Dealers continued to enjoy lower auction prices in the lanes as 2013 wrapped up. Falling in line with the downward trend seen throughout much of last year, wholesale prices continued to drop in December.

According to ADESA Analytical Services, auction prices fell 0.9 percent compared to November and were off 1.3 percent when compared to the same period of 2012.

The average wholesale vehicle price in December came in at $9,661.

Luxury cars and SUVs and sporty cars were the only segments that showed monthly upticks, ADESA chief economist Tom Kontos pointed out in his latest edition of Kontos Kommentary.

Interestingly, though trucks experienced stronger price retention throughout most of 2013, the outcome was slightly different last month.

Over at Black Book, the firm reported a 1.4-percent decline in prices for 2008 through 2012 model-year vehicles in December. It said the six segments with the weakest retention last month were all trucks: full-size CUV (-3.3 percent); mini-van cargo (-2.4 percent); mid-size SUV (-2.3 percent); full-size passenger vans (-2.3 percent); passenger mini vans (-2.3 percent); and full-size cargo vans (-2.1 percent).

“Truck segments had a strong year overall but saw more retention turbulence in December,” said Ricky Beggs, editorial director and senior vice president at Black Book. “While new-car sales brought more trades back into the market, a large number of older-model trade-ins kept later models’ wholesale demand strong for dealers to replenish inventories at wholesale.”

Going back to the ADESA analysis, Kontos found that despite overall price drops in December, certain groups in the industry experienced a bit of a uptick.

Prices for used vehicles remarketed by manufacturers were up 3.4 percent month-over-month and up 3.3 percent year-over-year in December. Kontos said this was “primarily due to tight supplies for this portion of the market (largely late-model off-rental program units).”

Dealer consignors saw a 1.5-percent average price increase versus November 2013, but a 2.6-percent downturn versus December 2012, according to ADESA Analytical Services.

Lastly, prices for fleet/lease consignors were down 0.3 percent sequentially, although up 1.0 percent annually.

The month’s drop contributed to a yearly wholesale price decline of nearly 2 percent as used volume grew by an estimated five percent, Kontos said.

“The softening price trend was evident throughout much of 2013, with some reversals at the beginning of the year due to lingering supply shortages arising from Superstorm Sandy, and later in the year due to strong retail used vehicle demand,” said Kontos.

Kontos pointed out that the overarching theme in today’s vehicle remarketing industry is “rebounding supply,” which, of course, is serving to push prices down.

But the effect is “gradual,” he says.

“However, strong retail demand is restricting this downside, as is the gradual nature of the supply increase itself,” Kontos explained.