PROPER preparation adds up to £500 to the value of a used car, claims Phil Whiting, sales manager at Rover main dealer Wadham Kenning, Lichfield. He says the business benefits by £250,000 a year because second-hand vehicles are professionally valeted.

Fleet News has frequently written about how fleets can boost residual values on their vehicles by having them valeted ahead of being defleeted. Whiting, who uses Autoclenz, said: 'We sell ex-fleet cars which may have done 60,000 miles in two years, often driven by smokers. When properly prepared, if you remove the registration plates, you would think they were new cars. A valet of that standard would add £500 to the value of the vehicle. This is extremely good value for the cost.'

He added: 'We used to employ our own valeters, but it is more cost-effective to buy in the service.' Autoclenz managing director Grahame Rummery says vehicle cleaning and valeting is being outsourced by dealers, auction houses, rental and leasing fleets and other businesses in a bid to reduce overheads, the Working Time Directive and the UK law on minimum wages and the need to train all staff in control of substances hazardous to health procedures.