While watching depreciation come in at twice the average rate analysts saw during the same week before the pandemic, Black Book also identified three vehicle characteristics that are prompting buyers most as the calendar rolled from July to August.

According to the newest installment of Market Insights released on Tuesday, Black Book reported wholesale values slid by 0.50% last week, which included the last day of July and the first day of August.

For context, analysts noted the price drop was more than double the pre-pandemic seasonal average of 0.24% for the same week in 2017 through 2019.

Black Book also mentioned in the report that “buyer participation became increasingly selective,” as auction conversion eased by 2 percentage points to dip to 54%.

So, what are dealers wanting in the lanes as we hit the dog days of summer? Here’s what Black Book thinks.

“Buyer engagement remained healthy, particularly for retail-ready late-model SUVs, pickups, and crossovers, although sell-through rates varied by auction and inventory mix,” analysts said. “Buyers continued to reserve premium bids for vehicles offering the strongest combination of condition, equipment, and retail appeal.

“EVs and several premium luxury segments remained under pressure, with many low-mileage units selling at average, average–rough, or below clean book values,” Black Book continued. “Overall, the wholesale market remained functional but increasingly selective, with conservative bidding continuing to pressure values across most mainstream segments.”

With overall values for cars declining by 0.32% and overall prices for trucks and SUVs decreasing by 0.56%, Black Book highlighted a few other segment movements, including:

—Prices for sporty cars are “returning to more typical seasonal depreciation.” Over the past two weeks, analysts noticed values declines have exceeded 0.60% each week, marking the segment’s steepest weekly losses since December of last year.

—Mid-size luxury crossover/SUV depreciation continued to accelerate, with values sliding by 0.79% last week after a 0.59% drop during the prior week.

—After four consecutive weeks of price declines averaging 0.60%, minivans showed signs of stabilization last week, with depreciation easing to 0.30%.

Finally, with used-car managers focused on those previously mentioned inventory attributes, Black Book pointed out that its estimated used retail days to turn remains at roughly 34 days.

“As always, our team of analysts are focused on keeping their eyes on the market for developing trends and gathering insights,” Black Book said.