MARKHAM, Ontario -

The Canadian Black Book Used Vehicle Retention Index was at a record high in December, beating the prior all-time high — set just a month earlier — by 0.8 points, and eclipsing the prior-figure figure by 3.1 points.

That’s according to the latest Canadian Auto Market update released Tuesday by Canadian Black Book, which indicated its Used Retention Index (which is seasonally adjusted) came in at 111.5 for December.

This year has started with some price slowdown, but take that with a grain of salt.

Car segments had a weekly raw adjustment (not seasonally adjusted) of 0.67% last week, with truck segments down 0.51%. The latter was the largest drop-off since mid-May. 

“As noted in recent weeks, our weekly market adjusted values have been trending downwards, which has been the case for a number of months,” CBB said in the report. “However, when seasonality is considered in the analysis, as it is in our Used Vehicle Retention Index, the retained values for 2- to 6-year-old vehicles have been trending upwards.

“Another way to think about this is to consider that values have not declined by as much as they normally would at this time of year; however, trends are approaching more normal levels this week.”

CBB would also point out that the opening weeks of a year, or even January itself, are necessarily sign of what’s in store for the rest of the year.

“Canadian Black Book does however continue to expect slow price declines, in the first quarter,” the company said.

It expects that the dip will be “milder” than typical seasonal depreciation, before an extended recovery and stability, “depending on the general state of the economy and demand for vehicles” CBB said.

“It is our expectation that the car segments will continue to lag behind in value retention trends, as compared to the truck segments, which is purely a function of market preference,” the company added.