Lane watch: 1 consistent wholesale trend among ‘mixed signals’
Black Book spotted more softening of wholesale prices and sales rates last week. But analysts said one overall trend became clear even as wholesale prices decreased another 0.37% and the estimated average weekly sales rate decreased to 48%.
“Last week, we saw mixed signals again in the wholesale market,” Black Book said in its latest installment of Market Insights released on Tuesday. “The conversion rate dropped a point to 48%, with some lanes still selling in the 85-90% range while others struggled to sell 30-40%.
“Prices were all over the place, but one thing remains consistent,” analysts continued. “The low-mileage, high-condition grade vehicles are still selling for a premium. As always, the Black Book team of analysts will keep their eyes on the market watching for developing trends and insights.”
Other insights Black Book shared on Tuesday included overall car segment values softening a bit more than the entire market.
On a volume-weighted basis, prices in the overall car segment decreased 0.45%, nearly doubling the decline Black Book noted during the previous week, which was 0.26%.
Only one of the nine car segments increased in value last week, but Black Book indicated that was just a minimal uptick of 0.04% by sporty cars.
Analysts noticed sub-compact cars sustained the largest price decline last week, dropping 0.89%.
All 13 truck segments posted value decreases last week, prompting Black Book to calculate the overall, volume-weighted price decrease for trucks to come in at 0.34%, matching the prior week’s downward move.
“Minivans had increased for 15 consecutive weeks, but the last two weeks have the segment finally showing signs of softening,” Black Book said about values for the people movers that ticked just 0.002% lower.
Pacing the value declines for trucks were midsize luxury crossovers, which slipped by 0.73%.