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Ford launches guaranteed use truck scheme
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• Plating and testing, and the new standards demanded by operators' licensing, have swept thousands of the poorer used trucks off the market and into the scrap yards over the past two years. Now the used commercial vehicle is gaining an image which makes it acceptable to a new class of buyer, and Ford Motor Co Ltd has decided that this is the psychological moment to introduce a national scheme of guaranteed used commercial vehicles.
Called the A-1 Used Truck Plan, it will be applied by Ford's truck specialist dealers on all classes of commercial vehicle and by main dealers on the lighter vehicles (eg Transits and Escorts). All the vehicles covered by the A-1 warranty will have to conform with stringent standards. They must not only have a valid test certificate, and be properly plated where relevant, but trucks must have been tested and inspected against the MoT standard check list by the dealer, and reconditioned to at least MoT test standards. They must also be reconditioned in general appearance where necessary, be mechanically reliable, and be given a 12,000-mile service or its equivalent.
Since the scheme is applicable at each dealer's discretion, and not all used vehicles will necessarily be covered by it, Ford insists that those vehicles which do fall within the scheme are displayed with the A-1 badge on the windscreen.
As well as the minimum standards of preparation, A-1 vehicles will carry a warranty for two months or 3000 miles from date of purchase, whichever is completed first, and during this period the guarantee provides for a 331 per cent discount on the retail cost of labour and parts in respect of failures occurring during this period. The warranty will not cover tyres, tubes, glass and radios.
In the event of a dispute between a customer and a dealer, Ford's participation would be limited to providing help in obtaining a settlement, and failing this the case would be referred to an arbitrator appointed by the president of the Law Society.
About 70 of the 150 truck specialist dealers will be in the A-1 scheme from the start; it has obvious links with the recently launched Ford "Contract Confidence" scheme, and dealers who operate the latter will automatically have first-hand knowledge of the condition of vehicles subsequently offered to them as trade-ins. Ford has been very thorough in its approach to the A-1 scheme, and included in the excellent documentation provided for dealers is an 11-page booklet recommending a standard detailed procedure for examining used trucks and vans offered for re-sale.
Trading-in is a familiar practice but in the past very many of the commercial vehicles were sent straight for scrap or passed into the lower echelons of the trade. Now, however, far more traded-in vehicles are likely to be of an age and condition making them suitable for retailing at Ford dealer level, and the A-1 plan (which will not be limited to Ford vehicles) is expected to increase the turnover of good used vehicles.
Ford's truck specialist dealers sell about 5000 of the heavier used commercials a year (having perhaps 600 in stock throughout the country at any one time), and about 60 per cent of these are Fords. The transits and light vans handled by dealers probably total about 17,000 a year, Ford estimates that perhaps 25,000 used trucks are being retailed in the UK every year through the franchise-holders of all makes, and about as many again are passed straight through to the trade or sent for scrap.
The company finds that operators' licensing is already boosting sales of used vehicles in the '8 /10-ton-payload category and there is an expectation that on many occasions buyers with small fleets will opt for a heavier, and guaranteed, used vehicle rather than a lighter new one at the same price. The A-1 scheme is also expected to meet the fairly frequent demand for sudden bulk supplies of vehicles for civil engineering contracts—demands which dealers often find it difficult to meet with new vehicles.
To ensure that dealers participating in the A-1 scheme can meet its standards, Ford is insisting that they have adequate facilities to bring vehicles up to the agreed standards of roadworthiness and appearance, and in most cases this means facilities of at least pre-MoT test requirements. B.C.