GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

Reflecting on a week where overall wholesale values continued to climb, Black Book’s Ricky Beggs found that late-model used units, in particular, are seeing escalating demand in the auction lanes.

The cause? As one might guess, Beggs pointed to the dynamics stemming from a feared production shortage in Japan as the island nation still battles the disaster’s aftermath.

“The interest and demand for later model used vehicles, the 2007 to 2011 models, is increasing due to much anticipation of a shortage of many 2011 new models caused by the manufacturing challenges in Japan,” he noted.

Beggs, the vice president of Black Book, also pointed out that his company added some five dozen 2010 and 2011 model-year units to the publication.

He pointed out that: “The 2011s just valued are accessible in the Black Book smartphone applications, internet suite programs and data files. Next week’s printed products will include the used 2011 model listings and values.”

As far as this week’s overall results, Beggs highlighted that the daily average for adjustments was at 1,075. The overall change was an upward movement close to $55.

The proportion of changes that were positive remained relatively steady compared to the levels seen in recent weeks. Specifically, Beggs indicated that 68.58 percent of the changes were upward movements this past week. During the three prior weeks, the positive proportion was 70-plus percent each week.

“Where the previous week had stronger levels of increases for clean condition, this past week the clean and average changes were more similar to each other,” he shared.

Breaking it down by vehicle type, Beggs found that this past week marked the seventh straight time that overall car segments showed positive movement, as they were up $47.

All 10 of the car segments Black Book tracks increased in value.

“In fact, during the past six weeks, the only car segment to decline at all was the high-dollar prestige luxury car segment, which increased three times and decreased three times,” Beggs pointed out. “With all 10 car segments increasing this week, the consistency among all segments was the closest in 2011.”

Upper midsize cars showed the heftiest gain (up $73), with prestige luxury cars (up $14) showing the smallest increase.

As far as trucks, Beggs noted: “Although the truck segments are not as strong as the cars, they continue to be on a positive trend with overall increasing values for five consecutive weeks.”

He pointed out that three of the 14 truck segments, showed differing trends in the last two weeks.

For instance, full-size crossovers dipped $26 last week after climbing $18 the prior week. Full-size pickups fell $10 after climbing $8 the week before.
Conversely, midsize pickups improved $9 last week. The week before, their values were off $6.

“Other consistent trending was seen in the compact crossovers and midsize crossovers both having stronger values for the previous eight consecutive weeks. The opposite trending is present in the full-size SUVs, which have decreased in values for 12 weeks running,” Beggs shared.

Offering some more overall analysis, he added: “This week, as we are tracking, analyzing and reporting the market, you will see the editors at a variety of auctions from heavy duty truck and recreational vehicles sales to go along with the traditional auto auctions. When you see one of us on the lanes, please let us know what you think about the market.”