The wholesale market experienced far-reaching declines in vehicle values last month, according to NADA Used Car Guide, which attributed the sweeping price drops to a trio of factors.

Analysts said a combination of seasonality, rental fleet volume increases and slowing demand for fuel-friendly rides helped drive the widespread sequential drop in wholesale prices.

Specifically, AuctionNet prices for cars were off 3.9 percent month-over-month, and vans dipped 5.2 percent from August. The declines in pickup and utility prices were more moderate (down 1.5 percent or less).

Breaking it down further by segment, the midsize van segment showed the heftiest declines. Across various model years of this segment, the declines went from 3.6 percent to the 2010 model-year dipping 9.6 percent.

“As expected, prices for supply-challenged pickups and utilities of all sizes remained stout. This said, prices softened disproportionally for later model years, leading to declines reaching as high as 4.1 percent,” officials noted.

Luxury segments were down almost 3 percent, which was greater than their year-to-date decline. However, this reflects seasonal expectations for these segments, officials noted.

“Despite the losses, used-market fundamentals remain favorable as declining used supply and strong demand from consumers opting for used models continue to pressure both wholesale and retail prices well above year-ago levels,” analysts noted.

Looking at the year-over-year AuctionNet price changes, cars, pickups, vans and utilities were all up from September 2010.

Cars climbed around 10 percent, with pickups climbing more than 2 percent and utility values gaining about 6 percent. Van values saw a more than 4-percent hike.

Used Retail Trends

Moving over to the retail side, NADA UCG found that prices for units less than a year old were almost 8-percent higher year-over-year. This has led to a 43-percent reduction in the gap between used retail and MSRP since the end of 2010, officials noted.

“At first, a used vehicle selling for more than a new one sounds rather dramatic. However, the list of vehicles is greatly reduced once the cost of typically installed optional equipment and destination charge are added to base MSRP,” they explained.

“The majority of the remaining cases can be attributed to a scarcity of new-vehicle inventory (e.g. the Chevy Aveo’s days’ supply stands at three) — which will in turn lead to higher new transaction prices as well as higher used prices and/or consumers electing to ‘load up’ on optional equipment, thereby increasing the spread between the actual new transaction price and MSRP even further,” they added.

UCG Values

Next up, analysts delved into value shifts for October, which they said are on par with September’s movement. The value movement “was heavily influenced by the ongoing contraction of both supply and fuel prices.”

The segments pushed furthest downward were subcompact, compact and midsize cars, which were down about 3 percent, on average. For pickups and utility vehicles, the decline was just 0.5 percent.

“Luxury segment value reductions across vehicle types are generally in between those of cars and trucks at around 1 percent, although sport-oriented models were harder hit, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given the time of year,” officials noted.

“We anticipate following a similar course for November. Car and luxury vehicle downward movement should range between 2 percent and 3.5 percent, with truck movement less severe. And drops at the top of the range should occur primarily in the latest three model years,” they added.

Additionally, NADA Used Car Guide offered the following graphs to help illustrate its data: