2024 Wrapped up on Solid Footing
JANUARY 2025 COMMERCIAL VEHICLE MARKET UPDATE
SUMMARY
Auction volume in December was uncharacteristically weak, but pricing ticked up. Sleeper tractors sold through retail channels depreciated moderately, while daycabs moved slightly upward.
CLASS 8 AUCTION UPDATE
December is typically one of the highest-volume auction months of the year due to inventory adjustments and mining of tax incentives. This past December was an anomaly, returning the lowest volume of any month in 2024. Fortunately, pricing ticked generally upward, although low volume resulted in month-over-month swings in the averages that were not necessarily representative of actual market movement.
Looking at late-model sleeper tractors, average pricing for our benchmark truck in December was:
- Model year 2021: $47,002; $1,073 (2.3%) higher than November
- Model year 2020: $41,391; $4,570 (12.4%) higher than November
- Model year 2019: $27,250; $2,192 (7.4%) lower than November
- Model year 2018: $20,286; $1,790 (8.1%) lower than November
In December, selling prices for four- to six-year-old sleepers were 3.1% higher than November. Pricing is currently 2.4% lower than the strong pre-pandemic period of 2018 in nominal figures (22% lower if adjusted for inflation), but 53% higher than the last market nadir in late 2019 (22% higher if adjusted for inflation). Stable pricing since the second quarter combined with December’s uptick sent our monthly depreciation average for calendar-year 2024 down to an almost nonexistent 0.8%.
