Lane watch: Fourth of July week moves ‘not entirely unexpected’

Charts courtesy of Black Book.
Perhaps some dealers didn’t rest much last week, which included the Fourth of July.
With the holiday in mind, Black Book experts weren’t surprised when they assembled the newest wholesale data for their latest installment of Market Insights. Black Book reported overall wholesale values dipped by 0.25%, but last week’s auction conversion rate ticked up to 58%.
“We hope everyone had an opportunity to relax and spend quality time with loved ones during the 4th of July holiday last week,” Black Book said in the report. “With the holiday falling on Friday, it was a shorter work week, and all auction houses were closed. While the car and truck segments remained relatively stable, all reporting categories saw declines.
Analysts continued by saying, “The market experienced a decline last week, which was smaller than the usual seasonal depreciation rate. Given last week’s holiday and the slowdown in auction activity, this outcome is not entirely unexpected.
“However, the team will closely monitor this week’s performance to determine if the declines, which have been averaging around half a percent per week throughout June, have stabilized for July,” Black Book went on to say.
Looking at specific segments, sub-compact luxury crossovers caught analysts’ attention since they experienced the largest price decrease last week, sliding by 0.60%
As previously mentioned, Black Book is watching depreciation in the near luxury car segment, which dropped by 0.31% last week. Fueling that movement is Tesla Model 3, as analysts indicated nearly all model years within the 2- to 8-year-old range experienced value declines of at least 1%.
Black Book rounded out its update by noting its estimated used retail days to turn keeps climbing like the thermometer, as it’s now at roughly 39 days.
“As always, our team of analysts are focused on the keeping their eyes on the market for developing trends and gathering insight,” Black Book said.