GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

Along with details about what’s new with the company’s smartphone apps, Black Book’s Ricky Beggs gave dealers some guidance as Thanksgiving quickly approaches.

Beggs’ advice stemmed from Black Book editors discovering last week’s overall wholesale price change was a larger decline week-over-week.

“But there were still 24 percent of the adjustments requiring raises in values, pretty solid for this time of the year,” the managing editor surmised in his weekly video report, “Beggs on the Used Car Market.”

“There is one more full week of market activity prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. If you need inventory, expect a week of focused buyers, solid floors and steady to strong values,” Beggs projected.

Black Book adjusted less than 1,800 vehicles per day last week, a level Beggs described as being fairly stable.

“I actually heard one auction representative report it being a very active market with strength, something that is ‘expected for the second week of the month,’” Beggs added.

Only one of the 24 vehicle segments Black Book tracks moved higher in price a week ago. And the uptick for midsize pickups was just $4.

Two car price movements jumped out at the Black Book editors. Prestige luxury cars dropped by $143 and premium sporty cars plummeted even more, going down by $163.

“Otherwise six of the 10 car segments declined less this week than the week before, thus the impression of a fairly stable market,” Beggs explained.

Within trucks, Black Book found full-size crossovers still declined last week but not to the extent of the previous week. The segment dropped $55 a week ago, coming off a triple-digit decline of $101.

Three other truck segments dropped more than full-size crossovers. That cluster included luxury sport utilities (down $74), full-size SUVs (down $67) and mid-size crossovers (down $61).

Beyond its usual work of tracking prices, Beggs described why last week was particularly exciting for Black Book.

“With the editors attending regular and high-line physical auctions in three different states while also watching numerous sales online, we got a great feel for the market,” Beggs recapped. “I was even able to get away from the office to attend an auction myself this past week.

“A couple of us were part of a planning and feedback dealer meeting after one auction to discuss the market and some of the Black Book mobile solutions tools,” he continued. “We plan to have meetings of this nature at other auctions in the near future as well. If you are interested in being a part of one of these please give me a call or drop me an e-mail.

“If all of this wasn’t enough to fill out the week, we were hosts to multiple manufacturers with in-depth insight into some great new products,” Beggs went on to say. “This preliminary information is an important piece of being able to project accurate residuals for today’s growing lease market.”

As a side note, Beggs pointed out last Friday was Veterans Day.

“It’s still not too late to thank a veteran for their service to our country,” Beggs recommended.

“As the week progresses, you will see the editors and Black Book survey personnel on the lanes reporting the market every day for your area of the country,” Beggs noted. “Give us a shout as to how you see the market. We hope you have the most successful week yet.”

Beggs’ videos can be viewed here.

Black Book Enhances Smartphone Capabilities

Also on Monday, Black Book announced upgrades to its iPhone and Android applications; including enhanced scanning support for all major auction bar codes, such as QR codes, and functionality to support the capture of digital photos and videos.

Company officials indicated the application is currently available for the iPhone and will be available for Android by the end of the month.

Dealers can now use their smartphones to scan and book a vehicle, access the vehicle’s history from Carfax or Experian AutoCheck, record photos or digital video of the vehicle and store all of this information automatically in their vehicle list in a matter of moments without ever leaving the application.

The ability to email this vehicle information back to the store or directly to an interested buyer also has been added.

“We are very pleased with the new features in our suite of smartphone applications,” stated Black Book president Tom Cross.

“We have now made it even easier for users to capture and manage vehicle information at the auction, on their lot, or wherever else they may be, directly from their smartphone,” Cross continued.

“We understand that time is money for our users, and it’s important they can get the information they need and be able to circulate it quickly,” he went on to say. “Having, at their fingertips, the ability to get values, history reports, pictures of the vehicles, and send them off to a buyer or the dealership in minutes is crucial.”

Cross concluded by stressing, “We believe that this combination of the latest in smartphone technology with the industries’ most accurate vehicle values sets a new benchmark in smartphone applications for the used-car industry. Our goal is to continue to deliver industry leading functionality and content to assist our customers in making timely and informed buying decisions.”