Vehicle Market Report: August 2023

Following three months of rapidly decreasing vehicle wholesale prices, the first week of August witnessed the most significant weekly price plummet in the overall market since last October, registering a 1.10% decline.

This decline impacted all segments and vehicle ages, albeit older and more affordable models experienced relatively less severe drops than the rest of the market.

Retail asking prices are also gradually softening, albeit at a considerably slower pace, signifying that the market is currently grappling with the challenge of establishing a new "normal" for pricing in wholesale and retail sectors.

While in mid-August, the wholesale market sustained declines for the third consecutive week.

It saw price reductions of over 2% in certain mainstream segments. Conversely, no substantial drop has been observed in listed retail prices for used items.

As for the last week of August, the overall depreciation rate dropped below 1% for the first time this month.

Some dealers are now strategizing for the possibility of a UAW strike, which is motivating them to actively participate in auctions to secure inventory as a precautionary measure, according to Black Book experts.

Truck Wholesale Prices

Entering August, the Truck segment experienced a volume-weighted depreciation of -0.98%, marking an increase in depreciation compared to the previous week's -0.41% drop.

Among different age categories, 0-to-2-year-old models reported a faster 0.97% decline, while their older counterparts aged 8-to-16 years depreciated at a slower rate of 0.55%.

All 13 Truck segments saw decreases in their prices. In the Full-Size Crossover segment, there was a significant depreciation of 2.25%, notably higher than the 0.73% decline observed in older 8-to-16-year-old Full-Size Crossovers.

Additionally, the Small Pickup segment also faced a substantial decline last week, down by 1.64%, which stood in contrast to the preceding six weeks, during which the average weekly depreciation rate was 0.37%.

As for the last week of August, the Truck segment exhibited a volume-weighted depreciation of 0.87%, which marked a notable improvement compared to the prior week's more substantial depreciation of -1.43%.

Within this segment, 0-to-2-year-old models saw a decrease of 0.73%, while 8-to-16-year-old vehicles experienced a slightly higher depreciation rate of 0.95%.

Again, all 13 Truck segments reported declines, with five of them witnessing drops exceeding 1%.

The Full-Size Crossover/SUV category had the most significant decline, with a 1.49% drop in August’s last week, maintaining an average weekly decline rate of 1.50% over the past four weeks.

Full-Size Pickups experienced a couple of weeks of substantial declines, primarily driven by decreases in the 1500 series trucks, but the rate of decline slowed down last week to 0.57%.

Compact and Full-Size Vans continue to exhibit the lowest depreciation rates, declining by 0.39% and 0.46% in the previous week.