Canadian Book Back has released its latest COVID-19 Automotive Market Update report.

Some key takeaways have been the fact that in April the industry saw the largest single monthly drop in wholesale prices since Canadian Black Book’s retention index was created in 2005.

Adjusted for seasonality, the index dropped an additional 3.20 points in May, very close to April’s record decline of 3.58.

Since February, the index has fallen by 7.8 points for two-to-six-year-old vehicles as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the market.

The decrease was driven by the collapse in consumer confidence, along with high levels of uncertainty about the current vehicle market due to the pandemic.

Throughout the month of May, Canadian Black Book noted that wholesale prices have continued to decline.

Although used and new car retailers nationally are now able to operate with fewer restrictions than previous months, volumes remain down and future demand uncertain.

Auctions are limited to online-only operations; however, auction sales volume are slowly returning to pre-COVID-19 levels with bidder participation steadily growing week over week.

Canadian Auto Journal will be delving further into the findings of this report as well as some other emerging trends via an exclusive interview with Brian Murphy, Vice President, Research & Analytics at Canadian Black Book.

**Stay tuned, a more detailed article will follow shortly**