Sky's vinyl-wrapped vans go under the hammer

Sky TV's decision to fully wrap its vans in a vinyl livery is paying huge dividends now that they have reached the end of their first life. The fleet of four-year-old Vauxhall Vivaros have had their familiar Bart Simpson liveries peeled off - revealing near-immaculate metallic blue paintwork beneath. The fact that the paint has been so well protected, coupled with the decision to specify them a desirable colour in the first place, is causing them to fetch above-average prices at auction.

Manheim Auctions CV sales director Alex Wright says: "This is the first large fleet to wrap its vans, and it has proved to be a wise decision. The livery has protected the paintwork, which is definitely helping them to command strong prices." These are sentiments echoed by Manheim's group CV manager James Davis, who says the vans are "coming back in great condition and are consistently fetching top book values". Jeff Holmes, national sales manager at Fenn Graphic (which applies the Sky livery), says this is a familiar story. He explains that the Avery Universal Wrapping Film it uses peels off easily and does not leave a residue, resulting in near-pristine paintwork.

He says demand is growing steadily as more customers realise this. Manheim is managing the sale of the Sky vans on behalf of leasing company Arval, spreading them around the country and not flooding the market with them in one go.

We went to its Colchester site last week to witness four Sky vans go under the hammer. All were '04' plate, 2.7-tonne, SWB Vauxhall Vivaros, with average mileages. Although they had picked up one or two battle-scars, all had near-immaculate paintwork. According to Glass's Guide these vans have a trade price of £4,400, yet three out of the four fetched well over £5,000 - the highest being £5,450. Manheim says its online auctions are proving a huge success, with 11,000 vans sold last year. In January 2007, it sold £90,000-worth of vans over the internet, compared with £680,000-worth in January 2008. It will be rolling out the service to heavy trucks in March at its Leeds site.