Tuesday was the last day of January, but the experts at Black Book already are thinking about spring. They said that “early signs of a potential spring bump in the market are starting to emerge.”

With wholesale prices softening only 0.50%, Black Book pointed out in the newest installment of Market Insights that those spring signals also included prices in the sporty car segment increasing for the second consecutive week.

Furthermore, Black Book noticed that older vehicles — models 8 to 16 years old — posted a lower depreciation rate at 0.27% than newer 2-to-6-year-old vehicles, which also dropped by 0.50% during the week that closed on Saturday.

“As we come to the end of January, the wholesale lanes have had a somewhat rocky start, with low sales rates and minimal inventory,” Black Book said in the newest report.

“Sellers recently have started trying to entice buyers, with auctioneers re-running unsold vehicles. Buyers, on the other hand, are very aware of the dropping vehicle values, but it seems they are hopeful for a traditional spring market,” analysts continued.

On a volume-weighted basis, Black Book said overall car segment prices also decreased 0.50% a week ago.

Analysts indicated wholesale values for seven of the nine car segments dropped last week. Only prestige luxury cars slide more than 1%, with those models giving back 1.77% in value.

Also of note, Black Book said full-size cars stopped a streak of 32 consecutive weeks of price declines with an uptick of 0.06%.

And those previously mentioned sporty car moved higher for the second week in a row, as prices for those models rose 0.11%.

Overall truck prices decreased 0.50%, according to Black Book’s volume-weighted information that determined all 13 truck segments softened.

However, only two truck segments sustained value declines of greater than 1%. They included sub-compact luxury SUVs (down 1.11%) and mid-size luxury SUVs (down 1.13%).

Black Book wrapped up this update by mentioning the estimated average weekly sales rate remained stable at 46% last week.

“Clean newer model year vehicles have been extremely desirable since new inventory is still not coming in consistently,” Black Book said. “In addition, older model year vehicles, especially those that are under $20,000, have been popular for non-franchise dealers.

“There have not been as many closed sales for the franchise buyers, but they also have not been too active in the downstream lanes,” analysts continued. “Rental companies have not been aggressively purchasing in lane, although they are present occasionally.

“We are beginning to see signs of some normal seasonality, with the sporty car segment continuing to increase in value. The estimated average weekly sales rate will be something to watch as we head into February,” analysts went on to say.