LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

With about half the country dealing with cold temperatures, freezing rain, snow or just general winter blah, you also could say that the wholesale market is off to a somewhat chilly start to 2022, as well.

Black Book reported in the newest installment of Market Insights  that value declines continued to round out the second week of the year. Only three vehicle segments moved counter to the overall trends — full-size vans, compact vans and minivans — as the overall price reading softened 0.13% for the week after opening the year with a 0.15% weekly decline.

“Sales rates are improving compared to the end of 2021, but have not returned to pre-holiday levels,” analysts said in the report, mentioning that the metric edged up only to 63% after being at or above 70% for a stretch of more than eight weeks.

“Availability of inventory remains a challenge in the wholesale channel, particularly quality units. However, most sellers are holding firm to the floors with hopes that the new year will bring back the return of increasing prices that were experienced throughout the majority of 2021,” Black Book continued. “So far, we are seeing week-over-week value changes that are more typical of traditional seasonality expectations.

“The weekly estimated average sales rate continues to improve, but not by much due to sellers holding firm on floors and scarce availability of quality units in the wholesale channel,” analysts went on to say.

On a volume-weighted basis, Black Book indicated that overall car segment values declined a little more than the overall market with prices dipping 0.19%.

While values for eight of the nine car segments declined last week. Black Book noticed that prices for subcompact cars rose 0.18%; perhaps a sign of dealers preparing for tax-season sales.

Analysts added that premium sporty cars posted the largest value decline last week, sliding 0.35%.

Black Book also pointed out that full-size and midsize cars also suffered notable price decreases, dropping 0.27% and 0.25%, respectively.

Meanwhile, 10 out of the 13 truck segments posted price declines, resulting in Black Book’s volume-weighted data showing an overall truck segment value decrease of 0.11%.

Analysts said prices for compact luxury and midsize luxury crossovers dropped the most at 0.34% and 0.37%, respectively.

And those previous mentioned vans, analysts determined values for full-size vans rose another 0.74%, continuing a stretch of increases during 50 of the past 51 weeks.

Prices for compact vans jumped 0.94%, while values for minivans edged up 0.08%, according to Black Book.