Audi UK is shaking up its used car supply programme in a bid to improve its residual value performance.

The firm is entering into negotiations with leasing firms to get more ex-fleet Audis back into the dealer network, as well encouraging dealers to take on more cars of three years and older. It expects to double the volume of used cars through its network as a result to more than 70,000 cars over the next four years.

Adrian Short, head of corporate sales at Audi UK, said: 'We have got to get the retail network focused on used cars and have the capacity to handle them and be motivated to doing that role.

'The internal side of it is to make sure we are on message across the whole brand about these cars and also in terms of managing residual values and availability, making sure the proposition we have got is strong in all areas.

'The leasing industry is probably one of the biggest sources of supply for us in terms of used cars and yet we've never really engaged in conversations around that strategically. The benefit for the leasing industry is giving them more channels to market.'

Short claimed the change in strategy was to introduce more drivers to the brand, while selling used leased cars through its network rather than through auctions will have the effect of pushing up values.

Ian Brown, national used car sales manager for Audi UK, said: 'At the moment, our network is heavily leaning towards nearly new cars and we need to look at three-year-old cars more.

'It is common for dealers not to deal with older vehicles. There's a big opportunity in three to four-year-old cars. It's the most common time for a vehicle to change hands and yet most of them change hands outside our network.'

The firm will be entering discussions on taking back more of its cars from the leasing industry over the next month and Brown claimed that they were also looking at opening two or three centres situated away from main dealer sites to see if a separate used car network was feasible.

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