Amid a strong certified pre-owned and overall used-vehicle sales market, wholesale prices continued to climb in October, driven in part by strong pickup residuals.

According to ADESA Analytical Services’ monthly analysis of wholesale vehicle prices by model class, auction prices were up 1.1 percent compared to September and 0.6 percent year-over-year. Vehicles at auction sold for an average of $9,744 last month.

According to the latest edition of Kontos Kommentary from ADESA Analytical Services’ Tom Kontos, this increase was driven largely be “upticks in truck prices.”

Take this stat into account: In October, wholesale prices for full-size pickups rose by 12.7 percent year-over-year to finish the month off at an average price of $14,469. Compact pickups saw rates spike by 6.5 percent from October 2014, coming in at an average of $7,793 last month.

Kontos explained that although pickups are out-performing the market, wholesale prices are looking stable all around.

“Still, wholesale values were solid in most model year and sale type categories, with the exceptions being off-rental risk and off-lease vehicles,” Kontos said.   

And interestingly, though prices for trucks contributed to the overall price uptick, Kontos pointed out that car prices actually rose more than truck prices on a sequential basis.

For example, overall, car prices rose by an average of 0.6 percent year-over-year and 1.1 percent from September last month, while trucks were up 8.2 percent year-over-year but only 0.3 percent from September.

Among the cars, the full-size segment saw the biggest sequential increase, with rates soaring 11.7 percent over September prices.

Taking a look at auction prices by seller, Kontos reported prices for used vehicle remarketed by manufacturers were down 0.6 percent from September but up 5.2 percent year-over-year, “as off-rental program units sold had a solid month (though there were a lot of no-sales).”

Prices for fleet/lease consignors fell by 1.8 percent from September but were up 1.7 percent year-over-year.

“The off-rental risk price declines were driven mostly by higher mileage vehicles, while the off-lease price softness reflects growing supplies of these units,” Kontos further explained.

In light of expanding supply, prices for 3-year-old vehicles — a group which Kontos said is a “proxy for off-lease vehicles” — were down by 2 percent from September and 6.5 percent year-over-year.

Lastly, dealer consignors saw an uptick in prices in the lanes last month, with rates rising by 0.7 percent versus September and 2.8 percent year-over-year.