OPENLANE: Dealer Interest, Online Prices Improve for Most Segments

By Joe Overby, Staff Writer
February 26, 2009

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MENLO PARK, Calif. — After releasing its first OPENLANE Market Index at the National Auto Dealers Association's convention earlier this year, the company put out its second on Thursday, offering an overview of January wholesale market trends.

Average online auction prices for truck, van and SUV segments in January were still soft compared to the previous year; however dealer interest in these vehicles showed positive year-over-year gains.

Moreover, these vehicle segments saw values continue to show improvement from the last few months of 2008.

These were just some of the findings of the February edition of OPENLANE's Market Index, which examined trends on wholesale pricing and dealer interest.

While the other three vehicle segments started to show relative strength lately, prices for cars have shifted downward every month since October after peaking in September, officials claimed after reviewing company data.

In January, these values were off 12 percent compared to the same period of 2008. While dealer interest in cars has remained relatively steady in the last six months, it was down 8 percent compared to January 2008.

Looking at some of the other segments in more detail, SUV prices moved ahead 4 percent in January from the previous month, but were down 10 percent from 2008. However, dealer interest in these models jumped 19 percent from last January.

Among trucks, their values softened 6 percent year-over-year, but the segment did make a 4-percent improvement from December. As far as dealer interest, trucks bottomed out in May, but interest in these units began to pick up in June.

By January, dealer interest in trucks was up 6 percent year-over-year.

Moving on to minivans, though this group showed the heaviest pricing decreases throughout 2008 and January values were down 3 percent compared to 2008, the segment showed the biggest monthly gain at 11 percent.

Dealer interest in minivans is still 11 percent lower than it was a year ago, but there has been an upward trend each month since September, officials added.

Editor's Note: For OPENLANE's analysis of the Canadian side of the online wholesale market, stay tuned for the Auto Remarketing Canada e-newsletter on Friday. If you would like to add Auto Remarketing Canada to your subscription, click here.

Auction/Wholesale