LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -

Autumn 2021 is proving to be completely atypical, with wholesale values rising for the ninth week in a row, as Black Book pointed out on Tuesday. 

But obviously, dealerships still need used vehicles to retail, so along with the latest pricing information, Black Book also touched on where used-car managers might be able to find the vehicles they need.

First, let’s recap the wholesale value moves for the week that ended Saturday, part of the analysis included in Black Book’s newest Market Insights.

Overall, analysts said wholesale prices jumped another 0.66%, with all 22 vehicle segments moving higher.

“The trend of increasing values continued for a ninth consecutive week, with all segments reporting gains this past week,” Black Book said in the newest report.

“The fourth quarter is traditionally when the market experiences most of the yearly depreciation, but after just one month in the quarter, values are reporting appreciation of more than 3.0%,” analysts continued.

On a volume-weighted basis, Black Book said, overall car segment prices rose 0.67% last week. During the previous week, analysts mentioned that cars values increased by 0.87%.

Black Book pointed out that prices midsize cars increased for an 11th week in a row, posting an average weekly increase of 0.76%. Last week’s increase for midsize cars was 1.08%, as four of the last five weeks of these vehicles generated value increases of more than 1%.

And analysts shared that movements connected to subcompact cars illustrate just how unusual this fall is. Values for subcompact cars increased 0.62% last week. During the same week in 2019, this segment sustained a price decline of 1.03%, according to Black Book data.

Meanwhile, Black Book’s volume-weighted information showed all 13 truck segments reported price gains last week, producing an overall value gain of 0.66%.

Analysts said compact crossovers posted the largest segment increase last week, rising by 1.46%.

Three other truck segments had value increases of more than 1% a week ago, including subcompact crossovers (up 1.13%), subcompact luxury crossovers (up 1.32%) and compact luxury crossovers (up 1.03%).

So what should dealerships do now that November has arrived? Here is what Black Book observed.

“Activity in the auction lanes continues to be strong, particularly on later-model-year/low-mileage inventory,” analysts said. “Not only are the big franchise and independent buyers active, but rental companies have been actively competing in attempts to seek out inventory to replace their aging units, as new inventory continues to be in short supply.

“While manufacturer auction lanes have seemed to dwindle over the last few months, with fewer lease returns and repossessions, dealer lanes have thrived with consistently high volume across the country,” analysts went on to say.