Superstorm Sandy took a chunk out of the market’s used-car supply, and it appears the impact to transaction prices at dealerships has already begun to play out.

CNW Research indicated in its latest Retail Automotive Summary that the average used-car transaction price at a franchised dealer this month is $10,894. This is up from $10,553 last month and $10,654 in November 2011.

As for independent dealers, they are fetching an average of $9,334 for every used car sold, CNW said. This is up from an average transaction price of $9,019 in October, but down slightly from the November 2011 level, when their used cars were selling for $9,452.

What CNW found to be a particularly positive sign for dealers is that they have been able to keep their transaction prices closer to their asking prices. In fact, for both independent and franchised dealers, the transaction-to-asking price ratio has climbed from October.

“Most encouraging, the share of asking price that franchised dealers have been able to get is 94 percent, a solid percentage gain over October, even though still a bit behind year ago,” said CNW president Art Spinella.

“Independent dealers were able to get nearly 93.5 percent of asking price, a marked improvement over the previous six months,” he added.

Wholesale Value Maintain Strength

On the wholesale side of the used-car market, prices were higher than usual during the first two weeks of the month, according to NADA Used Car Guide’s Jonathan Banks.

In fact, wholesale prices were off just 0.1 percent from October, Banks wrote in the Mid-Month Update posted to his Used Car & Truck Blog last week.

Typically, they dip between 2 percent and 3 percent during this time frame. It seems November is continuing what have been stronger-than-usual wholesale price movements over the past few months, according to Banks.

The average monthly price drop during July, August and September was only 2 percent, he said. Then in October, prices dipped 2.3 percent. Typically, values would drop somewhere between 3 percent and 4 percent during this month.

“November appears set to improve upon this trend as wholesale prices have fallen by a barely noticeable 0.1 percent compared to October, which is a significant improvement over the 2- to 3-percent average fall for the month,” Banks said.  

“Prior to Hurricane Sandy, it was expected that the already taunt relationship between used-vehicle supply and demand would see little change in the trend of depreciation outperforming historical levels, but the destruction left by the storm has exacerbated this relationship and there has been a predictable reaction in used prices,” he added.

Breaking it down by segment, AuctionNet prices for compact cars dipped 0.6 percent month-over-month, compact utility prices were off 0.2 percent, midsize utility values were off 0.5 percent and large pickups dipped 1.1 percent.

Large SUV prices fell 1.6 percent, luxury car prices were down 1 percent and luxury utility values fell 0.7 percent.

These all represent more moderate declines for the respective segments, but Banks brought up an interesting point when talking about midsize cars and midsize vans: prices in these categories climbed.

In fact, midsize cars are up 0.7 percent with midsize vans up 0.6 percent.

“The heavy fleet presence of these segments and the fact that price growth has been primarily concentrated in model years 2011 and 2012 suggests that rental companies are looking to the used market to satisfy the temporary transportation needs of consumers whose vehicles were either damaged or destroyed by the storm,” Banks noted.

“As far as the coming weeks are concerned, NADA expects that price movement will deviate little from the present course,” he continued. “Considering the prevailing relationship between used-vehicle supply and demand along with the disruption caused by Sandy, used prices will likely remain flat through November and December instead of progressively softening as is typically the case.”