THE residual value slump that has wiped millions of pounds from the value of the company car parc has transformed traditional 'repmobiles' into star performers for fleets.

As CAP Motor Research this week hailed the past year's slump in residual values as the 'worst in living memory', fleet favourites - including the Ford Mondeo and Vauxhall Vectra - have acted as a relatively safe haven for used values over the key three-year/60,000 mile benchmark.

According to CAP Black Book, while some sectors, such as the executive car market, saw used car values collapse by 11% in the past year, the key models in the fleet sector such as the Mondeo and Vectra fell by only 4%.

Daren Wiseman, the used value guide's senior editor, said: 'As a percentage drop, the 'repmobiles' seem to have performed better, because that volume area of the market has always had realistic values and the number of vehicles has kept prices at sensible levels.

'Executive cars seem to have suffered because there is more volume around and values have been high for so long.'

Experts are currently predicting the value of a Ford Mondeo in three years time will be as low as 24%, for a 1.8LX, but with prices at rock-bottom, any further downward moves are minimal, the industry says. However, that is for the 'old' Mondeo and predictions for the recently launched 'new' model are several percentage points better at 31% for the 1.8 LX.

The findings were backed by Glass's Guide, where senior car editor Adrian Rushmore said: 'I think residual values have now found their level, although I don't think the residual values for cars like the Mondeo and Vectra have been any better than for some lower medium cars like the Ford Focus and the Vauxhall Astra.'