GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

As May rolled in last week, Black Book’s Ricky Beggs says it brought with it the end of the peak of spring used-car activity and overall strength of auction prices.

Though 54 percent of the overall price changes in the lanes last week were still increases, this number was the lowest percentage of increases since the week of March 14, the Black Book editorial director and senior vice president noted in his latest “Beggs on the Used Car Market” video report.

Commenting on dealer response in the lanes last week, Beggs said, “A sign of tax season being behind us was supported with a comment about the ‘budget cars are down.’ The comment that really said it all was that we just had a ‘regular end of the month sale.’”

This past week, only four of the 10 car segments saw prices increase at auction.

Near luxury cars joined the three segments that have seen prices rise every week for the past nine weeks: the entry midsize cars, the compact cars and the upper midsize cars.  

Overall, the car segments finished with an average decline of $3. Beggs pointed out this shows year-over-year strength, as cars fell by an average of $39 during the same week last year.

The truck segments are seeing stronger price retention in the lanes, rising by an average of $9 last week. Last year, the truck segments saw an average drop of $1 during the same period.

“The interesting point is even with the small level of overall increase, there were still 12 of the 14 truck segments that were increases, but five of those 12 were increases of only $6 or less,” Beggs reported

As far as declines go, the midsize SUVs saw a slight drop of $8, which was the first negative result for this segment in seven weeks.

Lastly, luxury SUVs saw a drop of $90.

Beggs also pointed out another interesting trend to keep an eye on.

For the second straight week, gas prices rose by $0.03. This marks a $0.38 increase from where rates were at the beginning of the year, bringing the average to $3.71.

“We will be watching to see if gas increases again, and to whether it is at a level that could have an effect on various segments of the market,” Beggs said.