Going into Memorial Day weekend, Black Book learned dealers weren’t overly eager to spend their floor plan funds as vehicle depreciation trends told editors “that summer is fast approaching.”

According to the latest Black Book Market Insights report, editors found that car segments are picking up more weekly depreciation compared with trucks, “signaling that summer is fast approaching.” The report also touched on midsize cars, which have been experiencing some of the highest depreciation among all car segments as of late.

“Midsize cars depreciated at a higher rate than other car segments for the second week in a row. Dealers are reporting slow retail and tightening in subprime credit,” said Anil Goyal, Black Book’s senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics.

Volume-weighted, Black Book indicated overall car segment values decreased by 0.41 percent last week, worse than the average weekly decrease of 0.31 percent in values over the previous two weeks.

Editors determined the midsize car, full-size car, sub-compact car and luxury car segments declined the most by 0.64 percent, 0.60 percent, 0.50 percent and 0.49 percent, respectively.

Again looking at volume-weighted information, Black Book noticed overall truck segment (values including pickups, SUVs and vans) decreased by 0.28 percent last week, slightly better than the average weekly decrease of 0.34 percent in values over the previous two weeks.

Editors found midsize crossover/SUV and compact van segments declined the most by 0.58 percent and 0.54 percent, respectively.

Representatives in lanes noticed dealers watched scores of vehicles roll over the block without adding them to their inventory. The first two reports conveying this trend came out of the Southeast.

Black Book’s lane watcher in Georgia reported, “Dealers were not in a rush to buy here today. Two dealers that I check in with routinely had extremely low numbers of purchased units.”

And out of Florida, a similar chorus: “Lots of no-sales today but the biggest surprise was that a lot of trucks struggled to get to the money or didn’t sell at all.”

And in Michigan, Black Book uncovered at least one reason why dealers might not be so ready to add lots of vehicles into inventory.

“The market is rather flat here. Retail remains sluggish and customers with challenged credit are having a really tough time purchasing transportation,” Black Book personnel reported from a Michigan sale.

Elsewhere around the country, the story wasn’t quite so bleak in the lanes where Black Book attends about 60 auctions on a regular basis. An upbeat assessment come from Indiana.

“Pretty good sale here today,” Black Book’s lane watcher in the Hoosier State said. “Retail has been a little slow due to lots of rain but the nice weather seems to have brought out the buyers.”

Down in Texas, some positive assessments there, too, with the Black Book representative stating, “We had a good sale today, which was good to see. Buyers were engaged and the values were holding steady. The rental vehicles performed better than they have the last couple of weeks.”

And finally, the sentiment out of Colorado might have just summed up the entire wholesale situation when the watcher said, “Just an average sale this week although it was better than last week. The market here is definitely settling down for the summer months.”