Canadian Black Book’s retained values index hit an all-time high in November, reaching 108.5 and setting a new recording for two to six year-old vehicles.
The expectation now is that the index will flatten in 2020 and present slight declines across several segments.
“Temperatures have certainly dropped across Canada since last month, however used vehicle values remain warm, not hot but warm,” said Brian Murphy, VP Research & Analytics at Canadian Black Book.
In November, compact and subcompact cars demonstrated the largest gains from the same month a year earlier. The subcompact car category was up 10.4 points, while compact cars jumped 10 points. Full size vans also revealed a large uptick by gaining 8.4 points from the same period in 2018.
“To many this might come as a surprise as recent common wisdom out there would suggest that cars as a whole are slowing,” said CBB. “In reality at the moment, this is not the case from a retained value perspective, at all! Their retained value story has been strong and growing all year long.”
On the downside, minivans represented one of the weakest segments all year and declined 4.8 points in November, year-over-year. Small pickup trucks were also down, by 5.7 points YOY, and the index for luxury cars decreased by 6.8 points YOY and 1.5 points month-over-month.
“This segment has some very strong product offering (think E-Class, 5 Series, A6), yet has been hit hard by the market shift to SUV models. These can be hard sells in a used market where an SUV equivalent would most likely turn faster for a bigger gross,” said CBB.
More to come in the New Year, when CBB releases its December 2019 index results.
