AN auction floor test of paintless dent repair services and warranties added £200 to the average price of defleeted cars. But the trial, carried out by Manheim Auctions and Ford Business Partner, the new name for Ford Contract Motoring, proved fleet managers must choose carefully which defleeted cars need work.

The sale of 222 cars included 159 which were refurbished, while 35 were also awarded Ford Credit Certification, underwritten by Manheim Auctions, and a further 63 vehicles were sold without either service. The report found that cars sold with refurbishment and certification achieved a CAP clean average of 103.7%, those with refurbishment alone achieved 103.1% and the standard vehicles 101.4%. The conversion rate rose to 94.5% from 70% in the previous sale.

Mike Don Carolis, used vehicle remarketing manager at Ford Business Partner, said: 'We made a significant investment of £30,000 in this sale on refurbishment and certification of all those cars which we considered justified the extra expenditure. Ford Credit's net revenue from the two sales was improved through the extra effort by a total of £47,484. This works out at £200 per car.'