GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

Though depreciation slowed a little bit last week, the auction market is still seeing prices decrease at a rate larger than normally seen during tax season, which traditionally brings rate strength to the lanes.

Most trucks, of course, are continuing to see stronger price trends than cars, with the exception of full size luxury utilities and full-size vans, according to the latest Black Book Market Insights report.

And auction attendees are feeling the seasonal trend shifts, as well. Black Book overheard a buyer from New Jersey say last week, “The market trend in this area is still a little slow with everyone waiting on that spring market bump in action.”

Overall, car values fell by an average of 0.23 percent or $23 last week. And although this may seem slight, in comparison car values increased by 0.02 percent during the same week last year.

“Midsize cars and subcompact crossovers showed slight increases in prices, indicating consumer demand for these segments in this tax season over other segments,” said Anil Goyal, vice president of automotive valuation and analytics.

The midsize, compact and subcompact car segments performed the best out of the lot. The midsize cars saw an increase of 0.04 percent, while the midsize cars (down by 0.13 percent) and subcompact cars (down by 0.19 percent) saw slight decreases.  

The worst performing car segment last week was the sporty car segment, which experienced a drop of 0.58 percent or $83.

Truck prices overall dropped by an average of 0.31 percent or $45 last week, according to Black Book data. For year-over-year comparison, truck values fell by only 0.02 percent during the same week of 2015.

Subcompact crossover and compact van segments performed the best out of the truck segment, with increases of 0.33 percent and 0.09 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, full-size vans took the biggest percentage hit among the trucks with a decline of 0.89 percent or $111.