Overall Used-Vehicle Demand is Up

GAINESVILLE, GA - Values on used cars improved overall over the past week, with the average segment change being -$61, the lowest decline in the past 10 weeks all the way back to the week ending August 10, 2012.

"For the first time I can remember, without digging too far back in the historical archives of data, the Near Luxury Cars (NLC) had the smallest dollar declining amount of only -$18," according to Ricky Beggs, VP and managing editor for Black Book. "There is nothing to indicate a changing pattern of slower depreciation is taking hold here. The Entry Mid-size Cars (EMC) at -$23 had their best, or smallest, depreciation weekly change in over 3 months."

The truck segments, which had an average segment change of -$52 are gradually falling more.

"This is the first time in the past seven weeks where none of the truck segments had a positive week over week change," Beggs noted.

The Mid-size Pickups (MPT) had the best strength with only a -$7 decline for the week. A couple of segments used primarily in the service industries were the Full-size Cargo Vans (FVC) and the Cargo Minivans (MVC) with market changes at -$8 and -$14 respectively. The Full-size Cargo Vans are averaging a -$17 change over the past six weeks, a pretty solid level of retention. Only the Compact Pickups (CPT) at -$29 this past week have a better 6 week average change, primarily due to three weeks of weekly increasing values.

"What do we anticipate for this week within the wholesale markets? There is still a solid need for used inventory for retail, but in this fall season the buyers are looking for slightly lower acquisition prices," Beggs noted. "Even though the consignment is growing, we do not have an oversupply in relation to demand to suppress these fall market values at traditional seasonal levels. Vehicles that should hold the line on depreciation will be above the average condition three- to five-year-old models. We expect Compact Pickups, Full-size Pickups (FPT) and Full-size Crossovers (FXU) to have the best and smallest percentage change with the Luxury Level Cars (LLC) to continue relatively low levels of percentage decline."

View the video below: