LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

While wholesale prices seem to be moving at a “normal rate,” Black Book representatives in the lanes this past week noticed dealers didn’t come to auction as much as summertime heat became entrenched from coast to coast.

This week’s Black Book Market Insights report relayed the sentiment from Missouri that indicated, “Consignment and attendance were both below normal at this week’s auction.”

A similar scene unfolded in Arizona as Black Book mentioned, “Attendance was low today but the market seems steady. Also, rental cars did very well today.”

In Tennessee, the story went like this: “The market is still good here, but buyers say sales are down a little compared to previous weeks.”

Up in Washington, Black Book’s lane watcher added, “Prices were down on most units today with pickups still in fair demand.”

And with the last full week of July straight ahead, what Black Book found in Texas might be an indication of what’s going to happen as August approaches.

“The market trend was much better this week, but many are saying they expect more and more no-sales in the upcoming weeks,” the Lone Star State representative said.

Moving along to the data segment of Black Book’s latest report, editors said car and truck segments depreciated at nearly the same percentage this past week. Also, they pointed out that cars saw heavier depreciation at the same time last year, while the opposite was noticed for trucks.

“The used-vehicle values continue to depreciate at a normal rate at this time of the year, with truck segments continuing to perform better than car segments,” said Anil Goyal, Black Book’s senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics.

Volume-weighted, Black Book indicated overall car values decreased 0.39 percent last week. For comparison, last year the overall depreciation rate was 0.43 percent.

The compact car segment checked in with the highest weekly depreciation rate at 0.69 percent. The luxury segment declined 0.52 percent, followed closely by sub-compact and mid-size segments at 0.46 percent.

On the truck side, overall volume-weighted values decreased 0.37 percent last week. A year ago, the overall truck depreciation rate came in at 0.34 percent.

Editors noted the compact luxury and full-size luxury CXU/SUV segments posted the highest weekly depreciation rates at 0.96 percent and 0.92 percent, respectively. Black Book added this movement also was the highest weekly decline this year for these segments.