Canadian wholesale used-vehicle values continued falling during the week ending Jan. 24. But the fall was a much gentler one than those of recent weeks.

According to Canadian Black Book’s Market Insights report, wholesale prices dropped 0.28%, well below the previous week’s 0.55% and equal to the pre-COVID average for the same week in 2017-2019.

Unlike the previous week, when all 22 segments lost value and 16 of them plummeted more than $100, three vehicle segments gained last week — full-size cars (up 0.44%, $82), full-size pickups (0.17%, $58) and full-size luxury crossovers/SUVs (0.04%, $28) — and just six were down by $100 or more.

That said, two of them — full-size crossover/SUVs (down 1.33%, $510) and compact vans (1.05%, $187) — sank by more than 1%.

The auction conversion rate backed off slightly from the previous two weeks, falling below 50% to 48.4%, ranking from 33% to 84.4%. Used-vehicle retail inched up slightly to a 14-day moving average listing price of $36,730.

The early spring indicators that surfaced in the U.S. two weeks ago continued last week, as the American market declined just 0.12%, which Black Book said is well below typical levels for this time of year. Analysts said a handful of segments reported value increases, led by newer inventory, with vehicles 2 years old and newer segments down a mere 0.01%.