The country has witnessed a dot-com bubble and then a mortgage bubble. Could there be a used-vehicle bubble on the horizon? Dale Pollak thinks there could be.

The vAuto founder began his blog post Tuesday by giving dealers what he called, "a head’s up."

Pollak stressed that he was “not willing to make firm predictions about the market."

"But I think there’s at least a chance that we might be at the top of a frothy used-car market, perhaps one that might even be characterized as a bubble," he added.

Like many dealers, Pollak has seen prices in the lanes escalate by leaps and bounds thanks to a combination of rising gas prices and wholesale inventory that’s been tight for months.

Pollak also thinks there could be a bubble “because wholesale prices generally begin to level off in March and April, and this year they continued to rise through those months. May just might be the month that they level off.

“Moreover, signs are that gasoline may also be leveling off and the supply interruption from Japan may not be as bad as originally reported,” Pollak continued. “These combined conditions could very likely cause wholesale prices to moderate, and perhaps even decline in the coming weeks and month.”

What does it all mean? It could potentially be a rocky summer for dealers, according to Pollak.

“Vehicles purchased within the last 60 days may be at risk as they could soon be competing with similar vehicles owned for less money,” Pollak surmised.

“Should this scenario unfold, you don’t want to be caught long and wrong at the top of the market,” he went on to say. “My advice, therefore, is to be very cautious about buying at this moment and very aggressive about selling.”

Auto Remarketing recently reached out to several industry analysts who discussed the topic of rising wholesale prices and more. That feature is available here.

More Pollak commentary is available at http://www.dalepollak.com.