Sales of off-rental heavy 2015 model-year vehicles at auction have finally surpassed sales of 2014 vehicles on a like-age basis, according to NADA Used Car Guide’s Guidelines report for May.

While sales of mostly off-rental 2015s trended downward over the past two months, the nearly 136,500 sold at auction in April and May was 12 percent higher than sales of 2014 models in the same two months last year.

According to Larry Dixon, senior manager for market intelligence for NADA Used Car Guide, about 7 percent more 2015s were sold into rental fleets new. Yet it's just now that 2015 model-year auction volume has moved past 2014 auction volume on a like-age basis, he said. 

“It took some time for this to occur,” Dixon told Auto Remarketing, “which means rental fleets were holding vehicles in service longer than they did last year.”

It could be that GM pulled back substantially on rental sales, he surmised, which in turn made it difficult for rental companies to get ahold of adequate inventory.

“I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a pronounced spike in 2015 sales at auction, but this has yet to occur,” Dixon said. (In fact, sales of MY 2015 vehicles were down 9 percent for the four weeks ending May 23 as compared to the four prior.) “There is simply a consistently higher volume of 1-year-old units moving through the lanes compared to what was experienced last year.”

The report also showed a month-over-month dip in the sale of vehicles up to 8 years old. Compared to the four prior weeks, sales of those units dropped by 4 percent over the four-week period extending through May 23 — a normal pattern for May.

Sales volume for the 2013 and 2016 model years rose by 1 percent and 5 percent, respectively, during that period, while sales volume for other years fell by 2 percent (2011) to 9 percent (2014 and 2015).

Sales of late-model vehicles (up to 3 years old) reached 1,101,400 units through the end of May, which is 10.5 percent higher than during the same five-month period last year. Up by 37.6 percent, large pickup volume rose the most over that period, followed by subcompact cars and compact utilities (where sales were about 29 percent higher).