Used Class 8 same dealer sales volumes improved 4 percent month over month in January, but longer-term sales were down 1 percent compared with January 2019, according to the latest release of the State of the Industry: U.S. Classes 3-8 Used Trucks, published by ACT Research.
The report also indicates used Class 8 average price started the new year up 7 percent month over month, with average miles dropping 4 percent sequentially and average age down 2 percent, compared with the last month of 2019. Longer term, average price, miles and age were all below January 2019, shedding 11 percent, 1 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
“Dealers are reporting that there are more used trucks available and prices are well below late 2018 and early 2019 levels, which has scared many people in trucking,” says Steve Tam, ACT vice president.
“Many dealers wrote down the values of their used trucks in late 2019 and early 2020, taking losses in late 2019 to properly position dealers for 2020,” Tam says. “The bad news is some large losses had to be taken; the good news is there are some used truck bargains available for savvy buyers. Some truckers and dealers are in for rocky times if they have not adjusted their expectations for values on their trades and truck inventory.”
The report from ACT provides data on the average selling price, miles and age based on a sample of industry data. In addition, the report provides the average selling price for top-selling Class 8 models for each of the major truck OEMs.
