Tuesday was the first day of March, and signs of the spring market might be germinating in the lanes.

According to Black Book’s Market Insights, wholesale prices still declined last week, but not as much as analysts had seen earlier in February. Black Book pegged the latest weekly value decline at 0.61%, which is 17 basis points less than the decrease analysts noticed during the previous week.

On a volume-weighted basis, overall car segment prices are decreasing more than the entire market. Car values softened another 0.75% last week after dropping 0.82% a week earlier.

With all nine car segments declining, Black Book said values for midsize cars led the way for the second consecutive week, depreciating by 1.19%.

Two other car segments posted greater price declines last week versus the prior week. Those segments were sporty cars (down 1.04%) and prestige luxury cars (down 0.95%).

Black Book pointed out that subcompact cars continue to show the most strength among cars, sustaining just a minimal value dip of 0.11%.

Meanwhile, Black Book’s volume-weighted data showed that the overall value decrease among trucks is slowing, as prices for these units softened by 0.54%, compared to the prior week’s decrease of 0.75%.

Analysts said 12 out of the 13 truck segments sustained price declines, but the upward march continued for full-size vans, which posted a value gain of 0.50%. That’s now 58 consecutive weeks of appreciation for the workhorses of the commercial world.

Black Book noted that subcompact luxury crossovers suffered the largest value decline in the truck segment, sliding by 1.22%.

Other notable price declines were made by compact crossovers (down 1.00%) and sub-compact crossovers (down 0.87%).

“Despite high fuel prices, consumers are still looking for larger SUVs and trucks,” Black Book said.

Analysts arrived at these other assertions after examining the weekly price trends.

“Over the last few weeks, there have been more disruptions in new vehicle production and distribution, with VW’s cargo ship catching fire, impending sanctions, cyber-attacks, and the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage,” Black Book said in the report. “At this time, it is not known how much these events and actions will affect new vehicle output, consumer sentiment, or wholesale channels.

“However, wholesale values are dropping, which should cause some movement with floor pricing, and hopefully, those lower wholesale prices will encourage both auction buyers and end-consumers to make a purchase,” analysts continued. “Mask mandates are waning while wholesale inventory piles up.

“As previously reported, competition in lanes has increased from winter months with large independents, smaller independents, franchise dealers, and rental companies all vying for desirable units,” Black Book went on to say. “Damaged vehicles are still fairly common in lane, but the volume of repossessions continues to be noticeably low.”

Black Book also mentioned the estimated average weekly sales rate increased slightly to 62% last week.

“If there is to be a traditional spring/tax-season market, the estimated average weekly sales rate should pick up over the next few weeks,” analysts said. “At this point, auction buyers are still at the discretion of consumer demand and seller floor prices.”