Black Book editorial director Ricky Beggs acknowledged that auction survey personnel gave the team a wide array of feedback this past week.

In his latest edition of “Beggs on the Used Car Market,” Beggs highlighted the mood in the lanes ranged from, “slow, to many no-sales, to a couple indicating a flat market with the other side of the spectrum described as buyer interest being up, pickups with strong activity and older units selling better.”

After these varied comments, Beggs then asked in his online video commentary, “Where did the market actually finish after a week of editor analysis?”

Beggs began his response by noting the first trend that stood out to him most, which was the increase in the number of 2013 models that received their initial market driven wholesale values.

“Even though this model year has been the toughest sell to complete in recent weeks, there have been enough actual transactions on the lanes to enable the Black Book editors to add in 26 different 2013 models with market-based values,” Beggs said.

Beggs next moved on to an always popular topic: Gas prices. He recapped that fuel costs declined for 10 weeks in a row before ticking up by $0.02 last week.

“The past few years the increasing of gas prices hasn’t happened until around the first of July,” Beggs said. “I hope this slight increase this past week is not the beginning of an increasing trend, even as gas is $0.25 a gallon less than one year ago.”

Beggs also pointed out the price of diesel fuel moved lower again after peaking at $4.16 back during the week of Feb. 18.

“Even though car and utility vehicles with diesel engines is less than 0.8 percent of total sales so far in 2013, for those coming with diesel engines, the premium for diesel over gas presents a slower payback even with the increased fuel economy,” Beggs said.

“At least those diesel powered units return a higher percentage of retention value than the gas counterparts in relation to new price,” he continued.

The third trend that grabbed Beggs’ attention based on survey personnel comments was the interest and strength of trucks.

Overall, prices for the 14 truck segments ticked up $2, marking an upward trend for the fifth time in the past eight weeks.

Seven of the 14 truck segments posted price gains last week, according to Black book, the same pace as the same week last year.

Of the seven increasing this past week, Beggs indicated only two segments increased two weeks ago as well. Of those two, Black Book found that midsize pickups have increased seven of the past eight weeks, while prices for compact SUVs, (up $85 this past week) have been increasing for 11 of the past 12 weeks.

Beggs also noted that prices for full-size pickups (up $12 this past week) have been positive moves for eight of the past 10 weeks, while compact pickup prices have increased for six of the past seven weeks.

Moving over to the car side, Beggs conceded that, “There is another interesting trend within the car segments that tends to make one ask a few questions.”

For the third consecutive week, Black Book discovered none of the 10 segments increased as the overall price movement settled at a decrease of $44, marking the largest drop in the past 14 weeks.

“The more interesting trend involves the three segments that have been the most solid retention segments during the three-month period of Feb. 1 to May 1 for each of the past three years, the entry level cars, the entry midsize cars and the upper midsize cars,” Beggs said.

“Most recently, during the past four weeks, each of these segments declined,” he continued. “This is a complete turnaround from the previous seven weeks of increasing values for the upper midsize cars and the previous eight week of increases for the entry midsize cars. The entry level cars had increased for six of the previous seven weeks prior to the most recent four week decline. The question is why the abrupt and opposite more recent trend?”

Beggs found two factors to formulate an answer to that question.

“These are some of the more fuel-efficient vehicles, which are not supporting the declining values with the also declining gas prices since the middle of February,” Beggs said. “We feel one has to only look at the overall average price of the cars within these three segments. With these segments being the three lowest priced segments, they come closer to being at the price point that gets attention during the spring tax market.

“Since the week ending April 19, these more affordable segments have been consistently softening in value,” he went on to say.

Beggs wrapped up his commentary by sharing dealer comments from the opposite sides of the country in light of overall price declines within 17 of the 24 car segments.

“A comment from the New England area saying it is an ‘OK market’ was echoed with a comment from the California market saying the activity was ‘nothing special,’” Beggs said.

“We realize the Black Book Daily values are special to you and your business, so we will be back on the auction lanes again this week looking closely at how the bidding is taking place and reporting the market. Have a great week,” Beggs added.

Beggs’ complete video is available below.

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