Make that three straight months of records for the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index.
The Cox Automotive business unit’s measure of wholesale car prices came in at 194.0 for April, which beat year-ago figures by 54.3% and was nearly a 15-point jump from the prior record set a month before (179.2).
Mix, mileage and seasonally adjusted, wholesale values were up 8.3% from March, according to Manheim’s report.
Beyond the 54.3% overall spike in used-car prices last month, the gain for pickups was particularly noteworthy, as their values were up 77.9%.
And all market classes included in the index report showed year-over-year increases of at least 41%. That includes a 51.6% jump in midsize car prices, a 48.5% climb for compact cars and a 48.2% uptick for SUV/CUV prices.
Van prices climbed 46.3% and luxury prices were up 41.8%
Breaking the prices down further, rental risk prices climbed 32% from April 2020 and 7% from March of this year.
On the supply front, April ended with wholesale days supply at 17, down from the typical level of 23.
April’s wholesale price surge picked up from March, a record month itself.
According to KAR Global’s measure of wholesale prices in March, values were not only up 25.9% from the COVID-impacted March 2020, but beat March 2019 prices by 22.8%.
“Independent of seasonality, wholesale values remain above pre-Covid levels by over 20%, as a perfect storm in used-vehicle demand faces a perfect drought in used vehicle supply. These trends continued well into April,” KAR chief economist Tom Kontos wrote in his commentary on March used-car price trends.
And the 9.5% sequential increase in wholesale prices for March was a record, according to J.D. Power Valuation Services.
“What we saw in March was truly historic. It represents the biggest monthly wholesale increase that we’ve ever seen, period. It was a process that built up steam steadily over the month with 3% upticks every week for three weeks. It represents a major break with the historic 1.5% – 2.0% increases that have typically been logged in March through the five years leading up to 2020,” J.D. Power Valuation Services executive analyst David Paris said in an analysis.
Source : AutoFinanceNews
