Carsnip has soared past its target to attract car listings from 5,000 car dealers six months earlier than expected – with 6,500 now taking advantage of the search engine.

The firm, which has branded its product as a ‘Google for cars’ had expected to reach 2,500 dealers by the end of 2016 but fast growth in take ups among independent and big name car dealers has seen it beat that number two and half times over.

Dealers’ growing discontent over the record profits being posted by other sites, which charge for listings, is one of the reasons Carsnip’s founders have cited for the faster than expected growth.

Carsnip chief executive, Alastair Campbell, said: “We’ve spent the second half of this year refining our software and perfecting our technology to the needs of dealers and that’s really paid off for us. We’re building a sustainable and genuine alternative to the old guard.

“The car listings model was broken, so we’ve fixed it. We’ve got more stock than anywhere else, we’re proudly open source and transparent.

“However, having the most stock is only the first step. Soon we’ll see a huge increase in visitors, and just as we’ve surged forward to become the UK largest used car site, our future growth plans will be unique and ground-breaking.”

Carsnip listed around 650,000 cars in November.

Customers already signed up include Cambria and Imperial Car Supermarkets.

Geoff Mawdsley, Imperial Car Supermarkets’ operations director, said: “We signed up with Carsnip because we’re excited about what they can offer.

“Car buyers view the cars on our website, not Carsnip’s, which means we can do more of what we do best; selling the right car to the right person.”

Carsnip is backed by investors at Google and Microsoft, as well as the early backers of Pinterest.