Manheim has acquired the second largest used car classified site Motors.co.uk from DMGT (The Daily Mail and General Trust) for an undisclosed sum.

The company has announced that all Motors.co.uk employees will transfer to Manheim and the business will sit within its Manheim Retail Services area however there are no immediate plans to change the day to day operations.

Motors.co.uk will be combining its used vehicle listings with those offered through Manheim's approved used car portal Carmony.co.uk. This will create an available selection of over 230,000 retail vehicles for consumers to browse through.

John Bailey, Manheim chief executive, said: “As is well known in the industry, Manheim’s unique range of services covers extensive wholesale remarketing and for the past 15 years we have also been delivering used vehicle marketing solutions for manufacturers and retail dealers.

“It has been our stated strategy for some time to further facilitate the links between the wholesale and retail markets and ensure our customers can take full advantage of the obvious synergies. Through our Manheim360 proposition, our dealer customers can look to us to supply them with their wholesale vehicles and then actively support their retail activity to ensure maximum effectiveness.

“It’s all about making it easier for all of our customers, across all markets, to buy and sell used vehicles as efficiently as possible. The acquisition of Motors.co.uk is a significant and important investment for us and it fits perfectly within our evolving portfolio of products, particularly as the digital marketplace becomes ever more influential.”

Bailey said Manheim has been watching the online classified business in the UK for sometime and it already has a presence with its own sites Carmony and All Approved Cars.

In addition to Motors.co.uk the acquisition also includes the associated businesses of automotive web and photography specialist Auto Exposure, as well as Complete Automotive Solutions which provides customer contact management and showroom marketing products for retail dealers.

Before the acquisition, Manheim already supplied used vehicle marketing services to over 3,000 dealers and Manheim believes these latest acquisitions will further enhance its customer reach.

Manheim's USA operation owns the US used car classified website autotrader.com, which has no connection to the UK business of the same name.The US operation lists over 2.7 million vehicles.

Garry Hobson, Motors.co.uk chief executive, said: "We are all extremely excited about being part of the world’s largest automotive services provider and, in particular, to have access to the online classified media expertise within USA Autotrader.com.

"For dealers and manufacturers it’s a great route into the private motorist and one which will be fully supported by an extensive range of value-added, consumer related marketing services.”