BCA’s newly-published Pulse report provides further evidence of buoyant used van marketplace.

In Quarter 1 2007, reflecting the strong and sustained market that BCA and other commentators are reporting on, average values for fleet and lease vans rose for the third quarter running to £3,915 – a modest increment of £23, but the highest value recorded in the last 15 months.

Year-on-year, values are up by nearly £200. The average age of fleet and lease vehicles at remarketing crept up again this quarter (after falling by nearly three months in Q4/06), while average mileage was relatively static at 69,211. CAP performance improved to 101% – another high point and up by five points year-on-year.

While LCV stock is almost universally diesel-powered, small numbers of petrol/LPG units are now available to the used market.

Following a strong Quarter 4, 2006 which saw LPG values increase by £689, values fell by £530 (16%) in Q1/07.

Numbers remain small, however, and this will lead to such swings in price. As a result, the price gap between LPG and diesel values increased to over £1,000, after closing quite significantly last quarter.

In line with the fleet/lease sector, average quarterly values for vehicles from part-exchange sources also rose to record levels in Q1/07, improving by £263 to £3,244.

Both age and mileage averages fell noticeably (by three months and 6,000 miles respectively) while CAP performance improved marginally to sit at 99.3%. Year on year, CAP performance for P/X LCVs has improved by nine points.

LCV Q1 2007 fleet and lease sector

Period		Average age		Average mileage		Average sale price		Sale price vs CAP%
Q1 2007		48.09		69,211		£3,915		101.0
Q4 2006		47.63		69,884		£3,892		100.4
Q3 2006		50.52		69,557		£3,481		94.8
Q2 2006		48.79		71,374		£3,544		96.9
Q1 2006		46.31		71,344		£3,729		96.0