GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

Evidently, softening bidding activity Black Book spotted recently was more than just an aberration.

In his latest edition of “Beggs on the Used Car Market,” Black Book managing editor Ricky Beggs recapped that, “Last week we made mention of an easing in the push for an extra bid or two. That trend continued into the past week within the cars as the overall average segment change grew.”

Black Book calculated that overall car prices dipped $9 last week, coming off a week when they edged $2 lower.

Editors determined the four car segments that increased in price this past week have been consistently strong during the last two months.

Black Book said upper midsize car prices moved $27 higher a week ago, extending a streak of increases to eight in a row. Meanwhile, three other car segments have generated price increases in nine of the previous 10 weeks, including compact cars (up $19), entry level cars (up $19) and entry midsize cars (up $8).

On the other end of the change spectrum, editors mentioned the three car segments with the longest declining price streak consist of premium sporty cars (down $80), luxury level cars (down $24) and prestige luxury cars (down $37).

“The price of gas and diesel at the pump has declined ever so slightly over the past two weeks, down almost two cents for gas and 15 cents on diesel,” Beggs surmised.

“It’s probably not enough for any of us to feel better when we fill our tanks, nor was it enough of a change to drive the market adjustments in a directly connected manner,” he added.

Moving over to a truck price discussion, Black Book found eight of the 14 segments climbed up in price last week. A week earlier, only five truck segments posted price gains.

However, the overall price movements for trucks remained flat, marking a decline of $11 for the second week in a row.

“Six of the eight increasing truck segments have been in a positive trending mode for five of the past six weeks for the full-size pickups to as long as nine of the past 10 weeks in the compact SUVs,” Beggs shared.

“Even though the luxury SUV segment has a small number of models in the segment, there was enough softness in values of a couple of those individual models to have the segment decline by 1.14 percent during the past week,” he continued.

Black Book editors were kept busy a week ago, too, as they averaged 2,080 daily adjustments, the second highest number during the past five weeks.

Beggs wrapped up his commentary by asking, "What do we expect to see in the market this coming week?”

He responded with, “Even with looks of amazement at the strong values, retail activity is requiring the dealers to return to the auction lanes and airwaves to restock their depleted inventory.

“The percentage of adjustments that were increases over the past week supports a solid market, but not hardly as aggressive as the previous eight weeks,” he went on to say. “The 51 percent that were increases during the most recent reporting period still represents solid demand within the used market and an economy that is gradually moving from ‘need’ only purchases to some that fit in the level of ‘want.’

“Please check back with us next week to see the market summary from a fresh week of auction sales and remarketing activity,” Beggs concluded.

Beggs’ latest video entry can be viewed below.