LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.—The average price of a used vehicle for model years 2011-2015 depreciated by 0.6% in March, according to Black Book.
Cars overall saw depreciation of 0.3% versus trucks, which saw 0.8% depreciation, the company said. All vehicles are averaging a 12-month depreciation change of 17.9%.
In March, four vehicles including compact cars, sporty cars, compact vans and full size vans, increased in value. Out of those vehicles, compact vans preformed the best, increasing by 2.1% in value. Vehicles in this segment include the Chevrolet City Express, Ford Transit Connect, Mercedes-Benz Metris, Nissan NV and the Ram C/V. Vehicles in this category finished March with an average segment price of $9,813, 2.1% higher than in February ($9,613). However, compact vans have depreciated 20.9% from their year-ago price of $12,413.
One segment, full-size crossover/SUVs, managed to retain their price relatively unchanged. Vehicles in this segment include the Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban, Dodge Durango, Ford Expedition, GMC Yukon and the Nissan Armada. Full-size crossover/SUVs ended last month with an average segment price of $25,016, a 14.9% drop from their price a year ago ($29,398).
Prestige luxury cars had the highest depreciation of all segments, dropping 3.7% in March. Vehicles in this segment include the Audi A8, Porsche Panamera, Jaguar XJ, Lexus LS 460, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and the BMW 7-Series. Vehicles in this category began April with an average segment price of $35,939, a 26.7% decline since last year’s value of $49,000, Black Book said.
"Vehicle retention values remain relatively stable as we move through the spring season," said Anil Goyal, senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics. "Perhaps a mostly mild winter helped generate some sales momentum in early spring, and we’re seeing a lot of typical patterns particularly among car segments, despite much talk of low demand over the past several months.”