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2008 Price Trend: All segments show decrease in price

Chart 1 reveals the sales price trends by vehicle segment - cars, SUVs, minivans, and trucks - with January 2008 sales prices representing the baseline for comparison. The data indicates:

• Car pricing has been stable during the first 7 months of 2008 then showed some increase in August and September but started a downward trend in the fourth quarter. Overall, car pricing is down 10 percentage points since January 2008.
• Truck pricing has decreased steadily throughout 2008 with July having the lowest percentage point, ending the year 12 percentage points lower than the baseline.
• SUV pricing has been relatively stable during the first 5 months of 2008. November had the lowest pricing but started to climb in December. Overall SUV pricing dropped 14 percentage points since January.
• The minivan segment experienced the most dramatic reduction in pricing. Minivan pricing has been relatively stable during the first 4 months but has been slowly decreasing since May. Similar to SUVs, November experienced the lowest pricing but started to climb in December. Overall, minivan segment prices are down 19 percentage points since January.

2008 Dealer Interest by Segment: Renewed interest in trucks and SUV; cars and minivans losing their appeal

Chart 2 indicates dealer interest for each vehicle segment as indicated by the number of page views for vehicles listed on OPENLANE. Once again, January 2008 represents the baseline for comparison. The data shows:

• Dealer interest in the SUV segment declined by a total of 12 percentage points at its lowest in June then started to climb starting in July. Overall, the SUV segment is up 13 percentage points since January.
• The truck segment experienced the lowest point in May with a total decline of 19 percentage points then interest began to increase starting in June. Overall, dealer interest in trucks increased by 6 percentage points versus the January baseline.
• Dealer interest in the car segment is opposite to SUVs and trucks. Interest was up 14 percentage points in May but started to decrease the following month. The car segment is now 9 percentage points lower than the January baseline.
• Minivans experience the most dramatic drop of dealer interest with a 27 percentage point decrease at its lowest point in August. Dealer interest has started to go up but still has an overall drop of 11 percentage points since January.

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OPENLANE is dedicated to exploring new initiatives and opportunities to help grow our consignor programs. OPENLANE powers Honda Financial Services' private auction and recently launched competitive bidding on all units resulting in more availability of Honda and Acura vehicles to 30,000 dealers nationwide. HFS is also taking advantage of the dynamic pricing program which gives them the flexibility to reevaluate pricing and reviews all bids at the close of each auction. These new programs resulted in record-breaking sales increases of HFS vehicles on OPENLANE and selling percentages have nearly doubled. In spite of challenging times in the market today, Honda Financial Services and other consignors are making significant gains by being proactive in reacting to the current marketplace.

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OPENLANE
Phone: 866-969-0321
Fax: 480-393-2960
Email: Sales-USInstitutional@openlane.com

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