CARY, N.C. -

The improvement in retail used-vehicle sales at franchised dealerships is now more rapid than the gains in their new-vehicle sales. And that’s helping to spur continued growth on the wholesale side of the pre-owned market, according to J.D. Power.

This week’s J.D. Power Auto Industry Impact Report shows that used-vehicle sales at franchised dealerships so far this month are down 21% from pre-virus forecasts, while new-vehicle sales have seen a 27% decline.

The pre-owned retail vehicle market “is getting better,” though it is still well below pre-virus projections, said Jonathan Banks, vice president and general manager of vehicle valuations at J.D. Power, during Wednesday’s webinar.

In a Weekly Market Update released Monday, LotLinx reported, “Used-car sales bucked conventional wisdom, ending the week up slightly, but still trailing pre-COVID pace by -7.8%.”

In his weekly video recap, Cox Automotive Jonathan Smoke said, “The decline in used-vehicle sales bottomed at the beginning of April and have mostly been improving since. But last week was a really strong week.

“We estimate that used was down only 15% year-over-year last week and that trend improved again on Sunday,” Smoke said.

Meanwhile, last week marked the fifth straight improvement in weekly wholesale auction sales, according to the J.D. Power data. 

After hitting a trough of 18,000 units the week ending April 5, they’ve climbed ever since, reaching 64,000 last week, the data showed.

That narrows the gap between pre-virus forecast and post-virus actual. 

With the pre-virus forecast at 104,000 wholesale sales, last week’s actual tally is more than 60% of initial projections, according to J.D. Power.

A month ago, the market was at 23% for the week ending April 12 and about 17% during the trough week. 

In the first two weeks of May, the average weekly wholesale sales figure has been 62,500. That is twice as high as April's average, J.D. Power said.

“On the wholesale sales front, as you would expect, if consumer sales increase, then the wholesale demand increases as well, as dealers need to obtain more used inventory. What we’ve seen this week is a continuation of the improvement in volume,” Banks said.

“We’re looking at good improvement in wholesale units, which is the dealers buying the inventory … this is driven by dealer demand and participation. The channels have already been opened for several weeks,” he said. “Now we’re seeing dealer demand increase, thereby increasing sales.”