Black Book senior vice president and chief data science officer Alex Yurchenko told Auto Remarketing on Tuesday afternoon that last week’s wholesale value decline was the largest for a single week in at least 10 years.

Black Book shared through its newest installment of Market Insights that wholesale prices decreased 1.45% during the week that closed on Saturday with the estimated average weekly sales rate improving to 50%.

“There was more stability by the end of the week,” Yurchenko added in the message to Auto Remarketing. “We were / are expecting larger than the seasonal declines in the second half of 2023.”

At least here in the dog days of August, Black Book’s prognostications are accurate.

On a volume-weighted basis, Black Book determined overall car segment values decreased 1.35% last week, almost the exact same drop registered a week earlier when those prices slid 1.36%.

Prices for cars ages 0 to 2 years old softened slightly less, with Black Book pegging the drop at 0.97%. Values for cars 8 to 16 years old declined a bit more than the overall car reading, as analysts pinpointed it at 1.46%.

All nine car segments sustained value declines last week, as Black Book noticed five decreased by more than 1%.

Compact cars suffered another notable value decrease, sliding by 2.35%. Black Book noted the previous week’s value drop for compact cars was 2.12%.

If you’re looking for something “normal” within the Black Book car rundown, analysts pointed to premium sporty cars, which declined in value by 0.33%. Black Book called it “normal depreciation for this time of year.”

Meanwhile, trucks also showed how active the wholesale market was last week from a value perspective, since overall truck segment prices decreased 1.49% on a volume-weighted basis. That topped the previous week’s decline of 0.98%.

Fueling that overall truck depreciation were units ages 8 to 16 years old. Black Book noticed values for those specific units plummeted 1.42% last week compared to only 0.55% during the previous week.

Analysts added that trucks 0 to 2 years old declined 1.25% last week.

Black Book said prices within all 13 truck segments declined last week, and seven of segments softened by more than 1%.

Analysts pointed out that prices for full-size trucks dropped 2.66% last week, larger than any of the declines during the early days of the pandemic.

“In the retail market, the incentives are picking up, particularly on the Ram 1500s, and that is putting pressure on the used market,” Black Book said in the report.

What might be ahead the car business marches toward Labor Day weekend?

“For the second week in a row, the market had steep declines in wholesale values,” Black Book said. “This week, full-size trucks and compact cars had the largest declines of all the segments. With that said, we did see an increase in total auction conversion rates this week, showing that demand is there for vehicles priced right. Sellers were willing to lower their floors in order to move more inventory.

Analysts then said, “But the question now is, are floors low enough now, or will the declines continue next week?”

Here’s one possible answer.

“Wholesale price corrections accelerated this week, with remarketers dropping floor prices in order to move vehicles faster,” Black Book said. “Increasing new inventory combined with increasing incentives is pushing the wholesale prices down in anticipation of used retail price declines in the near future.

“As always, the Black Book team of analysts will keep their eyes on the market, watching for developing trends and insights.”