ITCH: Manheim make market claims
The used van market is seeing the biggest shift ever to older commercial vehicles, the latest Market Analysis from Manheim has claimed.
February’s sales data shows a move in the wholesale market towards LCVs over five years, with Manheim claiming they have never seen such a high proportion – nearly half – of all used vans in the market reaching the seven year mark.
Manheim’s analysis claims here is a chronic shortage of vans in the three to five year age bracket, although this is likely to improve during the next few years.
At the other end of the age spectrum, much older vans are still attracting surprisingly strong bidding, with between 30% and 50% of all vehicles sold at auction last month over seven years of age.
Despite the ageing profile, average selling price has risen year-on-year by £349 or 8% – a trend attributed to the significant fall in new van sales in 2008/2009.
“These older vans are, without doubt, the tail end of extensions and deferred replacement programmes resulting from the economic downturn.”
Matthew Davock, Manheim
Matthew Davock, Head of LCV at Manheim, said: “These older vans are, without doubt, the tail end of extensions and deferred replacement programmes resulting from the economic downturn.
“Anything sub four years in auction today is seeing significant interest, from both online and physical buyers.
“Fewer than three in ten vans sold in February fell into this age bracket.
“This is not bad news for the market.
“Older and higher mileage vans will always find homes as they are at an attractive price point and represent excellent value.
“Mileage is now seemingly less of a mental barrier in retail buyers’ minds; this is likely against a backdrop of modern reliability and a comprehensive maintenance history.”
