LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

As dealers looked to accelerate sales to close July, Black Book noticed vehicle depreciation moved in a similar way to finish the month.

The latest Black Book Market Insights report indicated most vehicle segments increased in depreciation during late July. Out of all car and truck segments, editors determined full-size pickups retained their value the best, only decreasing in value by 0.06 percent.

“Car values dropped sharply in the last week of July. It was the highest depreciation in car segments in 20 weeks,” said Anil Goyal, senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics at Black Book.

Editors offered more details after looking at the volume-weighted data where they found that overall car segment values decreased by 0.54 percent last week. That figure is higher than the average weekly decrease of 0.30 percent in values spotted during the previous four weeks.

Black Book reported the midsize car, sporty car, full-size car and prestige luxury car segments declined the most — each one by about 0.65 percent.

Reviewing volume-weighted information, editors discovered overall truck segment values (including pickups, SUVs and vans) softened by 0.32 percent last week, higher than the average weekly decrease of 0.15 percent in values registered during the previous four weeks.

Editors added small pickup and compact crossover/SUV values declined the most among truck segments by 0.64 percent and 0.54 percent, respectively.

Turning next to cover what lane observers relayed back to Black Book headquarters, one of the highlights likely stemmed from DAA Northwest’s Rock & Roll Sale.

While not mentioning the annual event by name, the Black Book representative from Washington reported, “I attended a huge event sale that had over 5,000 vehicles consigned over two consecutive days with a concert sandwiched in between. They sold around 70 percent of the vehicles and an average sale price of $18,000, both of which were amazing numbers.”

Elsewhere around the country, some auction reports weren’t quite as rosy, beginning in Tennessee.

“Not much speculating happening here as a lot of dealers are buying only the vehicles that they have retail orders for,” Black Book’s representative in the Volunteer State said.

Up in Michigan, it still might be summertime, but, “Dealers are already preparing for fall as the four wheel drive trucks are receiving most of the attention.”

Down in Florida, the hammer didn’t fall as much as it sometimes does. Black Book’s personnel noticed, “It was a tough auction here because the corporate reps were holding tight on their floor prices. The result was a lot of no-sales.”

And finally from Pennsylvania, the action was a bit busier, at least in one part of the facility.

“I watched a dealer lane sell almost everything that came through with most fetching good values. In-lane attendance was sparse, but there were consistently around 115 online buyers for the entire run in that particular lane,” Black Book’s observer said.