LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

Wholesale value declines last week continued to be strong, as seasonality takes its toll on the lanes.

According to the latest Black Book Market Insights report, wholesale prices for cars fell by 0.72 percent or $78 last week, while the trucks took an average hit of 0.44 percent or $68. These are much higher declines than what was seen during the same week last year when rates fell by 0.42 percent for cars and 0.31 percent for trucks.

“Wholesale values have declined at a relatively high rate in recent weeks, a foreseen trend, caused by the impact of seasonality,” said Anil Goyal, vice president of automotive valuation and analytics.

Comment from the lanes echo this analysis. Black Book editors overheard a buyer from Washington say, “Prices continue downward in this location on most segments,” while an auction attendee from Illinois noted, “Prices are down slightly from last week in this particular area.”

Once again, the entry-level and entry midsize car segments saw prices drop the most this past week. Entry-level cars saw a price decline of 1.29 percent or $77, while the entry midsize car segment fell by 1.12 percent or $92.

Out of the car segments, the prestige luxury segment was the best performer with a slight drop of 0.12 percent or $34.

Among the trucks, the compact pickup (down 0.01 percent) and compact SUV (consistent with the prior week) segments proved strong, seeing little to no change for the week.

The largest decline for the trucks was seen in the minivan cargo segment, which saw rates drop by 2.34 percent or $116. Interestingly, Black Book pointed out in its monthly depreciation report for October that this same segment experienced the largest price drops last month, as well, declining in value by 5 percent.

Compact CUV prices also fell by quite a bit last week, with rates dropping by $112 or 0.97 percent.

This week’s report also included a Q&A with some of the industry’s leading remarketers, who offered insight on auction strategies for key segments, CPO programs and off-lease plans.

To check out Black Book’s interview with Tom Cornellier, manager, auction operations and eBusiness, vehicle remarketing at Ford; and Dan Kenney, manager, remarketing at GM,  see here.