Overall wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix-, mileage-, and seasonally-adjusted basis) improved 0.5% month-over-month in April. This brought the Manheim Used Vehicle Value reading to 124.7, which represented a 1.6% increase from a year ago.

On a year-over-year basis in April, only pickups saw gains greater than the overall market.

Although the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index increased for the first time this year on a month-over-month basis, used-vehicle values have not collapsed the way many analysts have warned of for more than a year due to expected increases in wholesale supplies. And, in fact, what weakness we have seen is probably more a result of excessive new vehicle inventory, not used. At retail, the used vehicle market remains healthy, and dealers have needed only a modest decline in auction pricing to maintain acceptable inventory turn rates.

Franchised dealers have had more than 4 million new units in stock for the last three months. April new vehicle sales volume fell 4.7% year-over-year (albeit with one less selling day), with the industry lagging last year’s record-setting performance on a year-to-date basis by 2.4%. The decline in sales is largely a result of continuing declines in car sales as volumes fell 11% for cars but declined only 0.1% for trucks.