IRVINE, Calif. -

Many dealers and buyers might have been wondering what has contributed to unusually strong price retention in the lanes for trucks. Since this past spring, the truck segments have continued to outperform smaller segments, with prices staying relatively flat or rising.

Kelley Blue Book’s latest Blue Book Market Report shows that while values for used midsize pickup trucks were mostly flat this month, the numbers show big jumps from previous years.

In fact, rates for this segment are up 1.5 percent year-over-year and 9.7 percent higher than September 2011.

And as many segments are experiencing seasonal declines as fall gets underway, what is pushing price strength for the midsize truck segment?

According to the report, lack of supply, a situation dealers have become quite used to in recent years, is pushing rates up.

Specifically, according to KBB, there has been a big drop-off in auction volume of the smaller pickups as a few once-popular models have stopped production, serving to push up auction prices.

In fact, as of the end of August, auction volume for midsize pickups was down 6.5 percent year-over-year and 3.7 percent lower than August 2011, KBB reported.

And a few models, in particular, are seeing  prices respond to tight supply.

The Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon led the pack this month for midsize truck price increases as both models saw a near 5-percent rise in rates from the beginning of the year.

On the other end of the spectrum, the only midsize truck to see price declines was the Suzuki Equator, no longer in production due to Suzuki’s U.S. bankruptcy earlier this year.

Also evidence of strong price retention for trucks, Black Book's Ricky Beggs reported this week that trucks, at an average decline of $54 last week, saw price declines from as low as $14 for the compact pickups to as much as $123 for the luxury SUVs, Beggs reported.

“When looking at the past three weeks of average change, the full-size pickups and the compact pickups 'lead the pack,' in price retention,” Beggs said.

What can we expect for these units during the last quarter of 2013?

On top of tight used supply, KBB shared that a seasonal demand for trucks “should keep values stable moving in Q4.”

Sarah Rubenoff can be reached at srubenoff@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.