The UK's biggest online car marketplace, based in Manchester. Its two-year Academy offers graduate and apprenticeship routes in software engineering, data and more.
Auto Trader (also written Autotrader) is the UK's largest digital car marketplace. People use it to buy and sell cars and other vehicles, and dealers pay to advertise their stock. It also builds software for the motor trade, including tools for part-exchanges, finance applications and reserving a vehicle, and it has launched AI-powered retailing tools.
It began in 1977 as a local classified-ads magazine called Thames Valley Trader, started by John Madejski, who had brought the idea over from the US, with Paul Gibbons and Peter Taylor named as co-founders by Wikipedia. It became Auto Trader in 1988, launched its first website in 1996, and published its final print edition in June 2013 to become fully digital. It moved its head office to Manchester, listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 and is now a FTSE 100 company.
Auto Trader's own history page does not state a formal mission or purpose; it describes the journey from a print business to the UK's largest digital automotive platform. We have not added a mission here.
For young people, Auto Trader runs an Early Careers Academy that includes graduate and apprenticeship routes in areas such as software engineering, sales and data. It is a structured two-year programme alongside other graduates and apprentices, starting with an "Academy Foundation" about the company, its culture and its customers. Most roles are in the Manchester office. Apprentice vacancies are usually advertised in February and start in September, and graduate roles typically open in September for a start the following October.
Website: www.autotrader.co.uk
PURPOSE helps school and university students explore 62 sectors and over 1,000 entry-level careers in the UK, then connects them directly with employers.
Explore PURPOSE