A significant number of fleets are shunning new vehicles and buying used instead.

According to figures from the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) some £179 million has already been lent to companies in the first quarter of this year to acquire used vehicles for business-use.

Last year, close to £900m was lent to businesses to buy used vehicles, while the year before that the figure topped £1bn for the first time.

Carsite has seen more businesses looking for used cars to put onto their fleets.

“There has been an increase,” confirmed Alastair Jeff, Carsite sales director, who said the company is about to offer a new finance deal allowing companies to hire purchase or lease used cars.

Contracthireandleasing.com is seeing a similar upward trend.

“We have seen a big increase in used car leasing deals, especially since the latter half of 2008,” said spokesman Faye Sunderland.

She said there are benefits for fleets leasing used cars, including immediate availability and cost-savings.

“Additionally used cars are often taken on shorter lease terms, meaning that the fleet has a short-term solution if they are unsure of their vehicle needs or funds.”

However, with used car prices rising, the cost advantages of leasing used cars has diminished.

“This has meant that new car leasing is now back in the ascendancy; with only a few competitive used car deals now available,” said Sunderland.
“Although manufacturers provide significant incentives to fleets on new cars, used car leasing can still work out cheaper is some circumstances.”

Typically, leased used cars tend to be around 12 months old, so are still covered by warranty, and have covered below 12,000 miles.

The country’s traditional used car sellers are also seeing interest.

“While there’s no hard and fast evidence that a greater number of businesses are buying used vehicles during these recessionary times, it is a believable assumption,” said BCA’s communications director Tony Gannon.

“Our auctioneers and buyer services department regularly take calls from small businesses looking for advice.”

As the credit crunch began to impact on the amount companies could borrow, so the
amount lent to them to acquire used vehicles to renew their fleets has also dropped.

This decline is confirmed by Manheim, which said it had not seen any significant shift from new vehicles to used vehicles.

Both Manheim and BCA operate fleets made up of used vehicles.

Manheim said it does this “to reduce costs and improve the choice of higher specification vehicles”.

BCA’s own 400-vehicle fleet is sourced from the used market, although it says this is possible because of its experience in the used car arena.

“For fleets sourcing a small number of vehicles the used market can be an option if for whatever reason they don’t want to buy new or lease. Cost is clearly the prime motivator, but it can also be choice,” said Gannon.