Black Book: Mid-Size Cars See No Depreciation in February

The vehicle information firm reported that all segments reviewed showed less than 2.7% depreciation except for full-size pickups.

by Staff

March 8, 2016

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — According to Black Book data, the average price of a used vehicle for model years 2010-2014 declined 1.1% during February, with cars declining 1.1% and trucks falling 1.2%.

Full-size pickups led all vehicle segments with the highest depreciation for the month at 2.7%. Vehicles in this segment include Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram 1500, Ford F150, the Nissan Titan and the Toyota Tundra. Vehicles in this segment entered March with an average segment price of $22,502, a 6.3% drop from a year ago ($24,013).

Nineteen different car segments saw less than 2% depreciation last month. The three segments with the lowest depreciation were full-Size cars (0.3%), compact crossover/CUV (0.1%) and mid-size cars (0.0%). Vehicles in the full-size car segment, including the Hyundai Azera, Mercury Grand Marquis, Toyota Avalon, Nissan Maxima and the Chevrolet Impala, exited the month with an average price of $12,674, a 16.3% decrease from a year ago. Vehicles in the Compact Crossover/CUV segment, including the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Jeep Cherokee and the Nissan Rouge, ended the month with an average segment price of $12,978, a 14.6% decrease from last year.

Mid-size cars led all segments with zero depreciation. Vehicles in this segment, including the Kia Optima, Ford Taurus, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and the Volkswagen Passat, finished February with an average segment price of $9,595, a 18.8% decrease from a year ago ($11,813).

“Clearly the car segments have begun to pick up momentum as we inch closer to spring, especially mid-size cars and full-size cars,” said Anil Goyal, senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics for Black Book. “As we reach the pinnacle of spring, it will be interesting to see if cars perform similarly to last year or if they experience less retention during the tax season.”

Topics:vehicle depreciation Black Book Digital Showroom F&I Auto Finance