5 minutes with...Barry Judge, chief executive of Motors

Cazoo's high-octane rise, fuelled by sky-high valuations and relentless marketing, made it a household name almost overnight. But beneath the polished ads and stadium sponsorships, razor-thin margins, an unsustainable inventory model and a growing pile of losses ultimately led to its demise. By June last year, the remnants of the business were snapped up by Motors, a more traditional online marketplace player looking to breathe new life into the brand. AM caught up with Barry Judge, Motors chief executive, to discuss the business’ strategy on the back of the acquisition.

Motors has been a key player in the used car space for years. What makes the relaunch of Cazoo as a marketplace so significant for the business?

We’re doing something no one else has done. This isn’t just about launching another marketplace - we’re supercharging an already strong and established business by adding a household name: Cazoo.

Cazoo is one of the top automotive brands in the UK with very high consumer awareness. Independent research shows that around 6 in 10 people recognise Cazoo as a destination for buying a car, and the brand enjoys strong levels of positive perception and consumer trust. From a branding perspective, what Cazoo achieved in just 18 months is phenomenal - it literally became a household name.

We acquired Cazoo because replicating that kind of brand recognition with Motors alone would take years and a massive investment. Cazoo’s original owners likely spent over £100 million on brand advertising in a short period. That’s not a spend we can match. To reach a similar level organically, we’d need to invest tens of millions every year for a long time - with no guarantee of success, especially given how fast the market changes.

What excites us is the combination of Cazoo’s powerful consumer brand with the deep industry legacy of Motors. Motors has been a trusted name in automotive for nearly 20 years, with strong relationships across the dealer community - around 6,000 dealer accounts and over 200,000 listings.

By bringing these two brands together, we’re creating something truly different. We believe it offers dealers a compelling, cost-efficient alternative to grow their leads and sell more cars - one that blends consumer reach with proven industry experience.

Motors is positioning itself as a challenger to Auto Trader. What are the biggest obstacles in closing the gap, and how will the Cazoo brand help?

Yes, we are positioning ourselves as a strong challenger to Auto Trader, and the biggest obstacle in doing that is, quite simply, the brand. Auto Trader is a household name in the UK - it began as a magazine and evolved into a digital classified platform. That level of brand recognition and consumer trust is incredibly hard to compete with.

That’s why the acquisition of Cazoo is such a significant move. Cazoo was the first real challenger to enter the automotive advertising space with the kind of awareness, trust, and investment required to provide a viable alternative. By continuing to invest in the Cazoo brand, we believe we’re bringing about an exciting shift in a market that has long been dominated by a single player.

Our goal is to offer dealers a powerful alternative - one that delivers cost-efficient, high-quality leads. Cazoo’s strength as a consumer brand, combined with our dealer-facing expertise from Motors, enables us to do just that. The more effective the platform is at generating valuable leads, the more it encourages dealers to increase their stock, which attracts more dealers, and in turn, provides greater choice for consumers.

Ultimately, it becomes a self-perpetuating, vibrant ecosystem - one that challenges the status quo, offers real value, and brings genuine choice back into the vehicle advertising market.

How will Motors differentiate itself in terms of value and cost for dealers?

Auto Trader, as the number one in the market, has long held pricing power - and with that position, we've seen consistent rate card increases, typically around 9-10% annually. That kind of dominance creates real pressure for dealers.

Vibrant marketplaces should be easy to use and deliver tangible results. That’s exactly what we’re aiming to achieve with Cazoo - to be a true challenger that delivers meaningful outcomes for both dealers and consumers.

By focusing on performance, efficiency, and value, we believe we can earn our place in the market. And as we consistently deliver results, we’ll earn the right to win a larger share of dealership business - offering a competitive, effective alternative in a space that has lacked real choice for too long.

With the launch of the new website and mobile app, what are the key technology improvements that will enhance the experience for both dealers and buyers?

When discussing innovation, it's easy to focus on the flashy features or so-called silver bullets—but in reality, there's a lot to be said for doing the fundamentals exceptionally well. That’s been a core part of our approach.

Post-launch, we’re entering a scale-up phase, and we’ve invested heavily in the tech foundation to support it. Our new website - now live - is a fully functioning marketplace, built from the ground up alongside a brand-new app. Both are developed using modern technology, giving us a strong platform for accelerated innovation and long-term growth.

We’ve focused on both top- and bottom funnel features to drive user engagement and retention. For example, we’re testing an AI-powered virtual assistant, trained on our proprietary data to help guide customers through the process of finding the right car from our dealer inventory. We’ve also developed a relevancy algorithm to better match search results with what consumers are actually looking for - ensuring better distribution and response rates for dealer listings.

Additionally, we’ve implemented dynamic number tracking to deliver richer insights into consumer behaviour, and the entire site has been built with best-in-class SEO practices to position us for strong organic growth.

These aren't just "nice-to-haves". They're deliberate investments in building a high-performing, scalable marketplace that works for both sides of the transaction. We believe that by doing the basics brilliantly, and layering in smart, meaningful innovation, we can create a platform that delivers results and earns long-term loyalty.

Looking at the wider industry, online car retailing has been developing rapidly. How do you see Motors and Cazoo fitting into the future of digital car buying?

One of the things we’ve noticed is that while the big platforms have dominated the space for years, not much has really changed in terms of user experience - it's largely the same as it was 15 years ago. But the world around us has evolved. New technologies, smarter data applications, mapping tools, and shifting consumer expectations have opened the door for real transformation.

That’s why we rebuilt Cazoo on an entirely new tech stack. Starting fresh was important not just to modernise the platform, but to future-proof it. We wanted the agility to respond to emerging trends, from changes in consumer behaviour to the increasing importance of sustainability. Versatility and adaptability were core principles in how we approached this build.

Having these strong technical foundations gives us the freedom to experiment and find new pockets of value for both dealers and consumers. For example, we're testing AI-powered tools like our virtual assistant, trained on our own data, to help guide users to the right vehicles. We're also exploring AI-driven personalisation - like recommending cars based on browsing behaviour and working on ways to enhance trust and transparency through verified vehicle histories and ownership records.

And as we look ahead, deep integration with electric vehicle trends and broader mobility solutions will be key. The industry is evolving fast, and we’re positioning ourselves to evolve with it - creating a smarter, more responsive, and more consumer-centric marketplace.