Second-hand van values continue to rise

Average second-hand van values continued to rise in December according to British Car Auctions (BCA).Buyers continued to compete strongly for commercial stock right through to the year-end


Buyers continued to compete strongly for commercial stock right through to the year-end. Over £100 was added to average van prices during the month as the £4,000 watershed was breached for the first time on record.
Average values increased from £3,902 to £4,008 to establish a new high point for LCVs. The rise of £106 was equivalent to a 2.7% increase – and marked the end of a year that saw average values start below £3,000 in January and end above £4,000 in December. Over the year values increased by 37% - a result of both how strong the demand was in 2009 and how far prices had collapsed over the previous year.

BCA’S Duncan Ward commented “In review, 2009 has recovered all of the ground lost in 2008 and a little bit more. It seemed that values might have peaked in September, but high demand kept prices firm in the run-up to Christmas, breaking records on the way.”

He added “With small businesses being significant buyers in the used commercial market, this suggests that confidence is returning to the SME sector and reflects the news that the UK officially came out of recession in the final quarter of 2009.”

According to BCA, model mix was broadly the same in December as the previous month, and there were reduced numbers of higher value nearly-new vans for the second month running. Volumes were slightly down on November as would be expected in a short working month.

Despite the average price increase, performance against CAP continued to fall for the third straight month, settling at 95.21% and representing another three points off last months average. Overall CAP performance has fallen by nearly 10 points since September.
The year-on-year price differential increased again, with December 09 values ahead by a resounding £1,236 – the biggest year-on-year margin on record - and reflecting both the strong performance in December 2009 and just how weak the LCV sector was generally during 2008.