Lane watch: 2 popular vehicle segments catch Black Book’s attention
As overall wholesale prices gained another 0.11% last week, the newest installment of Black Book’s Market Insights began with analysts focused on two vehicle segments that often attract the most buyer attention.
Black Book said full-size trucks and compact cars have been “catching our eye in recent weeks … for their pricing movements are now doing so for different reasons.” Analysts indicated values for both full-size pickups and compact cars softened during the span that closed on Saturday.
The price movement for those full-size trucks was a miniscule dip of just 0.002%.
“As for compact cars, the rate of gain was the lowest we have seen since the segment went positive (0.33%) the week of March 21,” Black Book said in the new report.
On a volume-weighted basis, Black Book determined overall car segment values increased 0.21% last week, with seven of the nine car segments moving higher.
While values for compact cars now have now increased for 11 weeks in a row, the most recent rise was only half of the jump analysts saw two week ago when prices for those vehicles climbed 0.68%.
Black Book pointed out that values for sporty cars traditionally start to soften from their springtime strength by this point in the year, but they continued to increase last week with an additional gain of 0.62%.
Looking at trucks, Black Book said its volume-weighted data showed that overall segment values increased 0.06%, with eight out of the 13 truck segments posting prices increases
Analysts determined prices for full-size luxury crossovers paced the declines for a second consecutive week, dropping 0.38% after the prior week’s decline of 0.48%.
Also of note, Black Book said values for full-size vans continued to increase with an additional gain of 0.12% last week.
Black Book wrapped up its latest update by mentioning the estimated average weekly sales rate continued its descent and is now at 70% after several weeks of increases in April and May.
“Auction volume seems to be holding consistent over the last several weeks, although at a lower level than pre-pandemic,” analysts said. “Wholesale vehicle value increases are slowing down, depending on segment, but sellers are still holding their floors in hopes of future increases. Holding floors with minimal room for negotiation is an indicator that there may not be a lot coming down the pipeline.
“Closed sales continue to pull in franchise dealers while independents and rental companies scour open sales for desirable inventory,” analysts continued. “It doesn’t seem like rental companies are having much luck getting new inventory directly from manufacturers, but they also have not been overly competitive in lane. Repossessions, recalls, and damaged vehicles are still making up a noticeable amount of the offered vehicles in lane.
“Until model year 2023 vehicles are launched en masse, these trends will most likely continue,” Black Book added.