While August is often a month of change on vacation and academic calendars, that wasn’t the case for the wholesale vehicle market.

According to analysis around used-car price indices, wholesale vehicle values last month were flat from July and didn’t see any outlandish change from August 2024, though some volatility remains.

Starting with Black Book’s Used Vehicle Retention Index, that came in at 146.5 (seasonally adjusted), which is the same as July and up 0.3% year-over-year.

“The overall market depreciation rate eased in August compared with July, with most segments stabilizing in the second half of the month. Full-size and small Pickups even recorded gains on 2- to 6-year-old units, though newer 0- to 2-year-olds continued to face pressure from rising incentives,” said Laura Wehunt, vice president of data & analytics at Black Book, in an analysis.

“While last year saw a brief increase in values around Labor Day, this year the overall market continued to decline,” Wehunt said. “Still, the stability in values and strong auction conversion rates point to the emergence of a new seasonal pattern in the back half of the year.”

Cox Automotive’s Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index was at 207.4 in August, flat from July and up 1.7% year-over-year, when adjusting for mix, mileage and seasonality.

Unadjusted, the Manheim index was up 1.0% month-over-month and 1.8% from August 2024. With that, Cox Automotive offered some context: “The long-term move on average for non-seasonally adjusted values is a rise of 0.1% in August, demonstrating that last month’s unadjusted gains were larger than typically seen.”

Jeremy Robb, deputy chief economist at Cox Automotive, said in the analysis: “Changes in wholesale values have continued to defy gravity a bit this year, as the industry suffers from lower used-vehicle inventory levels and increased demand from consumers for affordable vehicles.

“As we’ve seen volatility in recent months, the Manheim index is lower than the April peak, but still a few points higher than March levels. New-vehicle sales have remained strong through August, and as that continues, it drives more consumer demand in the used market as well,” he said.

Looking at used EVs in particular, values were up 4.6% year-over-year in August, compared to the 1.4% increase for non-EVs and 1.7% gain for the overall industry, Cox said.

“As we move toward the end of Q3 when EV incentives are set to expire, new and used EV sales have remained robust,” Robb said. “This increased demand has elevated values for used EVs at auction, making the EV segment the strongest performer currently against last year for wholesale values.”