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in on Euro-3
Page 70
Page 71
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Anyone selling niche products and late-year, low-mileage Euro-3 vehicles with analogue tachos should prosper in the new year.
Steve Banner reports.
Dealers with plenty of lateyear, low-mileage Euro-3 stock with analogue tachographs, or who specialise in niche vehicles such as rigid multi-wheelers with cranes, can look forward to a buoyant used market for most of 2007.
"We'll certainly see strong demand for the most desirable Euro-3 tractor units usually nothing older than 2004 on a 54 plate over the next few months," says Andy Mackay, used sales specialist at the Manchester branch of Daf dealership Chatfields.
"You can ask however much you want for them and you'll probably get it," Mackay adds. -I suspect the climate will only begin to alter when the big operators start ordering new Euro-4 or Euro-5 vehicles, but the impact of that change is unlikely to be felt for the next six to 12 months."
"If you're looking to sell up and get out of haulage and you've got a lot of late-registered Euro-3 wagons, then now is the time to dolt because you'll get top dollar and then some for them," says one well-known used dealer, who asks not to be named. "Hang on for another year and you're likely to find the prices won't be nearly as good."
Bridging the price gap
On the downside, customers who want to trade in a six or sevenyear-old unit against one that is two or three years old may be disappointed in the price they are offered, assuming that the dealer wants to take it at all."Many of these older vehicles are likely to end up at an auction rather than on dealer forecourts," says Mackay.
He believes the price gap between what they are trying to dispose of and the vehicles they want to acquire might be prompting some operators to call it a day.
-Late-plate Euro-3 trucks will command premium prices in the coming months," says Tim Robinson, used sales manager at Hull MAN-ERF dealership Chatfields."I suspect that many dealers who have them will sit on them until the man who is prepared to pay what they are looking for turns up,"
Bonanza for some
Paul Prewett, general manager, used sales, at east of England Scania dealership TruckEast, agrees that the coming months will be a bonanza for dealers who have the trucks that customers clearly want. -We've got quite a few deals on the go, and we've got some more 53-plate R124 6x2 420 Toplines — some are 2004registered — coming in, along with a few 470s," he adds.
Fear of EGR, SCR, and going digital is not the only reason why late-registered analogue trucks are proving popular, says Kevin Haynes of Kent MercedesBenz dealership Sparshatts. "Operators want to cut their maintenance bills.and they recognise that late-plate trucks will cost them less to run than the older ones they're operating at present," he suggests. "Our order bank is looking really strong."
"We had a good finish to 2006 and this year has been good to us too so far," says Jason Addison of Ipswich independent dealership Used Trucks. "Prices are quite strong and we're finding there's still a big demand for box-bodied 13-tonners — which we specialise in — but customers become less enthusiastic if they're more than five years old.
"Buyers are very mileage conscious too," he adds."They're nervous about anything that's done more than 350,000 to 400,000km."
Prewett concludes that no matter what the registration, hauliers remain wary of highmileage vehicles—even though modern engines can clock up astonishing mileages without suffering ill effects if regularly serviced: "It could have 24carat gold bumpers on it and be finished in gold leaf.., if the mileage isn't right, the man won't want to know."