GAINESVILLE, GA – The market continues to be active and strong, with dealers commenting they are having good lot traffic and consumer interest in a variety of used cars and trucks, according to Ricky Beggs, VP & managing editor for Black Book. Thus, the dealers continue to come back to the auctions each week looking for additional inventory.

End-of-the-week adjustment reports indicated a significant number of daily, and thus total weekly, adjustments — almost 11,200 for the week, according to Beggs. A great majority of the adjustments — a record 87 percent — were increases over the previously published wholesale values.

“This is the 5th time since last November we adjusted more than 11,000 vehicles during a weekly time period. This is the 4th consecutive week, and five of the last six weeks, that the overall adjustment level was in a positive direction,” said Beggs.

As a whole, the combined car segments finally broke into positive territory this week, noted Black Book. With a steady climb towards actual appreciation for eight of the last nine weeks, this week showed an increase of $13.01, with eight of the 10 car segments finishing in positive territory. Only the Luxury Level cars and the Prestige Level cars failed to increase in value. The truck market now has seen five consecutive weeks of increases, and this week, thirteen of the fourteen segment types went up. Only the Full-size Crossover segment struggled, a trend for seven weeks now on this segment. Needless to say, the strong spring market continues to roll on.

“In order to stay in tune with the market, we feel it is a key part of the process to be on the auction lanes and watching as many sales online as we possibly can,” said Beggs. “This week, in addition to the Black Book survey personnel at over 50 auctions, the editors were at auto, heavy-duty truck, and RV sales in Georgia, Alabama, and two different South Carolina auction sites.”