McLEAN, Va. -

The adjustments in trade-in values for cars and trucks in September’s Official Used Car Guide were fairly typical to recent editions, according to the latest Guidelines report from NADA Used Car Guide.

However, despite the value decreases being “predominantly mild overall,” a few segments were found to have had a steeper downhill slide. One was the subcompact car class, whose trade-in values were off 2.8 percent.

Comparatively, overall car trade-in values were down 1.4 percent, the report indicated, with truck trade-in values off 1.3 percent.

Other segments seeing more significant reductions were midsize vans and large cars.

“Reflecting the expectation of additional off-rental volume hitting the market, trade-in values for midsize vans and large cars, two segments with significant rental exposure, were reduced by 2.7 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively,” NADA Used Car Guide’s Jonathan Banks said in the report.

Meanwhile, trade-in values for large pickups were downwardly adjusted an average of only 0.2 percent, a trend that has been occurring for quite some time.

In fact, Banks pointed out that certain late-model Dodge Ram and Ford F150 models saw their trade-in values go up.

In a similar piece of analysis, Juan Flores, the director of operations for the Trade-in Marketplace at AutoTrader.com, talked with Auto Remarketing last month about full-size trucks and their expected growth in TIM instant-cash offer amounts.

“The full-size truck segment remains in strong demand and is expected to appreciate,” Flores said last month.

“The OEMs did a good job of retailing excess inventory earlier in the year, which eliminated market softness for used trucks,” he continued. “In our opinion, this segment will remain strong throughout the remainder of the year.”

EV Trade-in Values

Turning back to NADA Used Car Guide, the Guidelines report also delved into to the electric vehicle market. Banks indicated that the Nissan Leaf had another “mild” adjustment, as trade-in values for the 2011 model-year were down by 1.5 percent on average, which was “1 to 2 points better than average monthly declines recorded for the better part of the year.”

There was no change in the 2012 model-year class of the Leaf.

 “Conversely, MY 2011-12 trade-in values for the Chevy Volt were adjusted down by steeper averages of 2.3 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, while the 5.4-percent reduction of Ford’s 2012 Focus EV trade-in value was even more acute,” Banks reported.

 

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.