The latest numbers from Black Book (BB) seem to confirm that the U.S. auto market has peaked.BB just launched its brand new BB Used Vehicle Retention Index (UVRI), which indicates that used car prices declined by 6.0 percent in 2016. So far in 2017, that trend seems to have continued.The latest numbers from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) indicate used car prices fell another 7.2 percent year-over-year in February.According to Height Securities analyst Edwin Groshans, declining auto prices are bad news for subprime auto lenders.“We expect off-lease volumes to result in above average annual depreciation in 2017 and 2018,” Groshans explains. “The combination of lower used car auction prices and weakening credit quality will manifest in the operations of auto finance companies with subprime lending concentrations.”via