High prices of used coaches will stick well into 2025 and are being driven by a lack of late model stock and constraints on new coach availability, a figure familiar with that market has said.
Odyssey Coach Sales Director Darren Critchley notes that those factors have combined to create a seller’s market, adding that operators looking for used double-decker buses for home-to-school work are facing similar difficulties in sourcing mid-life vehicles.
“They are not there. Former London buses feed the double-deck school market, and many built in the relevant years were hybrids, which are unpopular,” he says. “The option for very high capacity is an up-seated tri-axle coach, but they do not suit every operator for school work. That brings us back to supply and demand.”
While the second half of the year is not key to sales of used touring coaches, Mr Critchley advises that some models still move immediately regardless of PSVAR compliance. The Mercedes-Benz Tourismo is prime among those.
Availability of late used touring coaches ahead of the 2025 season is expected to be difficult because of the virtual lack of registration of those vehicles during 2020 and 2021, he continues. “Spring 2025 will be like the spring of 2024; high demand for a relatively low supply of late used coaches, so prices will stay artificially high.”
While focus has been on values of late model full-sized coaches, Mr Critchley reports that other parts of the market are showing different trends. Older coaches in the sub-£50,000 category or from around 2011-2014 also attract strong demand, but the call for PSVAR compliance has receded.
“There is not as much demand for used Caetano Levantes as there was five years ago, when PSVAR was a crisis point,” he says, although a used Levante of the right age still represents a relatively cost-effective Euro VI coach.
Values of used minicoaches have fallen away of late, something Mr Critchley puts down to better availability of new vehicles. Pre-owned Ford Transit minibuses are particularly good purchases with strong availability, he adds.
Where a buyer identifies a used vehicle, Mr Critchley’s advice is to move quickly. However, he recommends that it is viewed before completion, or at least subject to an independent inspection or video survey of its condition, particularly underneath.
“If you can look at it, do so. That is a strength of Odyssey Coach Sales; I look at everything.” Receiving at least three months’ inspection sheets is also imperative and Mr Critchley advises caution where zero defects are recorded.
For sellers, his advice is simple: “You will not need to negotiate; someone will buy the coach.” One such operator notes that a non-PSVAR, Euro VI touring vehicle sold within days of it being listed earlier this year, for the sticker figure and without being viewed.
