The robust wholesale used vehicle market is rolling into April.
Used vehicle wholesale priced jumped another 0.51 percent in the last week, according to the latest BlackBook Market Insight.
Wholesale prices have been rising steadily since February, with the pace increasing in March, sending waves throughout the industry.
“The market had another week of larger than typical gains, increasing another 0.51 percent. Out of the 22 segments that we report on each week, 19 had gains last week.”
BlackBook Market Insight
“The market had another week of larger than typical gains, increasing another 0.51 percent,” BlackBook noted in its weekly release. “Out of the 22 segments that we report on each week, 19 had gains last week. Compact and full-size vans and prestige luxury cars continue to decline, but the rate of decline is lessening each week.”
Used cars were up 0.62 percent or $97, with the compact car ($111), full-size car ($137) and sports car ($177) segments seeing triple-digit price increases. Compact car prices have jumped 0.88 percent and 0.9 percent in the past two weeks.
Eleven of the 13 truck and SUV categories saw spikes. Minivan prices led the action, soaring $222.
“The minivan segment had another week with a large gain, up 1.31 percent, after the prior week’s increase of 1.66 percent,” BlackBook said.
Full-size luxury crossover SUVs also gained by $220 in price. Compact crossover SUVs, mid-size crossover SUV and small pickups rose more than $100.
Wholesale auction sales dropped by 1 percent to 52 percent in the past week.
“We saw auction conversion rates drop slightly for the first time in seven weeks,” BlackBook reported. “Our Analysts have been noticing more no-sales as sellers are still holding tight on floors, but wholesale prices are still continuing to move upward. It appears that some sellers are willing to hold their vehicles longer in order to get a higher sale price.”
Retail prices for vehicles 2- to 6-years old inched forward again and remain above where they began the year on the used retail price index. The retail inventory continues to drop, hitting 0.95 on the index.
Vehicles are taking 52 days to turn, an increase of three days from last week.
