WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. -

It was the second-best quarter ever for the certified pre-owned market, trailing only the quarter that preceded it (and by just 1.5 percent, no less).

That’s the latest on the scorching CPO industry from Autodata Corp., which said third-quarter numbers were quite strong. 

There were 540,383 certified sales, good for second all-time behind the second quarter of 2013.

The third-quarter sum also marked a 16-percent year-over-year increase.

As for the final month of the quarter, September included 157,175 CPO sales, which was a 1.6-percent year-over-year improvement.  The month wasn’t nearly as strong as August — in fact, sales were off 21.6 percent — but it also included five fewer selling days, Autodata said.  

August also happened to be the strongest month in the history of the CPO market, as sales crested 200,000 for the first time.

Through nine months of 2013, there have been 1.59 million certified sales, which is ahead of the year-ago period by 14.7 percent.

To put that in perspective — and showing how far the certified market has come since the auto downturn four years ago — there were 1.53 million CPO sales for all of 2009.

Since that time, there have been two consecutive years of best-ever CPO sales and what's almost assuredly a third straight year of all-time results.

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.