IRVINE, Calif. -

In the Used Car Edition of its Blue Book Market Report, Kelley Blue Book dissected the used value activity in several segments, sharing some of the key models influencing the ebb-and-flow of pricing within their respective vehicle classes.

Here are some of the key findings its analysts discovered in the report issued last week:

Starting with minivans, values have been steady this year, KBB said, but price decreases similar to those in 2011 and 2012 are likely to happen soon.

The segment’s auction values in August didn’t fall much. As of the time of KBB’s analysis, the current values were ahead of those in 2012.

KBB listed the Dodge Grand Caravan, Mazda5 and Chrysler Town & Country as models holding up values in the segment; meanwhile, it noted the following vans as having the greatest drops the past month: Honda Odyssey (down 1 percent), Kia Sedona (down 1.7 percent) and Toyota Sienna (down 1.9 percent).

Next up were midsize vehicles. Interestingly, KBB found that midsize car values reversed course in July and August.

After much of the year saw “significantly lower” prices than prior years, they increased an average of $143 (or 1.1 percent) in these summer months.

Midsize vehicle prices are now $36 (0.3 percent) ahead of where they were at this point of 2012.

The Ford Fusion (up 2.3 percent) and the Chevrolet Malibu (up 2 percent) had the strongest increases in the midsize segment in the last month, with the Nissan Altima (up 1.6 percent) and Toyota Camry (up 1.2 percent) achieving nice gains, as well.

KBB pointed out that the 2012 Fusion, which climbed $279 in the past month, and the 2012 Malibu (up $236) “clearly are helping to push the midsize segment up,” and interestingly enough, each was fully redesigned in 2013.

Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst for KBB, explained this further.

“A strong redesign often can push the values of prior model years down, and in the case of the Fusion and Malibu, they appear to have reached a price level that is appealing to consumers,” said Gutierrez.

“Despite the recent upward momentum, we expect auction values for the segment to continue on the same downward trajectory as previous years.”

Looking at luxury vehicles, KBB said in its analysis released last week that over the course of the past four weeks, there was a 1.2 percent drop, on average, in the prices of these models.

The luxury SUV segment had the greatest decline (2.1 percent) in this class. Among individual models, the Saab 9-5 fell the most (5.2 percent), followed by the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class (4.4 percent) and BMW 1 Series (4 percent).

“We expect luxury values to continue to decline as the summer months come to a close, as automakers begin the year-end changeover process,” said Gutierrez.

 

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.