Wholesale used vehicle prices (on a mix-, mileage-, and seasonally adjusted basis) increased 5.74% comparing the first 15 days of May to the month of April, according to data published by Manheim today.

This brought the mid-month Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index to 133.0, a 4.8% decrease from May 2019.

Manheim Market Report (MMR) prices improved over the last two weeks, resulting in a 2.1% cumulative increase in the first two weeks of May on the Three-Year-Old Index. Over the first 15 days of May, MMR Retention, which is the average difference in price relative to current MMR, was above 100% for all but one day and averaged above 101%. 

The MMR Retention trend reflected that vehicles were selling above current MMR values and was a clear reversal of what happened in late March and April.

On a year-over-year basis, all major market segments saw seasonally adjusted price declines in the first 15 days of May. Luxury cars outperformed the overall market, while most other major segments underperformed the overall market.

Meanwhile, new and used retail vehicle sales are showing substantial improvement: 

Cox Automotive’s DealerTrack transaction volumes show new retail vehicle sales down 31% year-over-year in the seven-day period ending Thursday, May 14. However, this was an improvement from the 71% year-over-year decline in the final week of March. 

Used retail vehicle sales were down 6% year-over-year on Thursday, which was an improvement from the 67% year-over-year decline at the end of March.

As used retail sales have started to recover, both retail and wholesale supply are coming down. Retail supply peaked in early April and was down below normal as of May 15. Wholesale supply has also come down dramatically but remained about twice the normal level as of May 15.

The average price for rental risk units sold at auction in the first 15 days of May was down 8% year-over-year. Rental risk prices were up 4% compared to April. Average mileage for rental risk units in May (at 48,300 miles) was up 7% compared to a year ago and down 6% month-over-month.