You may still be feeling full from a big Thanksgiving meal and an overload of college and professional football but we are glad you have joined us for another Used Car Market Report from Black Book. Yes, it was a short week of market activity, but there are still some highlights to point out.

Gas prices at the pump fell another $.07 for the week to reach $2.82 per gallon, now $.47 below year ago prices. This is a trend we want to continue for sure. Last week I mentioned the level of change of the three full size utility segments, even suggesting the lowest declines in at least the last five weeks was attributed to the gas prices. Well, this past week two of the three reverted back to their higher than normal depreciation. The Full-size Crossovers declined by $139 and the Luxury SUVs declined by $105 for the week. Even with those higher levels of change the -$32 average truck segment change was the lowest declining level in the past eight weeks.

Overall I think there is a bright spot within the cars as the average segment change of -$56 is the lowest level of change over the past five months, back to the days of summer and the week ending July 2, 2014, yet it is still a slightly larger decline than the -$47 change of one year ago.

The Entry Level Cars and the Upper Mid-size Cars both at -$18 were the smallest weekly declining segments. If you are searching for consistent movement, the Near Luxury Cars and the Compact Cars have had only a $4 variance over the past three weeks with average changes of -$44 for the Near Luxury Cars and -$42 for the Compact Cars.

Technology continues to be a growing part of the cars we drive, as well as the way used cars are remarketed. During the months of 2008 and 2009 when gas prices were so volatile, there was a push for overall sustainability and the reduction of fuel consumption, as well as a reduction in co2 emissions. In 2013 there was a record established for the highest average fuel economy of all new vehicles sold at 24.1 MPG.

Today one of the new pieces of technology gaining traction is that of remote start. With frigid morning temps about to be the norm, the remote start feature might be used more regularly and also for longer periods of time. Recently one of the Black Book Editors purchased a new vehicle with the remote start capability. Now that cold weather has arrived, he has been proudly talking about this great feature. Since this new purchase he has been excited about the level of MPG overall of this new vehicle as compared to his previous ten year old similar vehicle. Suddenly after using the remote start feature to be able to walk out and get into a toasty warm vehicle on 20 degree mornings, the instrument cluster Average Fuel economy numbers decreased enough to catch his attention.

Technology means progress and sometime we have to pay a little extra to get the latest technology and then again when we actually use it.