The supply of ex-fleet used vehicles has picked up significantly in the first two months of the year and the strong market looks set to continue through the first half of 2015, according to Andy Brown, managing director of online auction, Cars Direct.

Cars Direct has seen a substantial increase in cars being offered for sale in the period and 23% of vehicles sold in February were from new vendors, said Brown. The increased vendor activity means more choice and wider stock for buying dealers.

“New fleet car registrations have jumped in the first two months of 2015, suggesting more defleet activity than originally anticipated,” said Brown. “The extra numbers and emergence of new vendors just adds to the choice and excitement around the sales.

“The good news is: numbers are up but not by enough to destabilise values. There is still an underlying shortage by historic standards and trade buyers can afford to be choosy about where they bid.

“In particular, buyers need to be sure they are getting good quality and not other dealers’ part-ex rejects,” he said. “Cars Direct only remarkets clean stock from known fleet vendors - and buyers can save time and money with our simple, genuine online bidding system.”

Early reports suggest new car registrations in the March plate-change will hit near record levels, leading to more part-exchange vehicles coming back into franchised dealer stock. However many of these cars will be poor quality and will find their way to general auction.

“Franchised dealers and quality independents will still be needing to source good ex-fleet stock after the end of March,” said Brown.