Nuance and context.

Two words to bear in mind when viewing the latest monthly wholesale vehicle value indices from Black Book and Cox Automotive, respectively.

Starting with Black Book, its Used Vehicle Retention Index came in at 144.3 in August, down 1.2% from July and off 1.5% year-over-year.

This was the third straight month of declines, but again, nuance and context.

“The Index has now declined for three consecutive months, but it’s important to keep that in perspective because used-vehicle values remain roughly 30% higher than they were in 2019,” Black Book vice president of data & analytics Laura Wehunt said in analysis around the index.

“While we’re not expecting a sharp correction in the market, these elevated price levels continue to create affordability challenges for consumers,” she said.

“When you look beneath the surface, there are still some interesting trends emerging,” Wehunt added. “Prestige luxury cars and sporty cars both posted modest gains in their index values this month.

“That doesn’t mean values increased overall; rather, they held up better than we would typically expect for this time of year,” she said. “Looking ahead, I expect depreciation to continue through the remainder of the year, particularly as manufacturers increase incentives in the fourth quarter, which has historically put additional pressure on used vehicle values.”

Over at Cox Automotive, the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index was at 208.2 last month, up 0.4% year-over-year when adjusting mix, mileage and seasonality, and down 0.9% from July.

Unadjusted, the index was up 0.2% year-over-year and down 0.5% month-over-month.

But again, there’s more to the story.

“Overall depreciation trends had been stronger in July and early August, but those rates of decline decelerated in the latter part of the month. We have observed overall lower depreciation levels so far this year, although the index gave back some of the outperformance over the summer,” said Cox Automotive chief economist Jeremy Robb in an analysis.

“The story driving the stronger depreciation trends is nuanced, as we’ve observed younger age cohorts that have fallen more,” Robb said. “On the other hand, older and more affordable units have shown much less depreciation, with both the 9-year-old and 10-year-old cohorts holding six percentage points higher than the long-term average.

“These older vehicles are less expensive, and those trends highlight the increasing demand for affordable used products.”

Breaking down August’s wholesale price movements by market class, Cox Automotive said compact cars were up 3.7% from August 2025 and luxury cars were up 1.2%. Midsize car prices fell 2.5%, pickups were down 2.9% and SUVs/CUVs were off 2.0%.

Non-electric vehicle segment prices fell 0.9%, while EV prices were up 4.5%, Cox said.