As we inch closer to tax season and the positive price movement and sales jumps that normally come with it, depreciation in the lanes continues to ease.

Black Book data showed December saw a continued lowering in monthly depreciation, and overall, the company asserts that vehicle prices remained resilient throughout 2014 — better than expected, in fact.

Looking at the year as a whole, prices fell by 12.1 percent in 2014, which is down slightly from 2013’s depreciation rate of 12.8 percent.

Black Book was initially projecting annual wholesale price depreciation of 13.5 percent.

“2014 saw an increased number of cars sold compared with the previous year, which means additional trade-in volume would typically drive a rising depreciation rate,” said Ricky Beggs, editorial director at Black Book. “However, despite more trade-in volume in 2014, used car-prices overall increased which translated to stronger-than-normal retention values across the board. Additionally, we saw some of the lowest gas prices in years toward the latter half of 2014, which had an impact on truck and car segment demand and depreciation patterns.”

According to Black Book, the average price of a used vehicle for model years 2009 through 2013 fell by 1 percent in December, compared to a 1.9-percent drop on a monthly basis in November.  

During the last month of the year, depreciation was slight: domestic cars dropped by 1.4 percent; import cars fell 1.1 percent; domestic trucks declined by 0.6 percent; and import trucks slid 0.9 percent.

Looking at the last 12 months, domestic trucks saw the lowest depreciation for 2014, declining by 9.1 percent. Domestic cars ended up at the other side of the spectrum with 15.9-percent depreciation.

Interestingly, although trucks saw the lowest depreciation rates this year, they represented four of the six segments leading price declines this past month.

For example, last month, the cargo minivans saw the biggest price drops out of any segment, with rates falling by 1.8 percent.

On a segment level, the biggest depreciation over the course of 2014 was seen among the prestige luxury cars. This segment finished the year with a whopping 18.1-percent decline in rates.

Luxury-level cars performed poorly during the last month of the year, as well, seeing the highest monthly depreciation among all car segments of 1.6 percent. Vehicles in this segment finished the month at $20,574, a 16.8-percent drop from year-ago levels ($24,742).

Full-size passenger vans were the only segment to see prices rise last year. As of the end of 2014, the segment had seen a positive change of 3.5 percent.

Vans performed well during the last month of the year, as well. Full-size cargo vans and full-size passenger vans finished December with a monthly spike in price of 0.5 percent.