Vehicle Market Report: April 2023

April saw a continuous increase in wholesale vehicle prices throughout the month.

Although we entered April with another increase, the rate of gain slowed down slightly to +0.43%, compared with the prior week’s 0.51%  increase. This was a larger gain than what experts at Black Book predicted.

During mid-April, wholesale prices were up overall 0.27% from early April.

And the last week of April marked 15 consecutive weeks that prices have increased. But the rate of increase is slowing. Experts see signs of market softening in seven of the twenty-two segments tracked segments. Some of the segments that declined in the last week of April are compact luxury crossovers and sub-compact crossovers.

As for wholesale auction prices, the auction conversion rates remained stable in April. But the experts were still getting mixed messages on lane outcomes, depending on the remarketer’s strategy and location.

Time will soon tell if the spring surge will come to an end or if we will trend into clear rate movement.

Truck Wholesale Prices

The overall truck wholesale price segment increased 0.46% in the first week of April. And 11 of the 13 truck segments reported increases.

The two segments that declined were compact van (-0.24%) and full-size van (-0.10%), but the rate of depreciation was slowing down.

As for the last week of April, the overall truck segment increased 0.17%, compared with the prior week’s 0.22% increase.