The decline of Canadian wholesale used-vehicle values continues to accelerate.

The latest evidence is in Canadian Black Book’s Used Vehicle Retention Index for May, released this week. CBB’s data showed the index at 137.6, down 2.0% from the previous month and 13.4% from May 2023 – the largest year-over-year percentage drop so far this year.

“Used values continue to decline as new-vehicle supply builds and incentives increase,” CBB senior manager and head of Canadian vehicle valuations David Robins said in a news release. “At the same time, wholesale exporter activity has slowed as arbitrage opportunity to the USA narrows.”

The index has now decreased 13 consecutive months and is at its lowest level since September 2021. The index peaked at 165.0 in March 2022, capping a run of unprecedented growth in used values beginning in the summer of 2020 after it had sunk to 100.5 in May and June of that year.

The Used Vehicle Retention Index is calculated using CBB’s published wholesale average value for 2-6-year-old used vehicles as a percent of original typically equipped MSRP. It’s weighted based on registration volume and adjusted for seasonality, vehicle age, mileage and condition.