LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.—April was a good month for used vehicle value retention—but don’t expect the favorable results to continue, Black Book reports.
The average price of a used vehicle for model years 2010-2014 depreciated by just 0.1% during April, signaling what Black Book said is usually the last strong month of the spring season.
At the close of 2015, 12-month truck depreciation was just 9.2% compared with 18.2% for cars. However, the last twelve-months of results show depreciation rising to 14.3% for trucks and 20.6% for cars.
“More noteworthy, the 12-month annual depreciation shows the gap between cars and trucks narrowing. Some truck segments such as full-size crossover/SUV, full-size pickup and small pickup segments continue to show the lowest depreciation across the segments,” Black Book said.
Prestige Luxury Cars saw the largest segment depreciation during April at 2.2%. Vehicles in this segment finished the month with an average price of $43,616, a -18.9% change from year-ago levels ($35,389).
In a sign of the spring season, full-size cars saw the strongest retention during April at +1.3%. Vehicles in this segment finished the month with an average price of $15,552, a -16.9% change from year-ago levels ($12,930).
Eight vehicle segments, including full-size cars, saw value increases during the month. Those vehicle segments were the small pickup trucks, mid-size cars, full-size crossovers, mid-sized crossovers, sporty cars, sub-compact crossovers, and the compact crossovers.
“Almost a third of all vehicle segments saw an increase in value this month but we expect this volume of segment retention to subside moving through the remainder of the year.” said Anil Goyal, vice president of automotive valuation and analytics. “As the supply levels for all used vehicles grow, we can expect to see a continued increased in overall depreciation moving forward.”