Older units are appreciating faster than newer ones, and compact cars are up 12.3% since December.
That is not a quirk. Affordability is the throughline running under everything else in this market.
What the buyer is actually solving for
When payment is the constraint rather than the car, demand moves down the price ladder and stays there. The customer is not shopping a segment, he is shopping a number, and the metal that clears that number is older and smaller than it was three years ago.
Which puts dealers in an awkward spot, because the units that are appreciating are the ones with the least front gross in absolute dollars and the most reconditioning risk per unit of value.
The units going up in value are the ones with the least room in them.
Where those cars come from
Mostly not from the lane, and mostly not from lease returns. Older compact iron in this price band is in driveways, being driven by people who have owned it for years and have no particular reason to bring it to a dealership.
The segment with the strongest demand is the segment where the conventional sourcing channels are thinnest. That is the acquisition problem stated as precisely as it can be stated.