LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

Going into Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer, Black Book used its latest installment of Market Insights to give a well-rounded recap of the rising wholesale price trajectory that’s now lasted four months, with average weekly increases above 1.0% for the past 11 weeks.

Black Book explained these rapidly rising values can be attributed to the basics of supply and demand.

“Ongoing delays from part suppliers, most recently the global chip shortage, are causing significant shortages to new-vehicle supply, which directly impacts the used-supply channels,” analysts said in their report released on Tuesday.

“Balance that against pent-up demand, stimulus, low-interest rates, etc., and we have soaring wholesale values,” analysts added.

Black Book reiterated that this ongoing supply-and-demand scenario is pushing used-car managers into strategies they typically wouldn’t leverage.

And analysts pointed out that consignors are taking advantage of the situation, too.

“Despite the limited inventory on dealer lots, many dealers are finding themselves receiving greater profit margins in the wholesale channel as opposed to their own retail lots,” Black Book said.

“Armed with the knowledge that their available inventory in the pipeline is extremely limited, remarketers are finding that they are able to continue to raise their floors and hold firm on their set values. They plan to accept a no-sale this week with the expectation it will sell the next,” Black Book went on to say.

Now that’ we’ve got the lay of the wholesale land, let’s get into the latest price movements Black Book spotted.

Analysts indicated that overall car values increased 1.17% last week, with six of the nine segments generating price gains exceeding 1%. They said sporty cars posted the largest weekly gain (up 1.61%), followed closely by luxury cars (up 1.49%).

“Compact cars have had a higher growth rate than the overall car segment average for 10 consecutive weeks,” Black Book said. “For the first time since mid-January, prestige luxury cars had a larger weekly increase than the car segment average.”

While the overall truck value gain wasn’t as high last week (up 0.93%) as it was the previous week (up 1.12%), Black Book mentioned all 13 truck segments increased in value, with seven surpassing 1%.

Leading the upward price charge among trucks were sub-compact luxury crossovers (up 1.67%) and sub-compact crossovers (up 1.54%).