In response to your recent article on used coach values, we run a small coach business in England that has been quite fortunate with buying and selling vehicles recently. The ongoing supply shortage and the high values of new vehicles has meant the used market has shot up in value.
I keep an eye on the vehicle market and have found that vehicles built beyond 2019 have not depreciated at a high rate at all. It looks as though current used Euro VI models, or anything newer than six years old, are not only holding their value, but are continuing to sell at a fast rate — we’re seeing a lot of vehicles advertised now that are bought almost straight away.
The vehicles that I tend to advertise are usually sold within a day. New coach values seem to have risen between 20-30%, while the vehicles in the 2016 and upwards bracket that we bought at a reduced price have not depreciated as we would normally expect, and are now selling at a premium.
Of course, we had the shortage owing to 18 months when factories were not building through the pandemic, and when they resumed production, they did so at reduced capacity. I expect supply and demand will stay as it is for at least two to three years.
As a coach operator we have to be careful how we depreciate these vehicles on our books if their values have gone up. Because we are buying and selling, one has offset the other when we buy new vehicles. We have been fortunate in that respect, but it has been a balancing act.
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