STAMFORD, Conn. -

During March, Canada’s wholesale prices showed the most dramatic sequential gain in nine months and also jumped by more than 13 percent year-over-year, according to the latest RVI Market Update.

Specifically, RVI Group indicated that the RVI Used Car Price Index was 0.998 in March, representing a 3.2-percent increase from February and a 13.7-percent year-over-year hike.

The last time the sequential gain in wholesale pricing was that high was June 2010, when the climb was 5.5 percent.

Breaking it down by segment, RVI noted some of the small cars showing rather robust upward movements in light of continually higher fuel costs, which came in at $1.23/liter during March.

“Compacts were up from February by 1.6 percent and small sedans by 0.9 percent,” officials indicated. “Sub-compacts also strengthened as gas prices continue to increase. From last March, compacts have seen a 20.7-percent increase in values while sub-compacts are up 21.5 percent.”

Those aforementioned year-over-year improvements are among the top three in the volume segments, trailing only minivans, which were up 23.6 percent.

Other volume segments showing double-digit year-over-year increases were midsize sedans (up 16.3 percent), luxury small sedans (up 10.5 percent) and small sedans (up 10.1 percent).