Before delving into its newest wholesale price data, the latest Black Book Market Insights report offered a reassuring assessment of how auctions, consignors and dealers adjusted to how the coronavirus pandemic has forced the industry to operate.
Black Book vice president of vehicle valuations Laura Wehunt began by saying, “This past week we saw big changes on the auction lanes with nearly all auctions going completely digital in an effort to keep everyone safe. Overall, it looked to be a smooth transition during an unprecedented time.”
The report moved on to note that car segments behaved similarly for two consecutive weeks. Analysts reported that their volume-weighted data showed overall car segment values increased by 0.32% this past week; the same reading as a week earlier.
“In cars, we continued to see the affordable car segments — sub-compact, compact and midsize — increase but saw the expensive luxury, prestige luxury and premium sporty segments decrease,” Black Book said.
Volume-weighted information indicated that overall truck segment values — including pickups, SUVs and vans —increased by 0.20% last week. That’s a bit higher than the previous week when Black Book pegged the rise at 0.16%.
Like with cars, the increases for trucks were dominated by the more affordable sub-compact, compact, and mid-size crossover segments. Also, in parallel, the largest decline was a luxury segment,” analysts said.
Despite so much activity shifting to online channels, Black Book’s sales observers still managed to capture observations of what was happening in virtual lanes. Here is the rundown:
— From Florida: “It seems like buyers were not very interested unless the vehicle was green light with a good CR.”
— From Georgia: “Cars carried the higher price tags compared to SUVs.”
— From North Carolina: “The bottom of the market was strong today.”
— Another view from Florida: “Great sale until CRs began to fall midway through the run.”
— From Massachusetts: “The vehicles that sold for $5,000 or less did very well, and others were hit or miss.”
Source : AutoFinanceNews
