CARY, N.C. –
The wholesale vehicle market has reached a positive milestone in June, and this particular one had not occurred in more than three months.
According to the Used Market Update released by J.D. Power on Thursday, there were approximately 110,000 units sold at auction the week ending June 21, meaning each of the first three weeks of June had auction sales north of 100,000 units.
The last time this happened was the run of weeks ending March 1, March 8 and March 15, according to the J.D. Power data.
It also marks three consecutive weeks that post-virus actuals for auction sales volumes have exceed the pre-virus forecast.
The pre-virus forecast for the week ending June 21 was for 101,000 auction sales, meaning the actual amount beat the projection by roughly 9%.
The week ending June 21 also beat the previous week’s actual by 2,000 units.
Auction sales volumes have been on an upward trajectory since the week ending April 5, when they bottomed out at 18,000 units, according to the J.D. Power data.
Aside from a dip one week in late May, they have climbed each week since.
Looking at individual segments, the week ending June 21 showed compact cars midsize cars and large cars with the most auction sales growth, as their upticks were between 5% and 8%, according to J.D. Power. Small cars were down 5% in auction sales volume and midsize pickups were off 8%.
The rest of the mainstream segments had single-digit-percentage gains.
“On the premium side of the market, segments underperformed their mainstream counterparts,” the company said in the analysis. “Midsize and large premium car and SUV sales growth increased by an average of 9%. Remaining segments experienced mild declines for the week.”
Looking at the full year, Cox Automotive is projecting in its CAMIO Flipbook that there will be 16.8 million vehicles wholesaled in 2020, compared to 16.1 million a year ago.
Among the wholesale outflow channels, the company is projecting 10.2 million to be in traditional auctions, compared to 10.3 million last year.
Off-site/digital is expected to climb from 1.0 million to 1.1 million and direct-to-dealer/dealer-to-dealer is projected to come in at 4.9 million, up from 4.8 million.
Commercial direct-to-consumer is expected to remain at 700,000, according to the Cox Automotive data.