Motorway – Terms and Conditions
These Terms were last updated on 15 February 2023.
Motorway.co.uk (the “Website”), is owned and operated by, or on behalf of, Motorway Online Ltd (“Motorway”, “we” or “us”). On this Website, we provide users with access to a free online used car marketplace, where they can sell their car, along with a host of related services (collectively, “Services”).
- Contacting us
If you have any questions about these Terms, you can contact us at International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN or email us at hello@motorway.co.uk.
- Agreeing to the Terms
By using our Website, you agree to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions, together with our Privacy Policy and any other documents referred to therein (collectively, the “Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, you should not use this Website.
By submitting your details to us and so creating an account with us, you warrant that you are over 18 years old, reside in the United Kingdom and that the details you provide to us are true, accurate, complete and current. If you are submitting information via the Website about a car you do not own, or on behalf of another person, you warrant that you have all the requisite permissions necessary to provide us with such information to use in accordance with these Terms.
- Changes to the Terms
We reserve the right to amend these Terms from time to time. The amended Terms will be posted on this Website, and will become effective from the date they are posted. We may update these Terms at any time, and shall provide you with written notice at the email address provided to us if the change to these Terms is, in our reasonable view, a material change. You should check this page regularly for updates.
- Selling Your Car Through Our Marketplace
How It Works
Motorway is the owner and operator of a used car marketplace, whereby you have the opportunity to make your vehicle available for sale to a range of car buying partners. Such car buying partners include:
- car dealers engaging through online daily sales, via our nationwide dealer network, for vehicles deemed eligible based on make, model, age, and mileage (“Dealer Partners”); and
- where cars are ineligible for these online daily sales, car buying partners who will engage through a traditional sales process (“Online Car Buyers”).
In these Terms, we refer to Dealer Partners and Online Car Buyers, collectively as our”Car Buying Partners”.
When you sell your vehicle through our Website marketplace, your vehicle will be purchased by a Car Buying Partner and not Motorway. This also means that the contract for the sale of your vehicle will be between you and that Car Buying Partner.
At no point does Motorway purchase any vehicles itself, nor does it acquire any risk or title to any vehicle made available for purchase via the Website.
Your Indicative Price
When you submit details of a vehicle on our Website, so long as the vehicle meets our minimum eligibility criteria, we will provide you with an indicative value for the vehicle. The indicative value is based on current market values for vehicles with a similar or identical specification and condition to the one which you have described to us.
After you’ve received an indicative price, you will be asked if you would like to proceed with selling your car through our marketplace.
Profiling Your Car
If you decide to proceed, we will ask you to provide us with further details about your vehicle, photos, your ownership, any outstanding finance, and other information relevant to your sale.
When profiling your vehicle, you should take every effort to make sure that the information you provide is accurate and up-to-date. Providing inaccurate information could lead to changes in the eventual price you are paid for your vehicle or a Car Buying Partner refusing to purchase your vehicle.
Agreeing a Reserve Price
When you’ve profiled your car, our team will review your profile and will agree a reserve price with you. This is the price we expect to achieve based on the details you provided to us as part of the profiling stage.
Your reserve price may be lower than your initial indicative price, since the Car Buying Partner who buys your car will need to prepare the vehicle to be retailed at their dealership, and will take into account any costs to them when they make you an offer.
If you choose to proceed with your reserve price, your car will be placed in our next available daily sale, which is normally the following day at which point our Dealer Partners will compete to buy your car.
Dealers Compete
Once your vehicle has been profiled and we have everything we need from you, we will ask you to confirm if you would like to proceed with putting your vehicle up for sale. Don’t worry, by putting your vehicle up for sale, and submitting your details to our Website, this does not oblige or bind you to sell your vehicle to any of our Car Buying Partners at this point.
If you agree, we will add your vehicle to our marketplace where dealers will compete to give you the best price. Once bids have been received, we will show you the top bid.
You acknowledge that the bids which you receive are offers from our third party Car Buying Partners, and not from us.
Accepting a Bid
If you accept a bid, we will put you in touch directly with the winning Car Buying Partner. Depending on that Car Buying Partner’s preference, either they will arrange for collection of the vehicle from you, or we will use one of our trusted third parties to do so on their behalf.
Document Upload and Verification
Once you have accepted a bid, but before we arrange collection and inspection, we will ask you to upload certain documentation to verify your ownership of the vehicle.
Collection and Inspection
On the day your vehicle is to be collected, the collection agent will carry out an inspection of your vehicle to make sure that it matches the description and condition you gave to us when you profiled your vehicle.
If the Car Buying Partner is happy that the vehicle matches the description and condition which you gave to us, then the purchase price should be the same as the winning bid and this should be transferred to your bank account as soon as possible by the Car Buying Partner.
Price Adjustments and Cancellations
If the Car Buying Partner believes that your vehicle does not match the description and/or condition which you gave to us, they may choose to either (a) offer a revised purchase price, or (b) not proceed with the purchase of your vehicle. We work closely with our Car Buying Partners to make sure that this rarely happens. However, this might happen where, for example:
- there is obvious damage or a difference in condition found on inspection, which wasn’t in your vehicle profile;
- there is a difference in the amount of outstanding finance on your vehicle to the figure you disclosed to us; or
- it is clear that you have engaged in any fraudulent or misleading behaviour.
You are under no obligation to accept a revised purchase price from the Car Buying Partner. If you want to talk things through with us or require any support, please contact us using the details set out in these Terms.
If you do accept a revised purchase price, then the revised purchase price should be transferred to your bank account as soon as possible by the Car Buying Partner.
Tackling Fraud and Criminality
We take instances of fraud and criminality on our platform seriously. Your transaction may be frozen or cancelled by us and/or the Car Buying Partner should we reasonably suspect any instance of fraud, money laundering, proceeds of crime, breach of any company policies or the policies of our third party payments processing provider.
- Our Other Services and Products
Using Our Car Value Tracker
If you’re not quite ready to sell your car right now, but you want to keep track of its value over time, you can sign up to use our Car Value Tracker tool. Signing up doesn’t oblige you to sell your car.
When you sign up to use Car Value Tracker, we will send you monthly alerts to inform you about changes in the value of your car. You can turn off these alerts at any point by clicking ‘Unsubscribe’ at the bottom of one of the emails, by clicking the alert bell at the bottom of the Car Value Tracker page when logged into your account on our Website, or in your account settings.
Values provided via Car Value Tracker represent the present indicative value of your vehicle based on the information you have provided to us. We use data from a range of third parties in order to provide the Car Value Tracker. Valuations do not represent an offer for purchase or a guarantee of any valuation or final purchase price if you were to put your vehicle up for sale.
Using Our ULEZ Checker Tool
We provide a free-of-charge tool which allows you to check whether your vehicle meets the standards required to enter the ULEZ and how much you might have to pay.
Although the tool is powered by the most up-to-date DVLA and TfL data, our tool is not a substitute for official TfL guidance and should not be relied upon exclusively. We cannot be held responsible for any fines or penalties you may incur as a result of you failing to meet published government ULEZ requirements.
Other Services
Specific services that we offer, or make available to you from time to time, through the Website may also be governed by additional or alternative terms and conditions with us, or other third parties (including third party privacy policies). Where you take up any such services, please review these additional terms and conditions carefully.
- Third Parties and Third Party Services
Car Buying Partners
When you request a car valuation, your details (including certain information we collect about you through your use of the Website in accordance with our Privacy Policy) may be passed to the relevant Car Buying Partner who has the winning bid on your car. You agree that the relevant Car Buying Partner may contact you to further discuss your car and agree a purchase price, should you wish to proceed with the sale.
All communications between you and any of our Car Buying Partners are subject to the terms and conditions of that Car Buying Partner, and we accept no responsibility for any deal, car purchase, payment or disputes that may arise between you and the Car Buying Partner.
We do not make any representations, guarantees or warranties of any kind that the prices provided to us by our Car Buying Partners are accurate, or representative of the true value of your car.
In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we may:
- provide your details to our Car Buying Partners to enable them to appraise and bid on your car;
- provide your details to other third parties that supply related services and they may contact you to discuss these by email or telephone; and/or
- work with third parties (including, for example, vehicle transport providers, advertising networks, analytics providers, automotive data providers, search information providers or social networks) and receive information about you from them.
You understand that this Website may contain:
- links to third party products, services, websites (including links to Car Buying Partner websites) and/or suppliers that are not affiliated with us. We have no control over these products, services or websites and we do not guarantee, endorse or take responsibility for them;
- advertising from third parties. We are not responsible for any misleading or inaccurate advertisements which are the sole responsibility of the advertiser. Any links or advertisements on this Website should not be taken as an endorsement by us of any kind
- data provided by third parties. We accept no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this material.
- Website Content
The Services, including the content on this Website and our Car Value Tracker tool are provided for information only. We are not giving you any advice, investment, financial or otherwise in respect of your car; or recommending or endorsing any Car Buying Partner or other third party service. You should obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on this Website.
- User Content
By submitting content on this Website or otherwise providing content to us – such as photographs of your car, photographs of documents relating to you or your car, or any personal financial information – (“User Content”), you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sub-licensable and fully transferable licence to use, reproduce, display, sell, modify and edit the User Content. You waive any moral rights you may have in the User Content. You warrant and represent that you have all rights necessary to grant us these rights and that the content is not illegal, obscene, abusive, threatening, defamatory or otherwise objectionable to us.
Any personal data that you provide via the Website, or we otherwise collect about you when you take up our Services or use the Website, will be governed by our Privacy Policy.
- Our Intellectual Property
We, or our licensors, own all intellectual property rights in the Website, information and content available on the Website, any database operated by us, any proprietary software utilised by us to enable you to use this Website and the underlying source code (“Motorway IP”). All rights are reserved.
We grant you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-sub-licensable, non-transferable licence to use Motorway IP only to the extent necessary to retrieve, display and print content pages for your own personal, non-commercial use of the Services and Website, subject to your compliance with these Terms.
- Warranties about the Website
The Website (including all content on it) is provided by us on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis. To the maximum extent permitted by the applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, representations, or guarantees of any kind, either express or implied:
- regarding the Website (including its content), including as to quality, suitability for any purpose (including your needs), compatibility, reliability, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, access or use of information provided by any Car Buying Partner, or otherwise through using our Services; or
- that the Website will operate continuously, without interruptions or be fault-free. From time to time, we may need to make the Website unavailable with or without notice to carry out maintenance or upgrade work. We accept no liability for any interruption or loss of service.
Although we use reasonable endeavours to ensure that our Website does not contain or promulgate any viruses or other malicious code, we do not guarantee that our Website will be free from bugs, viruses or malicious code. You should take steps to ensure that any device from which you access our Website is protected by appropriate anti-virus software. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, programs or data due to your use of our Website.
We make this Website, including any offer or promotion of any Service, available for United Kingdom residents only and we make no representations, guarantees or warranties that the Services are available or appropriate for use by those outside the United Kingdom.
- Exclusions of our liability
The transaction and agreement for the sale and purchase of your car is between you and the relevant Car Buying Partner. Because of this, we do not accept any liability to you for any failure of the provision of services by a Car Buying Partner.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.
- Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us and our affiliated companies, shareholders, officers, directors, employees, agents or suppliers harmless from any and all claims or demands, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (i) your use of this Website, whether as a signed-up user who has conducted a vehicle valuation or otherwise; (ii) your breach of these Terms; or (iii) the infringement by you of any intellectual property or other right of Motorway or any other person or entity.
- Restrictions on use of the Website and Services
Use of the online valuation ‘tool’ on our Website is strictly for the use of private individuals wishing to sell a car on their own behalf or on behalf of someone else in respect of whom they are legally authorised to act. It is strictly prohibited to use the valuation tool on our Website and the valuations provided for any business or commercial purposes.
You must not (and you must not allow others to):
- use an automated program (including, without limitation, any web-crawling or screen-scraping software or any equivalent technology or techniques), to view or access the Website or Services for the purpose of collecting, obtaining and/or accumulating (or other similar activity) data or content on our Website;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to our Website or Services, the server on which our Website or Services is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our Website;
- reproduce, republish, transmit or distribute any content or information on this Website, or that form part of our Services, including as part of any database (electronic or otherwise), without our prior written consent;
- transmit any material designed to interrupt, damage, destroy or limit the functionality of our Website or Services or otherwise interfere with any other user’s enjoyment of our Website or Services;
- use our Website or Services other than for your own domestic personal use and always in accordance with these Terms, any policy or other notice on our Website;
- attempt to copy our data or reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile our processes or any part of the Website or Services;
- use the Website or Services in any unlawful manner, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with these Terms, or act fraudulently or maliciously, for example, by introducing malicious code, including viruses, trojans and worms;
- use our Website or Services in any manner that is illegal, immoral or harmful to us (including to commit or facilitate the commitment of any fraud against us or any Car Buying Partner);
- infringe any rights (including intellectual property rights) belonging to us or any third party in relation to your use of the Website or Services, including not removing or altering any copyright notices that appear on our Website or Services; and
- use this Website or the Services to conduct car valuations for cars you do not own (unless you have received permission to do so from the owner), or submit false personal or contact information in order to obtain pricing data for a vehicle or multiple vehicles.
We reserve the right, in our sole discretion and without notice to you, to terminate the licences granted to you in these Terms and prevent future access by you of this Website and/or the Services if we have reasonable ground to believe you have breached these Terms.
Our Policy on Criminal Uses of Our Website
You shall not under any circumstances attempt to sell a vehicle through our Website which you know, or ought to have known, to have material defects, to be a ‘clocked’ vehicle, to be a cloned vehicle, to be a stolen vehicle or (more generally) the proceeds of crime. In addition to our right to prevent your access to the Website and/or Services, we reserve our right, in serious cases, to bring legal proceedings against you for breach of these Terms and/or to refer you to law enforcement authorities where we reasonably believe that you have breached applicable laws.
- General
Nothing in these Terms is intended to or shall deprive you of any rights you may be granted under applicable mandatory laws (including mandatory consumer protection laws).
If we do not immediately insist that you do something you are required to under these Terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of you breaking these Terms, that will not prevent us from taking steps against you at a later date.
If any provision or part-provision of these Terms is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid, legal and enforceable. If such modification is not possible, the relevant provision or part-provision shall be deemed deleted. Any such modification to or deletion shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the rest of these Terms.
Without prejudice to any other rights or remedies that we may have, you acknowledge and agree that damages alone would not be an adequate remedy for any breach of these Terms by you. Accordingly, we shall be entitled to the remedies of injunction, specific performance or other equitable relief for any threatened or actual breach of these Terms.
We are a business located in the UK and we currently only offer our Services here. These Terms are governed by English law (including non-contractual disputes or claims) and you agree that the English courts shall have non-exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute that may arise between you and us in relation to these Terms.