Fleets benefit from higher values after smoking ban

The fleet industry should benefit from the Government in-car smoking ban with higher residual values predicted.

Manheim’s buyer survey into the impact smoking can have on used values showed that fleets could see smoke free cars making £200 more than those that have been driven by a heavy smoker.

The £200 is based on buyers’ expectations on how much they may have to spend on professionally defumigating and cleaning the interior of a typical fleet car. The figure becomes even larger when related to the upper end Executive models.

Manheim surveyed trade buyers at a number of their auction centres and the results were a close call. 52% said they would still buy a vehicle driven by a heavy smoker, while 48% said they would not buy it.

Out of those 48%, 58% said they would not buy the car due to the cost of getting rid of the smoke ingress into its interior. 12% of buyers thought the cost of cleaning the car’s interior would cost over £100 and 9% estimated it would cost over £200. But 40% of buyers still felt that they could never get rid of the contamination completely, hence the reluctance by many to even bid on a smoker’s car.

“Traders were clear that smoking reduces the appeal of buying a used car. This is mainly down to the time and cost associated with getting the car’s interior condition back to an acceptable level, together with the risk of not succeeding,” explained Rob Barr, Manheim’s Group Communications Director.

“Taking this volume of buyers out of the bidding for a used car could delay the chance of it selling first time at auction, as well as forcing down the price.

“However, in the future as more cars come back to the market smoke free, so it will open them up to more buyers, better first time conversion rates and higher prices,” he added.

Until the problem goes away in a few years time, Manheim recommends having smoke infested interiors professionally cleaned before putting them under the hammer to maximise residuals.