DEALER NEWS ROUND-UP
Page 55
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THIRSTY VEHICLES SUFFER
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's 6.14p a litre Budget diesel duty price hike has done the used truck market no favours. It will act further to depress the values of older, less-fuel-frugal vehicles, warns Glass's Guide commercial vehicles editor George Alexander (pictured).
Buyers will calculate how much more such trucks will cost them to operate, and the price for which they can be sold looks set to fall accordingly. Dealers might as well take the pain now, Alexander advises. There'll be no point in hanging on to trucks for another three or four months, because the situation is unlikely to improve.
Depressing residuals will place additional pressure on manufacturers anxious to off-load buy-backs, Alexander adds. It will lead to an even wider gap between projected values and what vehicles will realistically fetch come disposal time.
Renting trucks out rather than supplying them on a buy-back basis isn't a long-term solution, he argues, because rented vehicles will have to be disposed of at some time, and manufacturers will have some unpleasant medicine to swallow when disposal time rolls round.
DIAGNOSTICS AT YOUR DOOR
Mobile auto-electricians are now in service with Scania dealership Derek Jones Commercials. Capable of diagnosing faults in truck electronics, they're providing support to customers in Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Buckinghamshire.