Action at wholesale auctions picked up in the past week.
The average weekly sales rate at auction bumped to 56 percent this past week, according to the BlackBook Weekly Market Insights.
“The wholesale market continues its roller-coaster ride, as auction conversion rates saw a 4 percent increase over the previous week while auction inventory was stable,” BlackBook reported. “Wholesale prices are still declining though. Now, with higher auction inventory and sellers willing to lower floors, buyers are back in buying mode, which was apparent last week, as conversion rates increased. Hold on and let’s see what happens in the coming weeks.”
Overall, wholesale used vehicle prices were down 0.36 percent. Twenty-two of the 23 segments followed by BlackBook had a drop in price. Sub-compact crossover SUVs were the lone exception with an increase of $1.
The nine car segments fell on average 0.47 percent or $74. Mid-size cars were down 0.65 percent, $87. Luxury cars dropped $101, 0.41 percent, and prestige luxury cars $172, 0.46 percent.
The 13 truck and SUV divisions were down $68 or 0.32 percent. Compact vans fell 1.38 percent or $191.
“The segment has been declining for 27 weeks, with an average weekly drop of 0.65 percent,” BlackBook noted.
Seven truck and SUV categories fell more than $100 in price this past week.
BlackBook noted the United Auto Workers was impacting the market, which has seen a slowing in declines in recent weeks.
“Values continue to decline, but the rate of decline is in-line with typical seasonality, unlike before the strike, when values were reporting massive weekly declines,” BlackBook reported.
The retail price index stayed at 0.97. The used retail inventory index increased to 1.03, the high-point for the year. The days to turn a vehicle rests at 45 days.
