STAMFORD, Conn. -

RVI Group vice president Rene Abdalah doesn’t foresee the same kind of downward impact from skyrocketing gas prices that occurred in 2008, but he does expect that the Canadian wholesale market will see some softness due to the fuel-cost surge that has bubbled up recently.

Granted, wholesale prices during January climbed 1.4 percent month-over-month, but Abdalah contends that this gain wasn’t indicative of where the market is headed.

“It’s actually a small blip,” Abdalah told Auto Remarketing Canada on Thursday. “You should actually be seeing softening in February.”

Pushing this decrease is the surge in fuel costs, which climbed to $1.13 a liter in Canada in January.

He noted that the rising gas prices will create “uncertainty in consumers’ minds.”

Abdalah said that, “I don’t think consumers are going to react like they did in 2008,” but he stressed that there is likely to be a near-term softening in wholesale prices due to rising fuel costs.

As far as the current month, Abdalah noted that “initial data shows further weakness in February, although prices are highly impacted by the severe weather so far this year.”

Among individual segments, small SUVs and full-size pickups were already affected by heftier gas prices in January.

Small SUVs showed the greatest sequential (down 7.4 percent) and year-over-year (3.7 percent) wholesale values decreases in January, while full-size pickups were second in both categories. The latter segment was off 7.2 percent from December and 3.3 percent year-over-year.

“That’s directly tied into gas prices,” Abdalah pointed out. “You’ve already started seeing the weakness in these segments today.

“Luckily, the core market in Canada is small cars,” he continued. And that should bode well for the Canadian wholesale market, as it will likely not be hurt as much as the U.S. is from the gas-price hike.

“The car market in Canada will fare much better that the U.S.,” Abdalah shared.

More January Results

Delving into some more details about January wholesale values in Canada, RVI Group noted that they were up 10.4 percent year-over-year. The first month of 2011 compares to a rather soft January 2010 figure.

“The economy is getting better in Canada. Unemployment continues to improve,” Abdalah noted. Besides small SUVs and full-size pickups, all volume segments showed year-over-year gains in January.

The strongest year-over-year increase was seen in the minivan segment, where values were up 26.1 percent. Abdalah explained that the strength in this segment stems from minivans that were redesigned in recent years finally hitting the wholesale market.

“It’s more product-driven than movement in the segment,” he noted.

Compact cars (up 17.2 percent) showed the second-highest increase.

Month-over-month, the wholesale values of two other volume segments beyond small SUVs and full-size pickups decreased, those being subcompacts (down 4.5 percent) and midsize sedans (down 0.9 percent).

All other volume segments were up from December, with luxury small sedans showing the greatest gains at 10.4 percent.