Fleet managers are struggling with rising leasing prices, a backlog of quotes and confusing vehicle choice lists as a result of manufacturer strategies to counter the effects of the weak sterling.

As record amounts of data, special editions, new models and price list revisions hit the market, data providers and leasing companies are having to update their records, causing delays in issuing quotes.

Manufacturer margins are disappearing due to the strength of the euro, meaning the cost of buying new cars is increasing, resulting in lease prices going up and causing many cars to break through the bandings previously assigned to them.

Steve Jones, pricing manager at Lex said: "There's a constant flow of manufacturer information - many have returned to quarterly price changes and there's a rush to introduce low CO2 models.

"The result is that customers are finding that their monthly rentals are constantly changing, the cars in policy bands are changing and unlike previous price rises, the manufacturers are unable to increase discounts as their margins are hit so hard by euro exchange rate."

John Wallace, corporate sales and leasing manager at Volvo, said: "The issues with the pound have created some real problems for manufacturers, and as a result you can see a number of them revising their prices upwards a number of times over the past few months.

"So what’s happening is that the likes of CAP and the other information providers have to keep readjusting their data, and this takes time – and then it takes time for the leasing company to assimilate it all and re-price their rates as a result, because the amount of discount and the deals they’re getting for cars may change."

Grosvenor Contracts has already been talking to its customers about the reasoning behind the price rises, with its data analyst James Russell providing figures that illustrate just how many changes there have been.

He said: "Looking at a representative basket of typical fleet vehicles, the overall rise in cost is over £1,100 per car, with one having seven increases in price since January 2008.

"However, these changes have been more dramatic in the last three to four months, with the weakening of the pound against the euro being cited by manufacturers as the main reason.

"But it’s not all bad news - in many cases improved manufacturer support coupled with lower interest rates has reduced the impact of price increases and falling residuals.

"Some marques have also responded by bringing in ‘special edition’ models, with free of charge specification upgrades or better support, meaning that there are some well specified cars out there, often with cheaper rentals than the standard/base models."