LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

While it might be frigid again in places like the Midwest and Northeast, unexpected mild weather for a good portion of January prompted dealers to flock to the auction to get a jump on the spring market.

Black Book’s newest Market Insights report discussed the resulting price trends and scenes from the lanes.

“The used market is hot already in this unusually warm weather in January, so far,” Black Book executive vice president of operations Anil Goyal said.

“The buyers are eager to stock up, resulting in an early market recovery after steeper depreciation late last year,” Goyal added in the latest report.

According to its volume-weighted data, Black Book reported that overall car segment values remained flat last week. In comparison, car values softened an average of 0.46% during the previous four weeks.

Analysts noticed values of luxury cars declined by 0.78%, while values of mid-size cars jumped by 0.37%, perhaps reflecting dealers gathering inventory to retail when consumers receive income tax refunds.

Turning next to its volume-weighted truck information, Black Book found values in the overall truck segment (including pickups, SUVs and vans) softened by just 0.17% last week. That figure is just a fraction of the four-week average in the truck arena that analysts pegged at 0.50%.

Among trucks, Black Book determined values of subcompact luxury crossover/SUVs declined the most, dropping by 0.59%.

While some Black Book representatives watching sales might have to bring back their winter-weather gear, what they relayed back to headquarters last week reflected a warm atmosphere. Here is the rundown:

— From Ohio: “The supply was low this week, but for the most part the vehicles sold well. The rougher units did get hit harder than expected with issues such as open recalls, buybacks and lack of maintenance.”

— From Washington: “Dealers seemed to be upbeat about the market.”

— From Nevada: “Dealers said that their post-holiday retail traffic has been good.”

— From Michigan: “Consignment was below average this week, which was unfortunate as the attendance was well above average.”