorway makes a sale with one of its partner dealerships, the website earns a commission from them, meaning that the customer selling the vehicle doesn’t have to pay anything for the transaction.
In addition to this, there’s also no charge for having your vehicle picked up by the buyer. This is only the case with some car-buying services that offer vehicle pick-up, making Motorway a high-value exception.
This lack of costs makes Motorway the more attractive option in this comparison category and allows you to maximise how much you get to take home from your car sale.
When trying to sell a car online, some companies are a bit picky about what cars and other vehicles they allow to be sold on their website. This can be frustrating if you have a car you want to sell that doesn’t meet their requirements.
Thankfully, We Buy Any Car lives up to its brand name and offers a car-buying service that, in most cases, can purchase your car, regardless of its condition and service history.
While many car-buying websites will deny the sale of a write-off or highly damaged car, We Buy Any Car will still take these vehicles off your hand. That said, you will likely get a low price for vehicles in this condition, but getting rid of these cars is much easier than trying the alternatives.
We Buy Any Car also buys cars that have been imported from abroad, as long as the vehicle has been registered in the UK. This is not something that many other brands offer, including Motorway, which state that they do not accept imports because their history is harder to track.
As well as this, We Buy Any Car will also be able to purchase cars that have yet to have their finance deal paid off. This allows those caught in costly finance plans to get out of the agreement by selling the car and then using those funds to pay off the rest of the loan. The amount you get from the car sale will be much lower when doing this, as the settlement for the finance will be deducted from your final price.
While most car-buying websites will avoid vehicles close to running out of MOT coverage, We Buy Any Car has no issues purchasing cars with less than six months of MOT on it. However, sellers must be prepared that this condition will reduce the valuation of the vehicle buy quite a lot.
You can also sell a car on someone else’s behalf when using We Buy Any Car, whether a relative or friend, providing that you have their details. There’s also the option of selling a deceased relative’s car through We Buy Any Car.
With Motorway, there are many more restrictions around what cars you can sell on the website. As stated before, you cannot sell imports, cars with expiring MOTs, or vehicles that have been written off or heavily damaged in the past, regardless of the write-off category it received.
Like We Buy Any Car, you can sell cars on finance, such as a PCP or HP Plan. When a buyer comes to collect the vehicle, they will settle the finance and deduct that amount from your final price. Motorway also facilitates the sale of a larger volume of vehicle types. With the brand, you can sell vans, trucks, and campervans. You’re not able to sell motorbikes on Motorway.
When looking at the sheer lack of restrictions or preference for the types and conditions of vehicles you can sell on We Buy Any Car, it’s clear that it offers the best value in this category. The ability to sell all types of cars without the anxiety of wondering if it’s eligible can make the experience a more favourable one.
To figure out the quality of a brand, checking out past reviews and the average score they’ve obtained through these reviews can help you identify which one is the best, especially when comparing two different businesses directly.
By using the reviews each business has obtained from Trustpilot, you can paint a clearer picture of the satisfaction of current customers and assess the quality you can expect from the company.
When comparing the average scores each business has on Trustpilot – a score out of a maximum five stars – you’ll see that both are very similar, suggesting that there’s not much in it regarding the service these sites offer.
With a review score of 4.8, We Buy Any Car just pips Motorway, which themselves have a score of 4.6. Although these scores both mean that the businesses are excellent, it does imply that We Buy Any Car has a slightly better reputation and track record, which could be because it’s a much older business.
Between the two businesses, We Buy Any Car has obtained the highest volume of reviews, having over 170,000 compared to Motorway’s 42,568. As there’s a much larger pool of data to aggregate the review score from, it does mean that the score for We Buy Any Car is more reliable and accurately reflects the brand. That said, over 40,000 reviews are still a considerable amount of reviews for Motorway, and their score is also likely to be a fair reflection of the service you can expect.
What can change the perception of the brands is the percentage of 5-star reviews each business has obtained. When looking at We Buy Any Car, the business has a 78% rate of 5-star reviews. Motorway has 82%, meaning that more customers found the service perfect when using it. We Buy Any Car also has a larger portion of 4-star reviews, which is still positive, but it may mean that there have been more instances where customers had an issue that prevented them from awarding five stars.
When comparing review scores, it’s hard to identify which brand excels over the other in this category. As it has a high average rating after more reviews, We Buy Any Car seems to be the best in this category, although the scores are so close that you’re bound to have a good experience regardless of which car-buying service you choose.
It's impossible to definitively say that one of these two options is better than the other, as they each have characteristics and perks that will benefit certain people over others. The best option for you will depend on your priorities and what you value most from a car-selling experience.
For example, We Buy Any Car will be best for those looking to sell their car quickly, but it won't be suitable for those struggling to get to their local branch. Motorway is perfect for those who prefer having their car collected from their home, but it will only suit those with a vehicle eligible to be sold on the platform.
Use this guide's information to form your opinion based on your priorities to determine which brand is the best option for you.
Both valuations offered by We Buy Any Car and Motorway are relatively accurate because they use live market data to track the value of multiple car models and makes, ensuring you're quoted a price that reflects these trends.
As you can adjust and input your car's condition when getting a valuation from We Buy Any Car, their valuation will likely be more accurate, especially as Motorway's valuation assumes that your vehicle is in excellent condition.
That said, once you list your vehicle on Motorway, the offers you receive from their partner dealerships will be the most accurate to its current value. Your final offer will typically be closer to this amount as well.
Once you've received a valuation and an offer on both sites, you cannot haggle and negotiate for a better price. Motorway does not permit their dealers to haggle the cost of your car below the amount they offered online, provided that there are no issues that weren't mentioned on the online profile.
When selling with We Buy Any Car, it's common for the person inspecting your car to offer a lower price than quoted. You can try to run them up, but their offers are usually very firm.
No matter how far you are in the buying process, you're not obligated to accept any of the offers you've received from both brands. You're in complete control and can pull out of the deal at any time before payment has been made.
Once your car has been sold and collected, you'll usually get paid from Motorway within 24 hours, although payment can take up to three days.
The payment timescale with webuyanycar.com will usually be similar; however, you may have to pay an additional fee to guarantee a faster payment.
The cars sold to We Buy Any Car will usually be put back on the market for them to trade if they deem the vehicles to be in a good enough condition to do so. If not, they can also be scrapped. We Buy Any Car partners with cinch, a website that sells cars, as they're owned by the same company, and a lot of their vehicles may be cars that were originally sold to We Buy Any Car.
As dealerships around the UK are buying the cars that you're selling on Motorway, it's likely that these cars will also be put on sale by these dealers.
We Buy Any Car is currently owned by TDR Capital, and have owned the business since 2019.
Motorway is owned by its co-founders, Tom Leathes and Alex Buttle. These two have a prior history of creating Top10, a broadband comparison website which was acquired by uSwitch in 2010.
The valuations offered by We Buy Any Car are valid for up to four days. This is because the marketplace is volatile, and how much a car is worth can change very frequently.
Motorways' valuations last a little longer. Once a dealership offers you a final price, this is valid for a week, giving you time to search for alternatives to see if you can command a higher price.
Selling a car on Motorway costs nothing for those listing their vehicle, helping them to maximise how much money they get to keep from the sale. Motorway can offer a free service because they earn a commission from the dealerships buying the car from you.
Selling a car on We Buy Any Car can cost over £100 depending on the circumstances and additional services you choose.
A car valued over £100 will have a transaction fee of £49.99, which can rise to around £75 if its worth over £5,000. You can also pay £29.75 for speedy payments, making We Buy Any Car the more expensive option.
If you're not convinced with either brand, other options are available if you want to sell your car.
One of the most obvious routes is to try to sell your privately. This can help you achieve the best price, as you can haggle and advertise your car to people looking to drive the car and not sell it. That said, finding the right buyer can be a lengthy and long-term process.
As well as this, you can also sell to a dealership. Although Motorway has over 5000 dealerships in its network, some aren't on there, so you could find that you get a better price if you go directly to one.
You also have the option to sell your car on an online marketplace, such as eBay, Gumtree, and more. These may not be as popular as some traditional car-selling routes, but you can find good quality buyers here and command a good price.