FIRST National Vehicle Holdings has introduced a pilot scheme designed to boost residual values of defleeted company cars by selling them direct to end users. The company has launched Buy Direct following a restructuring of its remarketing operation to run alongside its traditional method of disposing of end-of-contract vehicles - auctions and brokers.

Mark Junner, marketing manager of First National Vehicle Holdings, said: 'This is a pilot scheme to see how it works and what we can learn from it. We are trying to build more flexibility into our business as there is always the opportunity with this scheme to do better in terms of residual values.' Buy Direct has been running for two months and the company is reporting a good level of interest through its four main areas - driver sales, affinity group sales, trade direct and auction direct.