What dealers used to see in the lanes when May began still hasn’t returned. Those off-lease vehicles and fleet units wholesale buyers previously could procure about the time of the Kentucky Derby and Mother’s Day remain challenging to get, with prices continuing to tick higher week-over-week.

“The market continues to follow a new path of seasonality with the overall market having another week of increases last week,” Black Book said about the stretch that concluded on Saturday, during which overall wholesale prices rose by 0.13%.

“Traditionally, by this time of year, we would have started to see the spring market bump reverse and turn cars back into depreciating assets, but not this year, as cars continue to rise,” analysts continued in the latest installment of Market Insights released on Tuesday. “Last week, the majority of the overall car segment reported an increase.”

Black Book noticed values for seven of the nine car segments increased last week, pushing overall prices up for cars by 0.31%.

Analysts said the latest price increase for sub-compact cars (up 0.71%) was the largest seen since before Thanksgiving, as those gas-sippers have been increasing for the past eight weeks.

Also of note, Black Book mentioned values for sporty cars rose 0.23%, while prices for premium sporty cars declined by 0.29%.

Based on volume-weighted data, analysts determined overall truck segment inched up by 0.05%, with seven out of the 13 truck segments posting value increases.

Leading the way among trucks were compact vans (up 0.81%) and minivans (up 0.72%), according to Black Book, which also said, “Surprisingly, the full-size vans slowed down from the record streak of increases, but only by a small 0.01% decline.

“This negative adjustment is not expected to continue as a trend for the segment due to supply remaining low,” analysts added.

Black Book wrapped up this latest update by saying the estimated average weekly sales rate continues to increase and sits at 71%. It’s the first time that estimate has been above 70% since November and “loosely resembles the CY21 spring increases,” according to analysts.

“Historically, the first week of May is an exciting time for new-model-year launches and an increase of lease returns in the auction lanes,” Black Book said. “This year, like the past two years, has been plagued with microchip shortages and supply chain issues causing a significant reduction in both new inventory production and used lease and fleet returns in the wholesale market.

“After being mostly absent over the last two years, repossessions are starting to show up more often in lane,” Black Book continued. “Smaller independent dealers and rental companies continue to dominate the lanes with larger independent dealers jumping in when lower mile or cleaner vehicles come through. Franchise dealers are still around too, making appearances in lane for desirable models, but seemingly more prudent than in previous months.

“A new trend that has been recently noticed is the flipping of recently launched extremely low mileage EV models, some selling for a few thousand over original MSRP, while others bring more than double,” analysts went on to say. “This hasn’t been in an isolated area, either. The coveted electric vehicles are popping up all over the country.”