The Canadian used vehicle wholesale market remains relatively flat—up only 0.09% for the week ending on February 25, according to Canadian Black Book’s latest update. The market average from 2017-2019 for the same week was -0.14%.
The overall car segment (+0.14%) is up for the sixth consecutive week and continues to outperform the overall truck/SUV segment (+0.03%), the latter of which for the first time in six weeks saw prices increase slightly. In the U.S., the overall car and truck segments were down 0.61%, with the volume-weighted car segments down 0.75% compared to -0.82% the prior week.
“The Canadian wholesale market has continued to remain stable overall. Newer vehicles tend to be outperforming vehicles aged three years and older,” said CBB in its report. “Supply remains low while demand continues to weaken on both sides of the border.”
The compact car category experienced the largest price increase for the week (+0.50%), followed by near luxury cars (+0.43%) and sub-compact cars (+0.39%). And two categories saw prices decline for the week: prestige compact cars (-0.66%), and mid-size cars (-0.10%).
For trucks/SUVs, full-size vans managed the largest price increase (+0.66%) for the second straight week, followed by minivans (+0.66%) and compact vans (+0.57%). However, pickup trucks continue to struggle; full-size pickups saw the largest price declines for the second consecutive week (-0.77%), followed by small pickups (-0.47%) and full-size luxury crossovers/SUVs (-0.25%).
On retention, CBB said its Used Vehicle Retention Index finished at another historical high in February, at 163.6 points—up 1.5 points or 0.9% from January 2022.
“Year-over-year, the Index is up 43.5% from 162.1 points in January 2021,” said CBB. “Commercial vans, both full-size and compact vans saw the largest increases. Full-size pickup(s) and small pickups segment saw the largest decline for the month of February.”
In other news, CBB said it anticipates that non-residential capital expenditures and repairs will rise 8.6% to $298.2 billion in 2022. And the Canadian dollar increased slightly against the USD and finished the week off at $0.79.