CARY, N.C. -

The wholesale used-car market showed some muscle last week, both in terms of prices and sales rates at the auctions.

According to Black Book’s latest Market Insights report, car values reversed course and showed an increase last week, while the depreciation in truck segments was less than a third of what it was the prior week.

Looking at week-over-week wholesale price changes for 2- to 8-year-old vehicles, depreciation in the overall wholesale market slowed to 0.07% for the week ending Saturday, versus 0.36% depreciation the week before.

Car segment values were up 0.06%, versus a 0.12% drop the week ending Aug. 21, and truck/SUV prices dipped just 0.14% after a 0.48% decline.

In a separate analysis, Cox Automotive showed that the wholesale price index for 2018 model-year units was up 0.7% last week, following a 0.6% gain the prior week, making it three straight increases in that index.

In Black Book’s commentary on the wholesale weekly price index (which looks at 2- to 6-year-old vehicles), analysts said, “Calendar year 2021 has not had typical seasonality patterns as the market has had rapid increases in wholesale values for the majority of the year.

“After reaching record heights at the end of June, wholesale prices began to decline at a rate higher than the typical seasonal decline,” the company said. “Last week the trend changed with the rate of decline leveling off.”

The wholesale market was looking stronger on the sales volume side, too. The estimated average weekly sales rate at U.S. auctions last week was 69%, according to Black Book data. That was up from 68% the week ending Aug. 21 and the third straight weekly uptick.

“Consignors have been lowering their floors and experiencing a high level of success with bids regularly soaring well over those floors,” Black Book said in the report.

“Many dealers are reporting retail demand to be relatively soft, but with the continued announcements of disruptions to new car production that seem to have become the norm each week, they are continuing to seek out inventory in the wholesale market,” the company added. “The expectation is that with no clear picture on when new inventory levels will return to ‘normal’ the demand will remain strong for used vehicles for the foreseeable future.”