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The start point for the best source of fleet information |
Half of all new cars go to fleets. Or they did before The Insider heard different
Half of all new cars sold in the UK go to fleets. I've always been fascinated by that stat, which is why when someone told me it's in all probability not true, I paid close attention.
Part of the fascination stems from the irony of automotive advertising promoting cars as the fast track to freedom, when in fact a full 50% are shackled to corporate rulebooks, aka the company car drivers' manual. Freedom, but with mandatory rest-breaks every two hours.
Now I find I might be working under a false assumption. The official figures say 50% (actually 49.3% for 2006, if you want to be precise), but apparently there's a fair amount of fudging going on.
I got this from a chap who worked for a broker at a conference recently. These guys operate semi-clandestinely through websites selling off unsold dealer stock at discounted prices. I was under the impression it was all still import stuff - one-year warranty hatchbacks from Holland, that sort of thing - but no. The cars are proper UK-spec models, just at firesale prices.
“Just as with fleet discounts, the manufacturers aren't that keen to advertise how cheap they're selling. So to get the really low prices, these brokers have to advertise them as financed, mostly by contract hire. That way the true scale of the list-price plunge is hidden.” |
The Insider |
And that's where the semi-clandestine bit comes in. Just as with fleet discounts, the manufacturers aren't that keen to advertise how cheap they're selling. So to get the really low prices, these brokers have to advertise them as financed, mostly by contract hire. That way the true scale of the list-price plunge is hidden.
It's in this process that private-destined cars get marked down as a fleet sale. Don't ask me how or why. He reckoned this practice accounted for around 15% of so-called fleet sales. The guy also suggested that some brokers (shady competitors, obviously) were posing as credit companies just so they could secure the discounts. They'd even file false finance papers with the manufacturers to 'prove' it.
Then you get the affinity schemes - where large companies essentially become the broker to offer employees cheap cars as a perk. It's not in any real sense a company car because it's funded by the employee, but does that become a fleet car in the official tally?
You might well ask why it should matter, and you'd be entitled not to care. But I'd say otherwise. If I'm aware of the 50/50 figure, and you are too, probably, then the Government is certainly aware of it. You don't ignore what's happening fiscally to more than a million new cars each year. Which means more focus, more civil servants on our case, and more legislation to interfere with the daily running of a fleet.
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