With the impacts of slower new production on the used market, Price Digests analysts have seen pricing and activity fluctuations across the used truck market throughout the summer. Despite lower supply for the high demands across each industry, Daimler’s Q2 report showed 91% increases in their truck and bus sales over Q2 of 2020 with a 38% increase in sales for the first half of 2021 versus H1 2020. While sales are continuing to increase, Freightliner used trucks are showing higher availability indicating more inventory to meet the demand.

While many of the class 7 and 8 commercial truck brands increased in activity during August, Freightliner had the highest resale channel activity during the month overall. For perspective, Freightliner models represented 24% of the resale channel observations in the month of August across the top heavy duty commercial trucks.

It should come as no surprise that the most popular Freightliner models to see on the resale channel have been the Cascadia and M2. When it comes to cab and chassis trucks, M2 106 and 112 availability is increasing. More specifically, M2 models have increased in activity between July and August by 25%. Not only are more becoming available, but average resale prices are beginning to level out dropping 10% between July and August which is a much lower percentage than other Freightliner models. These trucks also retain a high percentage of their original value as the M2 106 won Price Digests’ Highest Retained Value Award in 2021 indicating they are a good buy for future reselling. Depending on upfit body and vocation, the mileage is not consistently increasing as you get to older model years. The average M2 mileage on a 2013 and 2012 is lower than the M2s available in the 2016 model year.

Cascadia activity has more than doubled between July and August 2021. With Cascadias, it is important to differentiate between day cabs and sleeper tractors as demand will be different between categories. Sleeper tractor activity increased more than day cabs which also has had impacts on the average prices between the two truck types. The sleeper tractors have dropped in resale price by 12% month-over-month while the day cabs decreased just over 20% between July and August. The drive behind the smaller average resale price change on the sleepers was increases on the 2020, 2019, and 2018 model years. Truck prices for 2020 and 2019 sleeper tractor Cascadias increased 1.3% and 2.3%, respectively, in August. In comparison, 2020 and 2019 day cab Cascadias decreased 11.9% and 19.2%.

Multiple factors outside of just demand impact these pricing differences. Overall, Cascadias increase in average mileage between 2019 and 2018 before a slight decline on 2014 model years. The fluctuations between model year mileage is influenced by the changes across the day cab tractors. The sleeper tractor Cascadias have consistently increasing mileage as the trucks get older averaging 108,000 miles per year on the road.

Entering the fourth quarter, availability of commercial trucks on the resale channel increasing. There is room for prices to begin dropping down from the much higher average prices seen throughout the year thus far. Keep an eye out for continued leveling out through the end of the year as many sources are indicating we are not fully in the clear yet.

About Price Digests

Since 1911 Price Digests, a division of Informa, has served the vehicle data needs of the insurance, finance, government, and dealer markets through its portfolio of VIN decoding, specifications, and market value data solutions for the commercial truck, passenger vehicle, marine, powersport, and recreational vehicle asset classes. Our data insights help enterprises drive competitive advantage through asset data workflow efficiencies while also playing a pivotal role in decisions surrounding the purchase, valuation, operation, and risk mitigation of assets. Price Digests data is powered by The Truck Blue Book.