The wholesale vehicle price situation in Canada appears to be nearing a peak, or at least a plateau, though values remain considerably higher than pre-pandemic levels and should stay that way for years to come.

That's according to a report around Canadian Black Book’s Used Vehicle Retention Index for May, which was released Monday and came in at 162.6.

That was steady with April and down 1.5% from March’s record reading (165.0), but a 31.6% year-over-year increase.

It was only the third time in the last 23 months that the CBB index was not at a record high — the other two times being July 2021 and April 2022, CBB said

“Given wider inflationary trends throughout the economy, skyrocketing gas prices, rising interest rates, any relief in prices is a welcome sign,” said James Hancock, CBB’s director of OEM strategy and analytics, in a news release. “That said, our expectation at Canadian Black Book is that wholesale prices will remain high well into 2023.

“We anticipate 2022 to see a plateau for prices, with a gradual decline over the next couple years, however, prices are expected top remain well above pre-pandemic levels into 2026 and possibly beyond,” Hancock said

Looking at CBB’s most recently available weekly wholesale price analysis, values for the week ending May 27 were down 0.01%, compared to a 0.17% decrease the prior week. The average for that week during the 2017-2019 time frame was a dip of 0.07%.

Car segment prices were up 0.09% that week (compared to a 0.12% decline the prior week) and truck/segment prices were off 0.11%, against a 0.22% dip the previous week.

This was the ninth consecutive time car segments fared better than truck segments.

“The Canadian wholesale market has continued to remain stable overall with improvements in sales prices last week compared to the week prior. Supply remains low while demand continues to soften on both sides of the border,” CBB said in the weekly analysis.

“Upstream channels continue to tap supply before it can be made available at physical auctions. Conversion rates were challenged this past week, as rates were mostly under 40% range on most lanes last week, with the few low kilometer, good condition units garnering high levels of bidding activity,” they added. “In general, the quality of vehicles at auction remains somewhat below average as the supply of better-quality vehicles continues to be bought upstream.”