The start point for the best source of fleet information |
FLEET SPEAK: Brand reputation extends to residual values
Date: 29 March 2010 | Author:
There are a few things that Fiat Group boss Andrew Humberstone has either forgotten or neglected to mention in his attack on the way lease firms and the guides predict residual values.
The first point is that people predicting residual values have to look long term. For fleets and leasing companies we're talking three, four or five years in the future. To predict the future you not only need to know what a car maker is doing now, but what they will do in the future, say a year or two. And one way residual value predictors judge this is through reputation and historic data.
Fiat has a less than perfect reputation for blowing hot and cold in daily rental as well as offering some sizeable discounts to gain fleet market share.
Indeed, Fiat UK has not made a profit contribution to its parent in Italy for the past 20 years, revealed Humberstone to car retailer magazine Motor Trader at the end of last year.
Another aspect to the argument is that the big-volume rival car makers that Humberstone hints at have some low RVs of their own and are hardly shining examples of how residuals should be handled.
