Flat week for cars in Canada’s wholesale used-vehicle market

Image courtesy of Canadian Black Book.
In an often volatile market, Canadian wholesale used-car prices were remarkably stable — at least for a week.
Values for the car segments tracked by Canadian Black Book’s weekly Market Insights report fell just 0.04% for the week ending July 5, but what’s more remarkable is how consistently flat they were.
None of the nine segments gained or lost more than 0.07%. The largest dollar value difference from the previous week was $50, which represented a 0.07% drop for prestige luxury cars. The three segments on the positive side for the week — sub-compact cars (up 0.03%), mid-size cars (0.04%) and full-size cars (0.02%) — gained a total of $18.
That followed a week in which cars were down 0.32% and five segments lost more than $100 in value.
Truck/SUV segments were down 0.20% as the overall market declined by 0.13%. The two segments that took the biggest fall the previous week both plummeted again, with full-size crossover/SUVs sinking by $419 (0.97%) after a drop of $299 (0.69%) and full-size luxury crossover/SUVs following a massive $842 loss (1.20%) with a $350 decline (0.50%).
Compact vans (up 0.25%, $55) were the only truck/SUV segment to post a gain.
Auction sale rates continued their sluggish trend, averaging 32.3% with a high of 57.1% and an eye-opening 7.6% low. CBB said wholesale supply remain high. Retail prices again remained stable, with the 14-day moving average listing price at $37,500 for the third consecutive week.
The U.S. market was down 0.25%, a smaller decline than the usual seasonal depreciation rate and a little more than half the previous week’s 0.46% drop. CBB analysts said that was not a big surprise, thanks to the July 4 holiday and the related slowdown in auction activity.