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Silver lining
Page 88
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George Alexander, Glass's Guide's
chief editor for commercial vehicles, explains how supply problems with new vans are improving residuals in the second-hand market.
Residual prices in the used van market are getting unexpected help from delivery delays for new vans, says George Alexander, chief CV editor at Glass's Guide. Certain manufacturers have had problems with increasing lead-times on their more popular models and this is an issue that will continue into the new year.
Recent improvements in European CV sales are stretching the manufacturers' ability to consistently meet this extra demand, he explains: "This may be bad for those waiting longer for their new van, but another consequence of the delays is that residual values are firming up for similar nearly new stock.
"Where customers are required to wait too long to get their vehicles it is possible that they will choose an alternative that can be collected in weeks as opposed to months," he adds. "This redistribution would probably not change the total size of the marketplace,but it could generate some interesting individual sales performances.
Elsewhere in the used van market, the Fiat's Doblo is enjoying solid residuals for goodcondition models due to its limited availability on the open market. In fact dealers are battling hard for car-derived vans with low warranted miles "knowing that this type of fast turnover stock represents good business",says Alexander. But he advises that smaller vans should be well presented, especially when the market gets swamped by more abused versions.
Sales of late-year Ford Connects are being pinched by good deals on new examples. Alexander says the Ford Direct pro gramme helps by restricting the supply of used vehicles, but "a few more examples are beginning to trickle out of the network and onto the open market".
Falling numbers of Ford Escorts on the open market has stabilised prices and clean examples ofVauxhallAstras are doing well, but the best performers are the LS and Sportive.
Middleweight contenders In the higher weight categories the middleweight van market is performing well with European manufacturers feeling the heat from Asian suppliers. The Citroen Dispatch, Fiat Scudo and Peugeot Expert are popular but coming up on the inside rail are the Nissan Vanette, Mitsubishi L300 andToyota HiAce.
Elsewhere the longer-wheelbase versions of Volkswagen's Transporter and the Vauxhall VivaroiRenault Trafic command a premium over the short-wheelbase equivalents.
Alexander believes the latest MercedesBenz Vito range will be a huge success on the used market, to the point that Glass's Guide is receiving reports of faltering prices for the previous Vito CDI van. "The old model is beginning to show its age and, with any shortcomings having been addressed in the new model, trade buyers are less willing to pay premium prices," he says.
At 3.5 tonnes, the Ford Transit 350 panel vans is performing strongly with good prices for the higher power versions. "This trend has spread across the sector and now includes larger, more powerful models from Vauxhall, Renault, Peugeot and Iveco," he reports.
If you have the money a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter may well top your wish list.But Alexander concludes:"Ptices for late Sprinter 311 vans of all types have become susceptible to higher market volumes, which is perhaps the inevitable consequence of strong sales growth over the past five years," •