PIN: Compacts Continue Retained Value Run

By Chris Tutino, Staff Writer
May 16, 2006

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WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. (May 16, 2006) -- For the 17th consecutive month, the compact vehicle segment prevailed in J.D. Power and Associates' Power Information Network retained value measurement. The segment garnered a 9.1-percent increase in Auto Remarketing's April 2005/2006 comparison, and for the first time in half a year, it didn't raise the bar on the competition (last month's 10.1-percent increase was the largest year-over-year increase recorded for any of PIN's eight super segments).

Second-place sports cars (5.4 percent) swapped spots with third-place midsize vehicles (4.8 percent) in this month's measurement, with both segments leading all others by no less than 3 percent.

Luxury vehicles (1.8 percent), SUVs (1 percent) and the full-size segment (0.6 percent) rounded out the top six and were the last three segments in the comparison to improve over the April 2005 data, as vans and pickups dropped 0.8 and 1.4 percent, respectively.

The full-size segment recorded the largest loss over last month's report at a 2.6-percent slide.

In PIN's days-to-turn measurement, sports cars emerged as the clear winner in the April 2005/2006 comparison with a reduction of four days on dealers' lots. The midsize segment (negative 3) and compacts (negative 2), also left dealers' lots sooner than last year, as did the luxury and pickup segments (negative 1) in a tie for fourth. SUVs (no change), full-size segment (up 1) and vans (up 1) completed the eight super segments.

Compacts upset the sports car segment's five-month run atop PIN's vehicle-pricing measurement, increasing dealer profits by an even $1,000 over the April 2005 data. The third place midsize category ($919) trailed sports cars by only $7, but lead fourth place luxury vehicles ($741) by more than $175.

The gap was even larger between the luxury segment and fifth-placed vans ($505), but the differences leveled out between sixth place fullsize vehicles ($453), seventh-place SUVs ($365) and last-place pickups ($314).

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