GAINESVILLE, GA - Over the past few weeks Black Book has seen signs that the normal summer slowdown for the wholesale side in sales and prices that occurs around the 4th of July arrived a little early, according to Ricky Beggs, VP and managing editor at Black Book.

“Normally, sales remain on a steady upward trend from late winter through the first few weeks of July, peaking about the second week of the month. Our conversations with dealers, combined with the data from the auctions, indicate that wholesale prices have definitely peaked about a month earlier than normal,” said Beggs. “As a result, prices have generally declined in the guide this month. On most utility vehicles, prices are about 1- to 3-percent lower than last month’s values.”

The auto market slowed back down this past week with fewer necessary adjustments and the overall adjustment average change was about -$42, said Beggs. The average price of cars was down just over $47 while the truck models average price was down about $8.60.

According to Beggs, the greatest segment change was the premium sporty cars (PSC) down $128. The next weakest segments included the luxury level cars (LLC) and the near luxury cars (NLC) models down $53 for each segment type. The 14 truck segments split with seven segments up and seven segments down for the week.

“The two strongest segments were full-size SUVs (FSU) and full-size wagons (FVW) up $27 and $24 respectively. On the opposite end of the spectrum were the full-size Crossovers (FXU) down $88 and the compact SUVs (CSU) down $56,” said Beggs. “This is the fourth consecutive week the full-size Crossovers (FXU) showed the greatest decline of any of the truck segments.”

On a more positive note, Black Book editors, after extensive searching and analyzing of the market data, added at least 20 more 2010 models with market driven values, according to Beggs. Black Book has been reporting on some of the 2010 models in the electronic products since January of this year and with the May printed guides, market values on a large portion of the 2010 models.