The wholesale used vehicle market is making a dramatic turn in March.
After months of declining prices, the market turned with prices rising for the first time this year in the first week of March. The rise continues, with the market having its largest weekly gains since April 2024 for a second straight week, according to BlackBook’s Market Insights. Prices gained, on average, 0.29 percent this week after posting an increase of 0.27 percent last week.
“The market had another impressive week. To put it into perspective, the average value of 2-to-8-year-old vehicles rose by 0.29 percent last week, surpassing the highest pre-pandemic spring market weekly increase of 0.12 percent. Typically, the largest spring market increase occurs in mid-April, not mid-March,” BlackBook noted.
This followed last week’s note by BlackBook of rising bidder activity driven by discussions of tariffs.
The overall car and truck markets rose in price. Car prices were up an average of $11 or 0.11 percent, with full-size cars gaining $98 or 0.63 percent.
The 13 truck and SUV segments increased by $67 or 0.36 percent.
Small pickup prices soared by 0.99 percent or $205.
“The Small Pickup segment saw nearly a 1 percent increase in value last week, representing its largest single-week gain since May 202,” BlackBook reported.
The mid-size crossover SUV jumped $103 or 0.57 percent.
The auction conversion rate was at 64 percent, a slight dip from 66 percent the previous week.
“One trend we’ve been monitoring since mid-February is the large number of vehicles being sold in the OEM lanes. As we conclude the third week of March, this trend continues, with an increasing number of OEMs placing more vehicles in the auction lanes,” BlackBook noted.
