The Leaves are Starting to Fall and So are the Prices!

GAINESVILLE, GA - Over the past month or so, Black Book questioned if or when the typical fall market adjustment might appear. There have been slight off and on indications with weeks of greater no sales followed by then greater sales conversions the next week. According to Ricky Beggs, VP and managing editor for Black Book noted, “based on the necessary adjustments by the editors this past week, we have the strongest indication yet that the market is acting more typical where the leaves are starting to fall and so are the prices.”

This past week Black Book made the most adjustments — 9,474 vehicles — since the week ending March 19 when 11,187 vehicles were adjusted. The number of daily adjustments at 1,895 per day is almost twice the number averaged — 985 — for the previous five weeks.

“Another indication of a more typical fall market is the declining percentage of adjustments that were increases in value. With only 14 percent of the adjustments going up, we have to go all the way back to the week ending December 31, 2009, when only 6-percent increased, to see a market with this much focus on declining adjustments,” said Beggs.

The overall value of the trucks this past week declined $72.35, the largest drop in values for the truck segments since the week ending Jan 8, 2010 when the average fell $77.61. By segment type the mid-size crossovers (MXU) only decreased by $29 while three segments, the full-size crossovers (FXU), mid-size pickups (MPT), and full-size pickups (FPT) declined $166, $104, and $101 respectively. This was the first week since December 31, 2009, that all 14 truck segments declined in value.

“The overall car segment, declining by almost $46 for the week, fared better than the trucks for the first time in the last six weeks,” explained Beggs. “For the past 12 weeks, the prestige luxury cars (PLC) and premium sporty cars (PSC) declined the most of any of the 10 car segments.”

Not all of the car segments were overly weak in the market as the compact cars (SCC) declined $9, upper mid-sized cars (UMC) fell $8, the entry mid-size cars (EMC) fell $16, and entry level cars (ELC) declined $20.