Motors.co.uk is disappearing into Cazoo, here's what changes
Motors.co.uk is retiring its name after 19 years, moving all traffic to Cazoo from 27 May 2026. Here's the backstory and what it means if you use either site to search for a used car.
The end of a 19-year-old name
If you have used Motors.co.uk to search for a used car, its name is about to disappear. From 27 May 2026, Motors.co.uk Limited is retiring the Motors brand entirely, moving all web traffic and dealer listings onto the Cazoo domain instead. The Motors name had been in continuous use since 2007, but the company now believes a single, better-known brand gives it a stronger shot at challenging Auto Trader for buyer attention.
It's a slightly unusual case of a bigger, older brand being folded into a smaller, younger one, so the backstory is worth knowing.
How Cazoo ended up owning Motors, not the other way round
Cazoo is a familiar name to most UK car buyers, but not for entirely happy reasons. It launched in 2019 as a direct-to-consumer online retailer, briefly reached a market valuation north of £6 billion after a 2021 US stock market listing, then unwound almost as fast: it sold off its own stock and wound down retail operations in 2023-24 after failing to turn a profit. Motors.co.uk's parent company acquired what was left of the Cazoo brand for around £5 million in 2024 and relaunched it not as a retailer, but as a marketplace connecting dealers with buyers — essentially rebuilding Cazoo as a rival to the classified-ad model that Motors.co.uk itself had run for years.
Having now run both brands side by side since 2024, the company has decided Cazoo is the one worth keeping. Cazoo reportedly holds around 60% consumer awareness as the UK's second best-known used car marketplace, and its app topped UK car marketplace app downloads in the second quarter of 2026, overtaking the market leader for the period. Motors CEO Barry Judge described Cazoo as 'the only credible challenger to the market leader, with all our resources supporting its growth.'
What actually changes for buyers
If you have a saved search, alert or account on Motors.co.uk, that functionality is moving across to Cazoo rather than disappearing — the rebrand consolidates the business onto one platform rather than shutting a service down. Practically, that means:
- Search results should get deeper, not shallower. Combining two dealer networks under one roof means more stock visible in one place, rather than split across two separate sites.
- Bookmarks and links to Motors.co.uk listings will redirect. Expect the familiar Motors branding to vanish from search results and any car-buying apps you have installed.
- The underlying dealer network doesn't change overnight. Dealers who advertised on Motors.co.uk are being carried across with their leads protected, so the used stock you'd have found there isn't disappearing — it's just wearing a different badge.
What it means for sellers and private dealers
If you're selling privately or run a small dealership that has historically listed on Motors.co.uk, the practical advice is simple: don't panic about your listing vanishing, but do check your account has migrated correctly once the switch lands, and update any external links (a dealer website, social posts, printed flyers) that point at a Motors.co.uk URL.
The bigger picture is a used car marketplace sector that is consolidating around fewer, bigger brands rather than fragmenting further. For buyers, more genuine competition for Auto Trader's position is generally good news — a stronger number two has more incentive to keep listing fees competitive and search tools sharp. For now, the practical takeaway is smaller: if Motors.co.uk stops working for you one day soon, you'll find the same dealers, and probably the same cars, waiting on Cazoo instead.