Pricing was down across the board in February, consistent with seasonality in the used truck sector, J.D. Power announced this week in its March 2026 Commercial Truck Guidelines report.
“It is not unusual for February pricing to come in lower than January, as the first major auction month of the year typically includes a large volume of trucks sold,” the company states. “That pattern held again this year, with elevated auction volumes contributing to softer pricing. Fleets continue to offload excess capacity, and repossessions processed late last year cycled into the secondary market during February.”
In the auction market pricing was down almost 8% in February from January, driven by a sharp surge in auction volume, J.D. Power says. Auction volumes were up 189% month over month and 171% year over year in February. Year-to-date auction sales also are up 99%, J.D. Power says.
The company adds rising auction volumes at this time of year track with historic seasonality, but may have been boosted last month by a rise in late-2025 repossessions. And though pricing was down against January, it was up year over year and sits up 2.3% year-to-date against 2025. Auction pricing is up 15.6% against the late-2018 market peak in nominal dollars but now down 10.6% when adjusting for inflation, J.D. Power says.
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In the wholesale space, volumes were most stable in February, down 0.2 trucks per rooftop from January and equal to February 2025. Pricing also was down 13.5% month over month in the wholesale space, though still up 36.5% year over year and 32% year-to-date. The company says wholesale pricing is up 48.6% against the late-2018 market peak in nominal dollars and 14.6% when adjusted for inflation.
Finally, the retail space.
J.D. Power reports sales were up slightly 0.2 trucks over month and 2.0 trucks year over year, good for a 1.6 trucks improvement year-to-date. The rising volumes expectedly pushed pricing down a bit, but not as bad as the auction and wholesale segments.
Retail pricing was off 6.7% from January but only 0.2% from February 2025. Year-to-date pricing is still up 3.6%, J.D. Power states, and up 20.1% in nominal dollars (but down 7.3% in real dollars) from the late-2018 peak.
The company also reports the average truck retailed in February was 57 months old, two months younger than February with 4.4% fewer miles.
Looking forward, J.D. Power notes trucking capacity and freight rates continue to trend positive, and thus far model year 2027 orders are the strongest since model-year 2022. The conflict in Iran is unquestionably a wildcard, but other macroeconomic conditions remain solid.
The company says the used truck market is responding all conditions in a typical fashion. The biggest influence in current used truck pricing might be model type.
“Selling price variation between specific makes and engine specifications within the same model year remains extremely wide, which continues to skew overall averages,” the company says. “As a result, the January-to-February decline in median selling prices was not as notable as the decline observed in mean prices.
“As of this writing, the trucking industry is waiting to see whether the Iran conflict and the resulting increase in oil prices will be resolved in the relative short term or persist as a longer-term issue. The longer the situation continues, the greater the risk of broader economic contraction.”
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