Edmunds.com offered a couple of  statistics in the certified pre-owned vehicle space to illustrate how CPO sales continue to surge.

The site’s latest Used Vehicle Market Report indicated that CPO sales in the second quarter came in 53 percent higher than the same quarter five years ago. And during that span, the percentage of all used-vehicle sales at franchised dealers that are CPO units moved from 19.2 percent up to a new high of 22.7 percent.

Edmunds.com reported that franchised stores sold 660,766 certified vehicles in Q2, a figure more than 230,000 units higher than the same quarter in 2010.

The combination of off-lease vehicles ready to be certified and growing appeal for a CPO unit is driving sales now, and likely going forward, too.

“It is something where the inventory situation is working out,” Edmunds.com director of industry analysis Jessica Caldwell told Auto Remarketing. “It’s for consumers who want a little bit more assurance as that’s traditionally been the big deterrent in buying a used car. You don’t want to buy a lemon. You know a certified pre-owned gives people piece of mind. It just makes sense for the market right now.

“Not only is (CPO sales) important now is it will be growing in importance,” Caldwell continued. “From this point, the sales are only going to go up and the percentage of sales are going to continue to surpass the second-quarter number.

“It’s something the automakers want to push out too. It’s a way for them to get some profit on the used market, which is highly profitable. I do imagine the sector is going to continue to grow,” she went on to say.

Part of the reason Caldwell and the rest of the Edmunds team are making such projections is the often-mentioned off-lease volume. The site expects leasing to stay on a record path. The report noted that last year the industry generated more than 4.5 million vehicle leases, accounting for more than 25 percent of new-vehicle deliveries.

“It’s definitely a massive good feeder for the CPO category,” Caldwell said of leasing. “CPO had traditionally been a lot of luxury cars because that’s what was leased. But we’ve seen leases diversify into a lot of different segments over the past few years. Now we’re even seeing a lot of leases in places like full-size pickups, which you never saw in the past.

“I think that rise of leasing and the diversification of leasing is going to lead to a more robust certified pre-owned market because they’re going to have a lot of different types of inventory,” she continued. “It’s good for consumers because it gives them another option. You can used, you can buy new or you can buy CPO. It gives people a different flavor of what they want to do.

“When we look at where leasing is in 2015, it’s still high. This trend is going to continue because essentially we can forecast what the certified pre-owned market will look like in a few years,” Caldwell went on to say.