No matter how chief economist Tom Kontos and his team dissected most of their numbers, wholesale prices within the data available to KAR Global Analytical Services have demonstrated noticeable gains year-over-year.
The latest installment of the Kontos Kommentary included not only an in-depth comparison of the January data, but KAR Global also delved into some wholesale price information procured from the first couple of weeks of February.
According to KAR Global Analytical Services’ monthly analysis of wholesale used vehicle prices by vehicle model class, wholesale prices in January averaged $12,551 — up 5.6% compared to December. The figure also was 16.6% above pre-COVID/January 2019 readings and 13.1% higher relative to January 2020.
Looking closer at 3-year-old vehicles with 36,000 to 45,000 miles that typically are in the off-fleet and off-lease lanes, KAR Global noticed 7% price increases for midsize cars and midsize CUVs/SUVs.
When holding constant for sale type, model-year age, mileage and model class segment, prices for those particular midsize cars rose $873 to $13,574, while prices for those specific midsize CUVs/SUVs jumped $1,443 to $22,043.
And when Kontos and the KAR Global team expanded their look at those off-fleet and off-lease units to examine weekly price movements of cars, vans and pickups, as well as CUVs/SUVs through Feb. 14, they found increases of more than 25% in a single week for vans and three different weeks when pickup prices rose more than 20%.
“Average prices have been well above year-ago levels each week since the start of the year, regardless of vehicle type. CUV/SUV prices appear to be up less dramatically than the rest of the major segments perhaps due to their relative abundance from strong new sales of these vehicles in recent years,” Kontos said in the latest analysis.
Kontos elaborated about the latest wholesale price information in this video.
| Average | Price | ($/Unit) | Latest | Month | Versus | ||
| Jan. 2021 | Dec. 2020 | Jan. 2019 | Jan. 2020 | Prior Month | Pre-COVID-19 | Prior Year | |
| Total All Vehicles | $12,551 | $11,890 | $10,761 | $11,096 | 5.6% | 16.6% | 13.1% |
| Total Cars | $8.989 | $8,484 | $8,374 | $8,271 | 5.9% | 7.3% | 8.7% |
| Compact Car | $6.190 | $5,877 | $6,495 | $6,278 | 5.3% | -4.7% | -1.4% |
| Midsize Car | $7,403 | $7,050 | $7,394 | $7,280 | 5.0% | 0.1% | 1.7% |
| Full-size Car | $7,992 | $7,676 | $7,729 | $7,462 | 4.1% | 3.4% | 7.1% |
| Luxury Car | $15,108 | $14,372 | $12.771 | $12,656 | 5.1% | 18.3% | 19.4% |
| Sporty Car | $16,195 | $15,636 | $13,044 | $13,772 | 3.6% | 24.2% | 17.6% |
| Total Trucks | $14,924 | $14,251 | $12,793 | $13,171 | 4.7% | 16.7% | 13.3% |
| Minivan | $8,064 | $7,804 | $8,496 | $7,932 | 3.3% | -5.1% | 1.7% |
| Full-size Van | $14,700 | $12,360 | $12,585 | $12,871 | 18.9% | 16.8% | 14.2% |
| Compact SUV/CUV | $10,950 | $11,188 | $10,962 | $10,399 | 7.5% | -0.1% | 5.3% |
| Midsize SUV/CUV | $13,780 | $12,766 | $11.192 | $12,347 | 7.9% | 23.1% | 11.6% |
| Full-size SUV/CUV | $15,975 | $15,137 | $13,957 | $13,787 | 5.5% | 14.5% | 15.9% |
| Luxury SUV/CUV | $21,179 | $20,465 | $17,613 | $18,427 | 3.5% | 20.2% | 14.9% |
| Compact Pickup | $14,888 | $14,114 | $9,734 | $11,062 | 5.5% | 52.9% | 34.6% |
| Full-size Pickup | $19,653 | $19,191 | $15,552 | $16,168 | 2.4% | 26.4% | 21.6% |
Source: KAR Global Analytical Services.
Source : AutoFinanceNews
