Due largely to implications of winter weather, auction sales volume for units up to 8 years old in March was down 1.8 percent month-over-month despite gains in some model-year classes, according to the latest Guidelines report from NADA Used Car Guide.

For the first quarter, however, there was a 1.5-percent year-over-year increase, as the transaction total for off-lease-centric 2- to 4-year-old cars jumped 25 percent on average, against a nearly 13-percent drop in transactions for cars between ages 5 and 7.

Looking at March, specifically, there were modest sequential increases in AuctionNet wholesale transactions for vehicles in the 2008 (up 0.3 percent) and 2009 (up 1.2 percent) model-year classes and a 56.7-percent spike for the 2014 model-year. When added together, there were nearly 4,000 additional transactions from these three groups, most of that being attributed to the 2014 class.

But that wasn’t nearly enough to counter transaction decreases among 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 model-year vehicles that together tallied up to make an 8,400-unit month-over-month deficit, NADA said.

“The decline in auction sales can again be pinned largely on adverse winter weather conditions. While storms were somewhat less severe in March than in the first two months of the year, winter weather remained a factor throughout the month nonetheless,” NADA Used Car Guide’s Jonathan Banks explained in the report.

“This added to the backlog of work at dealerships and body shops stemming from accidents, which in turn required rental fleets to carry units longer to help meet loaner vehicle demand,” he continued. “As a result, 2013 model year sales — which consist mostly of off-rental units — fell by 5.9 percent in March.

“For the quarter, sales of 2013 model-year units were nearly 18 percent lower than what was recorded for 2012 models in Q1 2013.”

Looking at the “off-lease laden” groups, 2012 model-year volume dipped 0.7 percent month-over-month in March, 2011 model-year volume was down 4.3 percent and 2010  model-year volume softened 9.6 percent. 

As for the latter, Banks noted that “a downward trend for this group is to be expected as its off-lease high water mark was passed last year.”

Lastly, there was a 0.9 percent dip in AuctionNet transactions for 2007 model-year vehicles.