IFT ramps up residuals
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• Following moves by Renault to boost its UK residual values, Iveco Ford Truck has drawn up a programme to improve the price and perception of secondhand Iveco Ford HGVs, particularly tractive units.
Up to 200 Iveco Ford TurboStars and TECs will come back off contract this year for refurbishment to a standard specified by the factory. They will then be sold through a 20-strong used truck network, drawn from the manufacturer's 50 heavy truck dealers.
The tractors will be up to four years old, will have covered up to 400,000Iun, and will carry at least a 12-month warranty. The programme will be launched in early summer and will run for two or three years.
The used trucks will be heavily promoted by Iveco Ford, and dealer stock finance costs will be supported by Iveco Fi nance — the joint venture company set up last year with Midland Bank.
Iveco Ford believes that wellrun used truck departments of main distributors can establish a higher resale value for its tractors than independent traders, and higher residual values will make the marque more attractive to buyers of new vehicles.
Also, the programme will retain the profit opportunity within the network. It will spearhead Iveco's drive in heavy trucks in the UK this year, as the secondhand market is expected to pick up well in advance of new vehicle sales.
The used vehicle trade views tractor units, rather than medium or lightweight vehicles, as the sector where prices will show most improvement over the next year.
When the Iveco tractors are returned under buy-back con tracts they will be inspected at Iveco's Winsford workshop and a schedule will be drawn up of the work needed to bring the vehicles up to "full retail condition".
The trucks will then be passed on to dealers at an agreed price, and those dealers will be responsible for completing the work before the vehicles are sold. Around 16 of the planned 20 Iveco Ford dealers have already been signed up.
Participating dealers are obliged to have a separate used truck display area and salesman, and will be required to sell a minimum number of used Iveco tractors, related to their target on new vehicles.
Dealers in the network, which are almost all drawn from the old Ford network, have tended to continue selling used Cargos, which they are used to and which have been more saleable.