Thanks for tuning into this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market, with data and insights from Ricky Beggs and Black Book.

The movement in the market continues, and pretty much as was expected. The average segment change for both the cars and the trucks was at -$73 and -$64 respectively, a greater decline for both pieces of the market than the prior week. For the cars it was a very similar change level to the year ago period of -$77, while the trucks had the largest average segment change level since the week of February 21, 2014. This level of change within the trucks did not really occur with any consistency in 2013 until a little later in the year, around the middle of October and first part of November. We will keep our attention on these segments to see if this level of change will continue overall through the remainder of 2014. 

This past week’s level of change was somewhat affected by the significant level of change within two segments, the Luxury SUVs and the Full-size SUVs at -$240 and -$133 respectively. Two weeks ago the Full-size Crossovers stood out with a change of -$195, and was still at a noticeable level this week, even though much less at -$87. There is no question about the large utilities and a pattern of larger adjustments.

When the change amounts of the higher end, luxury segments within the cars is viewed, a similar pattern to that of the full-sized higher priced utilities exists. The real softness in the market for the cars and trucks is revolving around the higher dollar units, while on the other end of the smaller adjusting segments, we have the less expensive units. Is this a sign of a tougher lender market or a concern by some regarding the overall economy?

On the other end of the price spectrum the smaller dollar amount moving segments were from the lower average prices of the Entry Mid-size Cars, the Entry Level Cars, and the Compact Cars. With these being the more fuel efficient models, and with the larger adjusting truck segments being the less fuel efficient utilities, this sure can’t be attributed to the price of gas at the pump. With the price of gas this past week at $3.46 and diesel at $3.81, there is basically no change week over week, with these prices both still consumer friendly and $.13 less than year ago prices.

There will be a full middle of the month week of auction activity for all of us to jump into. We will sharpen our pencils as we gather and analyze the data. We’ll report back to you the latest market values each day, and share the market summary again next week with this weekly video blog. We will see you on the lanes and hope you have a great week!