Vehicle values dropped for all segments except snowmobiles in December 2019. However, it’s unclear what trends will gain steam in 2020 as values experience larger ups and downs, according to a report Black Book provided to Powersports Finance.
Vehicle values have been experiencing “fairly large” drops since October 2019, which is reminiscent of a previous trend in which values saw large swings in both directions, Senior Analyst Scott Yarbrough wrote in the report.
“This is one of the biggest changes in the powersports market that we have seen over the past decade,” Yarbrough said. “At the start of the 2010s, monthly changes in the market as the seasons progressed were much larger than at the end of the decade. We have referred to this as a ‘flattening’ of the market.”
Prices have been experiencing larger dips in the past three months, yet Yarbrough was unsure whether the pattern would develop into a long-term trend. However, marketshare gains for UTVs, coupled with the declining interest in big V-Twin cruisers, are trends that “appear to be gaining steam as we head into the 2020s,” he added.
Snowmobiles saw 1% growth in value month over month in December, while all other segments saw price drops. Scooters experienced the largest decline, dipping 4% month over month. Off-road bikes and UTVs dropped 3% month over month. However, as UTV production meets consumer demand, the increased marketshare from new UTVs will likely lead to lower pricing in the used market, Yarbrough told PSF.
Metric cruisers and domestic V-Twin cruisers, which have experienced “softening” in the market, hovered around a 2% decrease in value, Yarbrough said.
