The used van sector continued to perform strongly in December, with buyers out in force and vendors selling right up until Christmas Eve.
Latest figures from Manheim show the average selling price of vans sold in December was £5,401, up by £731 (15.7%) year-on-year and an increase of £219 (4.2%) from November. Conversion rates were up by 4.2% compared to the same month in 2015.
Matthew Davock, head of LCV at Manheim, said: “In my opinion, we have witnessed one of the strongest quarters on record for commercial vehicles and this encouraged vendors to continue selling until very late in the month, when they have previously held onto stock.”
Average age and mileage of vans sold fell both month-on-month and year-on-year, dropping by three months and 1,277 miles (16.8%) from November to 62 months and 74,656 miles.
Davock continued: “We saw younger stock enter the market place in December and this had a very positive impact on our average selling price, and more importantly fuelled the appetite among buyers to continue to buy stock in what is usually a softer purchasing month.”
As a whole, the final quarter of 2016 saw an increase of 20% in year-on-year volumes, with slightly lower average age and mileage, but an uplift of £471 in average selling price – all on the back of record performance in 2015.
Online performance at Manheim continues to grow, with 34% of vans sold in December selling to online buyers, which was 10% higher than December 2015 and 2% above the figure record in November. For 2016 as a whole, Manheim’s online CV sales were 8% up on the previous year.
For more of the latest industry news, click here.
