Are Tesco planning to sell second hand cars?

There’s mounting speculation in the press that the Supermarket giant, Tesco, are planning to move into the second hand car market with the launch of a new car sales website.

According to reports, Tesco have been in talks with Motability, which is the UK’s biggest ex-fleet car provider. Motability Operations is a not for profit organisation which works with disabled drivers to provide them with new cars from leading manufacturers at discounted rates.

Motability has access to some 560,000 cars every year, 200,000 of which are at the end of their lease term. Many of the latter are then passed onto second hand dealerships and car auctions to be sold. However the fear within the industry is that if a deal is struck between Motability and Tesco, the supermarket giant would have first pick of the ex-lease cars, which could lead to a shortage of cars for second hand dealers.  

Motoring experts believe the Tesco car sales website would spell good news for the consumer as the supermarket chain is likely to offer very competitive deals. However there’s concern that this will add extra pressure to second hand dealerships across the country, who are already struggling to stay afloat in the current economic climate.

It’s understood that Tesco have already reserved the rights to the domain name TescoCars.com in preparation for the launch of their second hand cars sales arm, although the supermarket chain has refused to confirm the reports regarding the possible new scheme. Motability are also keeping tight lipped about a possible joint venture.