Tim Cattlin

Tim Cattlin: vans no longer bought as a tool to get a job done

Cattlin said: “The days of the van being seen as purely a tool to get a job done are clearly ending and the signs are strongest in the one tonne panel van market.

“For example, Ford has spent the first 18 months of the life of the Transit Custom successfully cultivating the ‘artisan’ retail smaller business sector.

“Looking at registration statistics there has been a high proportion of ‘Trend’ and ‘Limited’ models, with relatively high specification, sold.”

However, Cattlin warned there can be a downside to becoming followers of van vanity, with residual values open to more volativity.

He explained: “But along with this kind of design and feature dynamism, designed to inspire the end-user to keep up with the latest look and feel, comes the risk of less stable used van values.

“Looking again at the 4×4 lifestyle vehicle, key players in that sector such as Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota and Ford are fully aware of how their current offering can fall out of fashion quickly. When that happens and a model starts to fall behind its peers in terms of image, then demand drops off in the used market sufficiently to cause more rapidly falling values.

“In the end, the creep of vanity into the van market is a mixed blessing. It ensures a more dynamic marketplace, with exciting and fresh offerings appearing with increasing regularity.  But it also threatens faster depreciation as model ‘shelf life’ begins to shorten and end-users are constantly drawn to the newest vehicle on offer.”

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