GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

As summer nears, prices in the lanes tend to take a turn downward — a trend most dealers and wholesales are used to, and one that is rearing its head again this year as we approach June. And this rings especially true for the car segments at auction.

According to the latest Black Book Market Insights report, all car segments saw prices fall in the lanes last week for an average decline of 0.40 percent (or $49).

Though all car segments saw a bit of a drop, the compact cars and luxury-level cars stood out from the pack with the biggest slides, with prices falling by 0.83 percent and 0.67 percent, respectively.

The prestige luxury cars also dropped rather far last week with a decline of 0.38 percent ($120).

Once again, the truck models performed much better than the car segments, with pickups and full-size vans seeing the strongest price retention.

Overall, the truck segments only saw a 0.10-percent ($16) drop last week.

“As expected, values in car segments continued their downward trend. Pickups and full-size vans are in demand and held their values well,” said Anil Goyal, vice president of automotive valuation and analytics.

Compact pickups saw the biggest dollar increase in price last week, with rates rising by 0.49 percent or $73.

Full-size vans followed closely behind when it came to price retention. Full-size cargo vans saw a $60 or 0.41-percent bump in price, while the full-size passenger vans rose by 0.32 percent ($47).

Offering some insight into van segment trends, Black Book analysts said, “Newer ‘European-style’ vans appear to be gaining ground in retail. Meanwhile, standard boxy style vans continue to show increases in wholesale values before the supply starts to build up from the newer models.”

And as overall pre-owned supply expands and quality used inventory becomes easier to come by, Black Book analysts said comments from the auctions “tell us dealer inventories are at levels that make for a more discriminating buyer at auction.”

For example, a comment from a Nevada auction read, “Buyers are much more discriminating and sellers are starting to face the adjustment,” while dealers in Nashville, Tenn. said “that they have plenty of inventory on their lots as sales have slowed some from previous weeks.”