McLEAN, Va. -

With trees starting to bud in some places and college basketball fans ready to fill out NCAA Tournament brackets, analysts from NADA Used Car Guide are seeing positive signs of spring for dealers, too.

Executive automotive analyst Jonathan Banks articulated several specific points in his market overview video for March.

“NADA expects the uptick in auto demand with the receiving of tax refund checks coupled with better weather will create strong demand for both new and used markets in the upcoming month. In fact, AuctionNet data from the first week of March is outpacing NADA’s forecast, which predicts used prices rising by an additional 1 percent,” Banks said.

“This pent-up demand from the weather may prove to push seasonal gains out a bit farther than the seasonal patterns we saw last year,” he continued.

Earlier in the video presentation, Banks touched on two vehicle segments that are performing differently than NADA UCG expected.

“On an annual basis, large pickup and SUV price growth continues to overshadow the rest of the market and our expectations. Supported by consistent gains in 2013, the respective prices are up 10.6 and 6.5 percent respectively on a prior-year basis,” Banks said.

Banks also recapped February’s used-price movements, reiterating the impact harsh winter weather had.

“February proved that weather was a primary obstacle for vehicle demand. Extremely cold weather in the first two weeks of the month and more moderate temperatures in the second half correlated exactly with used-price movement,” he said.

“Used prices grew by 0.7 percent over the first half of the month and as weather become more favorable, prices grew by an additional 1.5 percent to a total of 2.2 percent by month’s end. This movement followed NADA’s expected seasonal trend, which resulted in NADA’s seasonally adjusted used-price index remaining unchanged for the third month in a row at 124.6,” Banks went on to say.