Big demand for rigids
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• Anybody with a yard full of clean, lateregistered rigids can count himself a lucky man, says Bob Reed, heavy commercials editor at the CAP Used Commercial Values guide. "The 7.5-tonner market is quite strong," he adds. "Prices are stable, and tippers are doing especially well; if you can get them-17/18-tonners are performing strongly too, as are eight-wheel tippers, and skip loaders are fetching a fortune. Anything with a crane on is in great demand."
"Rigids with unusual specifications are certainly selling," says Ian Armitt of independent dealership Malcolm Harrison in Stone, Staffs 'There's demand for 6x2 rigids, and brick and block carriers." But tractors aren't so healthy. It seem as though the further up the weight range you go, the harder it gets," he remarks. "Scania's 4 Series seems to be doing OK, but MAN values seem to be suffering at the auctions. Quite a few MANs recently went through Belle Vue, the auction run by British Car Auctions in Manchester, and got a real hammering."
What really worries Reed are the huge stocks of unsold buy-backs held by truck makers, however—and he reckons the problem is getting worse.