GAINESVILLE, Ga. — With rental companies pulling both Toyota vehicles in service as well as those ready for remarketing until fixes can be made, Ricky Beggs, of Black Book, said auction volumes are even more limited.

"I must say the last week has been extremely busy for the editorial team at Black Book. The unprecedented recall and halting the sale of 2.3 million Toyota products has been the focus for us. Even though Toyota has announced plans for a fix, not knowing how smoothly the recall will go still has everyone scrambling for answers," Beggs explained.

"With rental companies pulling both in-service vehicles and units ready for remarketing that were a part of the recall, the limited supply became even more limited. The NAAA (National Auto Auction Association), focusing on safety for auction employees and attending dealers, has recommended that member auctions pull all affected vehicles until repaired," he continued.

This news has led to many calls to Black Book asking what is going on in the used-vehicle market and the ultimate impact of Toyota's decisions on its products.

"We are trying to keep the latest information on the forefront with the Black Book Daily product, through tweets and our Twitter account (beggsblackbook), and through this video application (Beggs videos that go live every Monday). We are still available for the personal phone call or e-mail as well," Beggs indicated.

"We have instructed the Black Book survey personnel to put extra attention toward any Toyota brand products running through the auction lanes. The editors are all looking for these models, while comparing their auction interest and actual sale price to the most recent published values," he continued.

And the result — so far so good, he noted.

"We have been pleasantly surprised right now to have seen no major adverse effect at the auctions on the interest and sale price of Toyota products since the recall and the no-sale policy was announced. This past week only the Solara convertible, and they are not in the recall, have warranted any value adjustments," Beggs said.

And the adjustments on these vehicles have ranged from down $100 to down $300, largely depending on the trim and model year.

"For Monday's Daily update, 2005 and 2010 selected Camry sedans have been adjusted slightly as well. Some of the RAV4, Highlander, 4Runner, Tacoma, Sequoia and Tundra models have also moved down in value. These adjustments I would term as normal market movement. Some competitor models, not involved in a recall, had similar adjustments. We also recognize that auction activity, while currently limited, might differ slightly from potential dealer trade-ins on these affected models," Beggs explained.

Continuing on to review other trends, Beggs said that even though the used market is tending to be slower than expected, increased demand and reduced supply have overpowered a lack of consumer confidence, tight consumer credit, continued increasing unemployment and a struggling economy.

"All 10 of the car segment types we track declined in value once again this week, but we still had improvement in the amount of the adjustments. Only two segments, near luxury cars and premium sports cars, had a greater depreciation level than the previous week," Beggs reported. "Overall, the average minus $56 change was an indication of an improved market trend."

Looking at the trucks, Beggs said the market is closer to the zero-dollar baseline than it has been for 20 weeks.

Also, six of the 14 segments in the truck category showed positive changes over the prior week, while two had larger depreciation drops than the previous week.

"Overall, the percentages of adjustments that were increases improved again this past week, growing from 25 percent to 40 percent of the models adjusted. The overall adjustment amount for the week was just over minus $26 on average, with an average of 760 vehicles adjusted each day. Last week, the average change was minus $80," Beggs noted.