Retail vehicle demand has slowed, so that should lead to lower wholesale prices — right? Not necessarily, says Black Book.

On Wednesday, the company released its Used Vehicle Retention Index for June, which climbed 1.5% month-over-over and 15% year-over-year to reach 191.5 points. That’s also 67% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

All this amid slower retail demand. So, what gives?

“Wholesale prices continued to increase in June for the 2-8-year-old vehicle segments that comprise of Black Book’s Retention Index,” Black Book chief data science officer Alex Yurchenko said in a news release. “Softening demand due to uncertain future macroeconomic prospects did not prevent wholesale prices from increasing at the beginning of the summer.

“Available new-vehicle inventories are increasing, but new sales are not recovering to a pre-COVID level,” Yurchenko said. “Dealers and some rental companies are actively bidding for the vehicles, causing the demand on the wholesale market to remain strong even while retail market is seeing a slowdown.”

Elsewhere, Cox Automotive on Friday released its Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index for June, which climbed 9.7% year-over-year (adjusting for mix, mileage and seasonality) and fell 1.3% month-over-month to come in at 219.9.

Unadjusted, it was up 10.7% year-over-year and down 1.8% from May.

Breaking down the wholesale price movement by vehicle class, vans showed the most year-over-year growth in the Manheim data, climbing 23.1%, followed by compact cars (up 14.7%), luxury cars (up 12.6%) and midsize cars (up 10.9%).

SUV/CUV prices were up 9.3% and pickups were down 2.5%.

Speaking to used retail demand, Cox estimated based on same-store dealership data via Dealertrack that used-vehicle retail sales were up 5% month-over-month in June, but dropped 13% from June 2021 and were off 11% from 2019.