CARY, N.C. -

More than 225 used-car managers and dealer personnel registered to learn what Black Book’s Rick Beggs and Manheim’s Tom Webb expect to unfold during the fourth quarter.

Each wholesale expert made the connection between price and volume trends established two years ago or more and levels seen in the lanes today.

In fact, to support his predictions, Webb went all the way back to 1995 during Thursday’s session of Pre-Owned LIVE, the regular Webinar series orchestrated by the Pre-Owned Automobile Dealers Alliance.

“What appears today to be abnormal pricing is in fact normal. And what was once considered normal, was in fact a period of abnormality,” acknowledged Webb, Manheim’s chief economist.

Beggs, Black Book’s vice president and managing editor, highlighted what he believes are the main drivers of a volatile wholesale market, including consumer confidence, gas prices and catastrophic events such as the earthquake in Japan and tornadoes in the United States.

“The big thing to point out with the market as we go through the rest of the year, it is in a period of decline,” Beggs indicated. “We do feel like it’s not going to be any sort of falling-off-the-table kind of scenario. But it will be a good used-car market for the rest of the year and into next year as well.”

Both Webb and Beggs took questions from dealers about what else to expect when dealers scour the lanes or online listings during the remainder of the year.

The information slides as well as a recording of the Webinar can be found here.

To watch previous editions of Pre-Owned LIVE that delved into a host of store management issues, visit this site.

And dealers who are interested in the nationwide CarMark Certified program — designed to be comparable to manufacturers’ certification programs and enables franchised dealers to certify their non-brand vehicles and offers independent dealers a national brand certification that is similar to OEM programs — can submit the interest form at www.carmarkcertified.com or can call the CarMark Certified dealer information line at (800) 628-4635.