Auction Sales Steady, Prices Remain Flat

After a full week of auctions and the Black Book editors studying all of the data received over the last week, the market would have to be reported as pretty steady. This past week the average number of vehicles adjusted each day was 1,840. Since the first of December, except for the week of Christmas, this is the lowest daily adjustment amount.

"It should be noted that the percentage of increases of all those adjustments returned to a relatively high level again this past week at 36 percent," according to Ricky Beggs, VP and managing editor for Black Book in his weekly Beggs on the Market Report. "This is very close to this point in time last year at 34 percent. If the historical market is an indicator the coming weeks’ percentage of increases will be significantly higher. But, let’s hold back before we make such a bold prediction that we will match last year’s level of increases."

Within the car segment over the past week, the overall average segment price decline increased to -$62 as compared to the previous week of -$40 and a year ago of -$44. Individually, seven of the 10 car segments declined a greater amount than the previous week. Those changes declining the most week-over-week were the Premium Luxury Cars (PLC) at a greater percentage decline of -0.43 percent more to -0.83 percent, and the Luxury Level Cars (LLC) at -0.26-percent more to -0.48 percent.

The car segments doing better week-over-week were the Upper Mid-size Cars (UMC) at -0.34 percent, or -$30, the Near Luxury Cars (NLC) at -0.15 percent, or -$18, and the Prestige Sporty Cars (PSC) down by -0.26 percent, for a dollar change of -$101.

"Since the calendar turned to 2013, the most consistent and lowest adjusting segment has been the Entry Level Cars (ELC) that have changed by -$11 and -$10 for the last two weeks," Beggs reported. "The Compact Cars (SCC) at -$29 this past week only have a -$39 combined level of change for 2013. Not far behind, the Near Luxury Level Cars (NLC) have a two-week total segment change of -$41."

The truck segments took a slightly bigger hit this past week at -$36, or -0.27 percent, which was up from -$23, or -0.17 percent, the previous week. Four of the 14 truck segments were more stable than the previous week with the biggest improvement being the Compact Pickup Trucks (CPT) at -$18 and -0.18 percent as compared to the -$53 and -0.15 percent two weeks ago.

The other two pickup segments, the Mid-size Pickups (MPT) and the Full-size Pickups (FPT) showed week-over-week improvement with smaller declines finishing at -$36 for the Mid-size and -$15 for the Full-size Pickups.

The Full-size Vans, Cargo and Passenger versions, have now increased for the past five weeks, but each at a lower dollar increase during this positive run at only +$8 and +$11 this past week.

"We are watching closely to see how long this increasing run continues," Beggs said.

Beggs concluded with a request to the industry: "I am sure each of you could tell some interesting stories about some of the trade-ins at your dealership. It might have been as recently as during the Cash for Clunkers program," he commented. "The folks at Black Book Online are launching a new contest on Facebook looking for some less-than-amazing vehicles with a “Worst Trade-in Photo Contest.” Click here to go to the company's Facebook page and find out about all the details and see some of the great prizes being offered for those Thing of Beauty photos and the stories behind them.