STAMFORD, Conn. -

Though he contends the primary cause of wholesale values dipping sequentially in August was the economic worries of consumers, RVI Group vice president Rene Abdalah said that after the recent run-up in used prices, “an adjustment was due.”

The latest RVI Market Update indicates that wholesale values during August dipped 0.7 percent from July but beat year-ago figures by 14.4 percent. More specifically, the RVI Used Car Price index was at 1.414 in August, compared to 1.424 in July and 1.235 in August 2010.

“The main driver (of the month-over-month decline) is consumers. They are worried about the direction of the economy and fears of another recession,” Abdalah explained to Auto Remarketing.

“Other significant reason is that, honestly, used-car prices had been increasing for several months, an adjustment was due,” he continued. “We had been expecting a softening in used-car prices after the runup we had been experiencing for a couple of years now.”

Breaking it down by segment, 12 of the 19 categories RVI listed were down in value from July, and seven increased sequentially.

The heaviest sequential declines were spotted in some of the smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle types. For instance, subcompacts were down 2 percent, and compacts were off 1.9 percent. These represented the second- and third-steepest declines, respectively, from July.

Sporty coupes fell the furthest (2 percent).

“Smaller segment values have been inflated over the last year as gas prices have increased, but over the last couple of months as gas prices declined and now leveled out they have become less of a topic for car selection,” Abdalah noted.

“On the flipside, although larger segments have seen year-over-year percentage change increases, they’ve been minimal compared to the rest of the market. Now they are trying to play catch-up,” he added.

Luxury vehicles were at the top of the list of price gains. The luxury full-size sedan segment showed the largest month-over-month hike (up 2.8 percent) and four of the six largest sequential price gains were in luxury segments.

The only one of the five luxury segments listed by RVI to show a decrease was the luxury SUV category, which dipped 0.3 percent.

“Over the last year, luxury segment volume has been cut (almost in half in some cases) in the wholesale market,” Abdalah explained. “This has helped control values for these segments, and over the last few months for the most part we have seen the benefit of volume declines.”

On year-over-year basis, all segments were up from August 2010.

The most significant gain from the year-ago period was in the subcompact segment, where prices rose 35 percent. Compacts (up 25.3 percent), luxury full-size sedans (up 23.9 percent) and sports cars (up 23.7 percent) also showed year-over-year gains of more than 20 percent.

The only segments not to climb double-digit percentages from August 2010 were full-size vans, which jumped 9.7 percent, midsize SUVs (up 8.2 percent), full-size pickups (up 4.6 percent) and full-size SUVs (up 4.6 percent).

Looking forward, Abdalah also shared some of the price trending that has been spotted so far in September.

“The last week of August and early September have really painted the picture for another decline in September,” he noted. “Not anything dramatic, but just slightly more than seasonal declines.”