Welcome to another edition of Black Book data and  Beggs on the Used Car Market. I’m Ricky Beggs Editorial Director at Black Book. Thank you for tuning in to see some very interesting movements in the market value over the past week. Looking at the various comments gathered and reported by the Black Book survey personnel and editors as they stood on the auction lanes gave us as much of a wide spread of impressions of the market as I can remember in any one week period.

With this multitude of thoughts, I am not surprised at the level of the number of changes which came in at 2,298 per day according to Black Book. The dollar and percentage of many of the segment changes might have been a little surprising though. As to the number of changes per day, one year ago the number was much lower at only 1,804 per day. From the most recent 2,298 per day, the last time the level was higher was for the week ending March 15, 2013 at 2,352 per day and the largest daily level of change over the past year was the week ending January 18, 2013 at 2,528 per day.

Cars & Trucks
Many of the changes in March were on the increasing side of change and the average segment change was -$8 for the cars and -$7 for the trucks. The January 18 week was more in line with this past week in overall change of the cars at -$64, but much less than the trucks at -$28 at the same time period. The average car segment change this past week at -$62 is slightly improved over the level of the previous six weeks. Some of the larger declining segments as a percentage were the Entry Mid-size Cars at -.99% and the Near Luxury Cars at -.64%.

Those showing improving trends included the Entry Level Cars at -.47% as compared to the -1.52% the prior week, and the Premium Sporty Cars at -.19%, better than the -.52% the prior week. Segments with the most consistency were the Entry Sporty Cars at -.39% the past two weeks and the Upper Mid-size Cars at -.38% and -.34% for the prior two weeks.

When it comes to the trucks there was definitely a market adjustment taking place. The overall segment change of -$93 and -.66% this past week was significantly more than the -$42 and -$59 the prior two weeks. I cannot remember a time when the number of truck segments with over $100 downward change was at the past week levels. There are seven segments ranging from -$214 for the Full-size Crossovers to -$108 with the Mid-size SUVs, with some pickups and full-size vans and wagons included in the mix.

But not every truck segment was weak in retention. The Compact SUVs actually increased week over week by $2 and the Compact Crossovers have been very steady at -$34 and -$35 the past two weeks. We will keep our eyes focused on the market even during this holiday shortened week to see if these inflated adjustment levels continue or the change is more like year ago levels which came in at -$47.

During this season of the year please allow all of us at Black Book the opportunity to say thank you for your use of the Black Book products and services, the feedback and insight you pass along on a regular basis and the solid friendships that have grown with many of you over the years. May you be blessed. Have a great week and we hope to see you on the auction lanes.