Gasoline Prices Fall, Used Trucks Continue to be of Interest

During the last week of March, gasoline prices continued to fall, but only $0.015 this past week, and no single used-vehicle segment seems to show highest overall demand.

by Staff

April 1, 2013

Gasoline Prices Fall, Used Trucks Continue to be of Interest — BEGGS

2 min to read

During the last week of March, gasoline prices continued to fall, but only $0.015 this past week, according to Ricky Beggs, editorial director for Black Book. "At least we are $0.24 less than a year ago. I wish I could say the decline at the pump was directly driving the market, but at this point this is an afterthought. The overall strength is really based on less than full operating lanes with plenty of buyers in the lanes and signed in online."

There does not seem to be one segment of vehicles that is in demand, but many as 15 of the 24 segments finished on a positive note for the week. The cars finished with a segment average -$3 for the second week in a row. The trucks at +$7 finished positive overall for the past two weeks.

Trucks continue to be of interest on the auction lanes as all three pickup segments finished up week over week. Six more truck type segments also increased including a +$26 week over week change for the Compact SUVs, up for 7 consecutive weeks and the Compact Crossovers at +$19 increasing for four of the last five weeks.

With the percent of adjustments of 61 percent, now at four weeks of 60-percent+ confirms the “no bargains mean plenty of buyers” comment from one of the Black Book survey personnel. The 1,874 vehicles adjusted per day during the week is the second largest level of adjustments during a strong March market.

"Last week, we mentioned the significantly larger number of Average condition values adjusted over Clean condition," Beggs said. "Even though the greater number of Average condition values has occurred every week since the week ending March 1, 2013, the variance has not been that great. We still see it as a sign of looking for a better bargain and dealers also looking for the opportunity to increase revenue through some quality reconditioning."

View this week's Beggs on the Market video below: