Outright purchase stays popular with small and medium fleets, research shows

Outright purchase remains the most attractive method of acquiring company
cars and vans for small-medium companies, according to a new survey released
today.

Out of 1317 fleet managers interviewed by MIB Data Solutions – which
produces the Prospecting Fleet Data and Fleet Entire industry databases –
1,163 purchase vehicles, 685 use some form of leasing and 259 do both. Their
fleets range from 1-200 units.

Nick Boddington, Managing Director, explained that while several other
surveys had shown leasing gaining ground across the fleet industry as a
whole in the post-recession climate, the new research showed that SMEs still
largely preferred to buy.

He said: "There is no doubt that leasing has become a more popular part of
the acquisition mix in recent years. It makes an increasing amount of sense
for companies who want to preserve any cash reserves they hold, provides
fixed costs and removes the considerable risk associated with future
residual values.

"However, in the SME sector, this snapshot research shows that outright
purchase is still very much the most widely used acquisition method. In this
part of the market, managers that often own and run their own business have
traditionally liked to own their assets, and it appears that this is still
very much the case with cars and vans."

Nick added that the research undertaken by MIB did indicate that there was a
fairly consistent relationship between fleet size and acquisition method.

He said: "If you look at the range of 0-200 vehicles, fleets are the top end
of the scale are much more likely to make some use of leasing than those
with a handful of cars and vans. It could be that, the larger the fleet, the
more likely they are to take a structured, methodical look at the
acquisition method they use and, in the current climate, probably arrive at
some form of leasing as the best outcome."