Vehicle Market Report: December 2023

Entering December, wholesale vehicle prices witnessed a persistent trend of notable weekly downturns as the market intensified its decline after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Despite a robust turnout at auctions, abundant inventory, and high conversion rates, sellers are currently adjusting their reserve prices.

This adjustment challenges the market as it strives to define a new baseline.

Throughout December, the market's rollercoaster ride persists, but there were indications of a slowdown in declines, with all segments experiencing depreciation of less than 2% for the first time since the last week of October.

Finally, the year concluded with depreciation settling back to a level that resembled a more "normal" state, as the overall market declined by 0.68%.

 This figure is in comparison to the pre-COVID average weekly depreciation of 0.57% for the same week, according to Black Book.

Wholesale Truck Market

In early December, the overall Truck segment, calculated on a volume-weighted basis, experienced a decrease of 1.64%, showing a slight downturn compared to the 1.35% depreciation observed in the previous week.

Among specific age categories, 0-to-2-year-old models declined by an average of 1.48%, while 8-to-16-year-olds decreased by an average of 1.51%.

All 13 Truck segments reported declines last week, with four showing decreases greater than 2%.

As for the last week of December, the overall Truck segment, calculated on a volume-weighted basis, experienced a decrease of 0.80%, showing a slight downturn compared to the 0.78% depreciation observed in the previous week.

Among specific age categories, 0-to-2-year-old models declined by an average of 0.73%, while 8-to-16-year-olds decreased by 0.74%.

All 13 Truck segments reported declines last week, with only four showing decreases exceeding 1%.

The Small Pickup segment had the most substantial decline at -1.91%, marking the largest single-week depreciation for the segment since May 2020.