LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

Black Book isn’t ready to declare that softening of wholesale prices is making a significant return just because the opening week of 2022 showed some easing on the value front.

That’s the leading theme of Black Book’s latest installment of Market Insights released on Tuesday, showing that overall wholesale prices dipped 0.15%.

“The year is starting off with declines in many segments, but it remains to be seen if we reached the peak of increases before the holidays or if we will return to increasing values as the market prepares for spring,” analysts said in the report. “Despite winter weather blanketing much of the country in snow, the talk in the industry is what the spring/tax season market will look like this year.

“The new year started with some positive movement in the auction lanes, as buyers fill the lanes to buy inventory to prepare for the upcoming spring market,” Black Book continued. “More inventory seems to be coming through, but floor prices remain higher than usual with scarcity of both new and used vehicles continuing to plague the automotive industry.”

Analysts also noticed that the weekly estimated average sales rate edged up a little during the stretch that finished on Saturday, ticking up to 62% after closing 2021 at 60% and rising as high as 75% last spring.

Looking closer at the weekly data on a volume-weighted basis, Black Book said all nine car segments declined last week, resulting in an overall drop of 0.20%.

What might be a good sign for dealers’ tax-season fortunes, analysts said compact cars generated the largest value decline last week, sliding 0.31%, marking the sixth consecutive week of decreases for an average drop of 0.25%.

Black Book added that midsize cars ended a streak of 20 consecutive weeks of value upticks by edging 0.06% lower last week.

Meanwhile, analysts noticed that seven out of the 13 truck segments posted price declines a week ago, producing an overall, volume-weighted segment decrease of 0.13%.

Black Book spotted a value decrease among compact crossovers for the fourth week in a row, as the segment paced the truck declines at 0.41%.

Continuing to hold strong are values for all types of vans, as full-size vans jumped in price for the 49th time in the past 50 weeks, rising 0.40%.

Furthermore, values for compact vans and minivan, also increased 0.80% and 0.10%, respectively, last week.