Dealers definitely didn’t start 2023 by buying every vehicle that rolled over the auction block, according to Black Book’s newest installment Market Insights released on Tuesday.

In fact, Black Book said the estimated average weekly sales rate came in at 45% last week, as wholesale prices softened another 0.71%.

“The first week of 2023 is in the books Inventory at the auction is still very low, but we did experience minimal improvement over the last two weeks of the year,” Black Book said in the new report. “The uptick in conversion rates that were experienced the week prior was lost last week.

“Dealers are cautious to purchase too much inventory with the uncertainty in the retail market,” analysts continued. “High interest rates are making it challenging for consumers to purchase a vehicle with an affordable monthly payment.

“Despite 2022 experiencing above average yearly depreciation, valuations remain well above pre-COVID levels,” Black Book went on to say. “The overall market reported 22.9% depreciation last year, with cars declining 17.8% and trucks down 23%. The one anomaly for the year was the full-size van segment that finished the year up 3.2%.”

Looking closer at the movements during the first week of 2023, Black Book determined overall car segment values on a volume-weighted basis dropped by 0.67%.

As has often been the case, analysts said prices within all nine car segments decreased last week, with two segments sustaining declines greater than 1%. They included prestige luxury cars (down 1.09%) and near luxury cars (down 1.07%).

Black Book pointed out that compact car depreciation “dramatically” slowed last week to 0.31%. During the previous six weeks, those gas sippers averaged a price decline of 0.88% per week.

Analysts also mentioned that the premium sporty car has been consistently reporting value declines below the average for the rest of the car segments. They indicated the 0.49% per week price dip over the last six weeks has been much lower compared to the overall car segment average weekly decline of 0.76%.

Moving over to trucks, Black Book said that overall truck segment values decreased 0.73% on a volume-weighted basis.

Like cars, analysts said all 13 truck segments reported declines last week, with four of those posting a price drop of more than 1%. That group included:

—Sub-compact luxury crossover/SUV: down 1.12%
—Full-size crossover/SUV: down 1.06%
—Compact crossover/SUV: down 1.06%
—Compact van: down 1.05%

“Compact van has not been as strong as the full-size van segment, but overall, the segment has had low depreciation each week in 2022,” Black Book said. “In recent weeks, the level of depreciation has increased. Last week was the first time the segment has exceeded a depreciation of 1% since January of 2021.”