How to start a new scan

3 min read·Updated April 2026

A scan checks a set of auction platforms against a saved filter, looks every car up on AutoTrader, and ranks the results by profit. Most scans finish in under 50 seconds.

Three ways to start a scan

From /scans/new — full new-scan form.
From the New Scan button on the dashboard header.
From any filter detail page — the Run scan button uses that filter directly.

Pick a filter profile

Filters tell ScanAuctions what kind of cars to look for. You need at least one saved before you can scan — see How to create a filter.

Pick platforms

Tick the auction sites you want to include:

Motorway — daily live auctions
CarWow Buy Now — fixed-price stock
CarWow Auction — reserve bidding

Platforms are only enabled if you’ve connected them in Settings → Platforms. Plan-locked platforms show an Upgrade badge.

Click Start Scan

Hit Start Scan. The scan goes into the queue (one runs at a time per account) and a progress bar appears straight away.

What happens during the scan

ScanAuctions scrapes Motorway and CarWow listings, fetches AutoTrader retail values for every car, then applies your filter and ranks results by profit. The progress bar updates live — scraping, valuations, analysis, complete.

Bored waiting? The ScanRunner mini-game runs in the corner of the progress screen. Pure dopamine — high score persists across scans.

When the scan finishes

You’ll be auto-redirected to /scans/{id} with the results loaded. A toast confirms completion. If the tab was in the background and you’ve enabled browser notifications, you’ll get a system ping too.

Common platform issues

Motorway closed 15:30-16:30 UK time — daily reset window. Run before or after.
CarWow Auction closed weekends — Friday evening through Sunday it’s skipped automatically.
AT session expired — you’ll see a banner asking you to reconnect AutoTrader. Open the AutoTrader guide for the fix.

First scan run? Head to Understanding scan results next — that’s where the real work happens.

How to create a filter Understanding scan results How do I connect AutoTrader?

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