GAINESVILLE, GA - Memorial Day definitely played a part in the auction activity, especially during the early part of the first week of June, according to Ricky Beggs, VP and managing editor for Black Book. By the end of that week, auction activity and attendance seemed to have long forgotten a shortened week of a normal routine.

“Feedback from the Black Book survey personnel consistently indicated a ‘lull in the auction’ with ‘cautious bidding,’ ” said Beggs. “When one dealer said the ‘late model cars are a tough sell,’ it was backed up when another said that ‘some new cars are cheaper to buy than used.’ The combination of these two insights supports the notion that increased new car sales of the last few months helped push down the used values during the most recent two weeks of market activity.”

This past week with only 25 percent of the almost 1,100 daily adjustments being increases in values, Black Book noted the continuation of a softer used market. The average dollar decrease adjustment was -$174 this past week as compared to -$122 the prior week. This brought the overall change to -$87 this past week compared to -$57 for the prior week, according to Black Book.

Looking at segment changes, all 10 of the car segment types tracked by Black Book were decreases for an overall drop of -$46. This is the largest drop since the week ending February 5, 2010.

“Only two of the 14 truck segments were increases, the Compact and Mid-size pickups at $10 & $6 respectively,” said Beggs. With the overall truck segment dropping -$41, this is another case where the decrease hasn’t been at this level since the week ending January 15, 2010. Another interesting note had 11 of the truck segments being larger decreases than the previous week. The Compact Crossovers fared slightly better this past week decreasing -$26 as compared to -$30 the previous week.

“As we look at the last 2 weeks of adjustments, the movement is very similar. As we report the market next week we’ll see if 2, turns into 3. Will a like pattern of changes for 3 weeks constitute a trend?” inquired Beggs.