Hello and welcome to this week’s Used Car Market Report. In addition to the normal auction attendance and data acquisition, a couple of the editors and I had the opportunity to get a hands on presentation to a couple of key refreshed vehicles this past week. There are some things about this week that stand out. One was when we left home on Tuesday morning there were big, beautiful snowflakes falling and covering the ground and 31 degree temperatures, and then we landed in sunny blue skies and 73 degrees. The better part was getting insight into two soon to be available, very popular vehicles, the 2015 Ford Edge and Focus. This will assist us as we use all of our insight, previous market knowledge, and analytical tools in forecasting residual values for leasing and financial risk analysis. From new engines, suspensions, exterior and interior designs and improvements, to expanded technologies, with many being safety focused, these new products should exceed the consumers’ expectations for these models. For a real thrill take a test drive, or better yet, purchase a new Focus ST trim configuration, and it will definitely put a smile on your face.

These new products will eventually be a part of the used market, and what they and all used vehicles will be worth, is what the viewers of this video blog are interested in. So let’s look at the results of the editors’ market analysis and adjustments for the past week.

Both the cars and the trucks overall segments change had the lowest weekly change over the past three weeks. This is an expected trend based on seasonality patterns that we have tracked and studied for the past decade. The low declines were the result of 40+% of the changes being increases. For the first time in the past nine weeks a car segment, the Full-size Cars, actually increased at +$5 this past week, following a very stable -$4 the prior week. The Entry Level Cars at -$3 and the Upper Mid-size Cars at -$12 are being driven by demand in the “tax season” market. Overall the -$40 average segment change for the cars was half of the year ago -$81, when the extremely harsh winter weather was adversely affecting the market.

The trucks also had their lowest weekly average change in the past three weeks, coming in at -$33, only slightly better than the -$34 and -$37 of the prior two weeks. Even at the -$33 level, there are a couple of segments that have had a few weeks of larger than normal change levels, the Luxury SUVs at -$158 and the Full-size SUVs at -$84. Both of these were lower declines than the prior week, but still adjusting and still finding a new market level.

On the more positive side, the Mid-size Pickups have increased for the past two weeks at +$21 this past week. The Full-size Cargo Vans continue their demand in the used market by the buyers, at +$57 and +$70 for the prior two weeks. Even though the Full-size Passenger Wagons did not increase in value this past week, they only declined by $6. The segment containing the previously mentioned Ford Edge, the Mid-size Crossovers, had it lowest segment decline in the past five weeks at -$41 this past week.

Just a reminder, the final version of this Beggs on the Used Car Market video blog will be posted next Monday, March 9th. For sure it has been fun and challenging to provide these reports every week, for almost seven years. We hope you will tune in next week as we wrap it up, leading into my retirement. Replacing this will be Black Book Market Insights, a weekly printed report with similar insight along with some additional data analytics that we announced here last week.

Until next week we will be looking for you on the auction lanes, where the wholesale market is established. We hope you will tune in again next week for the final edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market. Have a great week!