![]() ![]() In an exclusive interview, Oliver Hoffmann, head of technical development for Audi, said the new rules “will have a huge impact on our strategy here” in North America. Automotive News reports that Audi is considering American assembly to qualify for electric vehicle tax credits. The Inflation Reduction Act’s updated EV tax credit program strikes again. Audi Considers Its First American Assembly Plant Photo credit: Audi Barring any crisis, it seems that depreciation is well and truly back. At the same time, if you’re looking to dump a vehicle, now might be the best time to do it. While it’ll take a long time for used car values to return to anything resembling normal, it’s encouraging for buyers to see a steady trot back down the mountain. SAAR stands for seasonally adjusted annualized rate, or roughly the number of cars expected to be sold in a calendar year. The September SAAR came in at 13.5 million, a 9.6% increase from last year’s 12.3 million and up 2.9% from August’s 13.1 million pace. By volume, September new-vehicle sales were down 1.0% from August. September’s total new-light-vehicle sales were up 9.5% year over year, with the same number of selling days as September 2021. According to Manheim, some of this slackening of the used car market can likely be attributed to stronger year-over-year new vehicle sales. ![]() As of the end of September, the index sits at 204.5, down from 210.8 in August and just slightly down from 204.8 last September. While the index remained steadily between 135.4 and 139.6 for the first few months of 2020, it shot up like a firework starting in June of 2020, hitting peak silliness in January by topping out at 236.3. The index doesn’t translate perfectly to retail prices, but it’s a great indicator of overall trends in the used car marketplace due to the sheer number of car sold through wholesale auctions. To cook up the used Vehicle Value Index, Manheim takes all the cars it puts through auction, finds mean transaction prices, eliminates outliers, then adjusts for mileage, season, and vehicle mix to come up with a single figure meant to represent overall used vehicle value. The remaining five segments (vans, SUVs, midsize, luxury, and sports cars) lost between 3.1% and 5.2%. Pickups and compact cars declined the least, at 1.4% and 2.6%, respectively. Compared to August, all eight major segments’ performances were down. The remaining five segments’ prices were well below the industry, with midsize cars only minimally lower. Compact cars had the largest increase, at 5.9%, followed by vans and pickups, both of which increased by 0.8%. Only three of eight major market segments saw seasonally adjusted prices that were higher year over year in September. However, not all types of cars saw a year-over-year decline in value. A lower conversion rate means that buyers are more readily walking on used cars, often due to factors like better options in the marketplace. Sales conversion rate is a fairly simple figure obtained by dividing sales by number of potential customers. The lower conversion rate indicated that the month saw buyers with more bargaining power for the time of year. For example, the sales conversion rate averaged 52.1% in September 2019. The average daily sales conversion rate decreased slightly to 49.2%, which was below normal for the time of year. Over the month of September, daily MMR Retention, which is the average difference in price relative to current MMR, averaged 98.4%, meaning market prices were below MMR values. Sure enough, the slide continues through September, with seasonally-adjusted average used car wholesale values declining three percent month-over-month and one tenth of a percent year-over-year, enough for Manheim to call it a “large decline.” From the company’s report referencing its MMR values, which are its expected vehicle values (think of it a bit like Kelley Blue Book for wholesale units): It’s early in a new month, which means it’s time to check the Manheim used car wholesale value index to see if used car values are dropping. Used Car Wholesale Values Continue Slow Decline Photo credit: “Used car dealer in Miami” by ryantxr is marked with CC BY 2.0. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. ![]() All this and more in today’s issue of The Morning Dump. Used car values kept dropping through September, Audi considers building cars in America, Renault and Nissan might shuffle some equity. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |