The wholesale used vehicle prices declined for the first time in three months this past week.
The overall market dropped by 0.1 percent, according to the BlackBook’s weekly market insights.
“The market turned last week, reporting overall declines for the first time since early February. The 8-to-16-year-old units began to experience softening two weeks ago and continued to speed up their depreciation last week, dropping 0.15 percent. For reference, the 2-to-8-year-old units dropped 0.1 percent and 0-to-2-year-old vehicles were stable last week.”
BlackBook Weekly Insight for May 9
“The market turned last week, reporting overall declines for the first time since early February,” BlackBook reported. “The 8-to-16-year-old units began to experience softening two weeks ago and continued to speed up their depreciation last week, dropping 0.15 percent. For reference, the 2-to-8-year-old units dropped 0.1 percent and 0-to-2-year-old vehicles were stable last week.”
Only seven of the 22 tracked segments by BlackBook saw increases in prices last week.
Among cars, mid-size cars, full-size cars and sports cars were the only vehicle styles to see increase. Sports cars gained 0.39 percent or $95. Prestige luxury cars lost $142 or 0.34 percent in value. Car prices dropped 0.06 percent collectively.
Trucks and SUVs lost 0.12 percent or $28. Mid-size luxury crossover SUVs declined $87 or 0.28 percent. Compact crossover SUVs dropped 0.36 percent or $64. Minivans led the increases, gaining $60 or 0.3 percent. Sub-compact luxury crossover SUVs, small pickups and full-size pickups were the only other categories to see increases.
The weekly sales rate at auction dropped to 49 percent from 50 percent last week.
“May began with what seemed to be the tipping point for the market according to many industry experts; after 12 consecutive weeks of increases the market turned last week with the first widespread depreciation since early February,” BlackBook explained. “Additionally, conversion rates and available inventory, both in OEM and dealer lanes, are also declining.”
Retail prices for vehicles 2- to 6-years old moved up to 1.03 on the used retail price index, the high point for the year. The retail inventory increased from 0.95 to 0.97 on the index. Vehicles are taking 50 days to turn, a decline of three days.
