Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market with data and insights from Ricky Beggs and Black Book. By the time you are watching or reading this used car market insight, whether you are a fan of college football or not, you either attended a game or at least watched some on TV. This great passage of fall has finally arrived. Hopefully you were satisfied with the outcomes.

When you look at the used market movement over the past week the satisfaction is probably more prominent from the buyers’ perspective as the prices continue to trend downward. With the trucks the overall movement was the smallest average decline in segment price over the past eight weeks at only -$29 or -.19% this past week. The Compact SUVs showed a little strength at a $3 increase for the week with the strength of the Full-size Passenger Wagons with no change this past week after a few weeks of strong increases, which we highlighted in last week’s video report with some thoughts on that strength. The Compact Pickups at -$4 are also doing well in their depreciation. If there was one big swing in market movement it would have to be with the Full-size SUVs at only -$11 this past week after the previous two week average was at just over -$103. The Luxury SUVs have had some significant declining levels for five of the last eight weeks, this past week at -$97.

The cars at an average segment change of -$81 this past week have been pretty steady in this level of change as over the past six weeks the average weekly change has been -$76.With three car segments at over $100 declining amounts, the segment with the largest % change was again the Entry Level Cars at -1.35% or -$92, and now having the largest percentage drop for the past three weeks. We can’t just look at changes by dollars or percentage as the complete story needs both to clarify the picture. The segment with the largest dollar decline at -$127 was also the segment with the smallest percentage decline for the week at -.29%. Of course the Premium Sporty Cars also has the highest average segment price of $43038.

It was a pretty active week in the market with the editors averaging changing the values in over 2079 vehicles each day throughout the week. The last time we adjusted this many in a week was the week ending August 1 with just over 2200 and then back last April 18th week with just over 2300 per day.

The used market seems to making its move and this time of the year it is being driven for the late model units due to another model year of vehicles coming into the market. Many of our survey personnel have pointed this out in their summary reports. As the editors have attended auctions this week, this is also a consistent comment. The positive side is that there is another model year coming so we will be seeing plenty of models with major changes, others with minor appearance or drive train changes and even a few totally new to the market. This past week I had to opportunity to drive a totally new model. It might not be a high volume but it is adding to a segment with a growing number of players. The e-Golf from Volkswagen is being brought to the retail market later this fall with a range of 70-90 miles in normal driving, and even up to 100 miles in E mode on a charge and with the capability to recharge in well under 4 hours. This is capable with the battery being rated as a 24.2 kilowatt battery. With the super charger you can get an 80% charge in only 30 minutes.

The high volume Jetta is getting a refresh with visual changes on the front end grille, headlights and bumper and the rear view with revise tail lights and trunk lid. Also within the Jetta the 1.8L TSI engine gets 170HP while the 2.0L TDI gets an additional horsepower to a total of 150HP as well as an increase in fuel economy. With other content and safety features now included these products continue to be competitive players within their segments.