AutoNation chairman and chief executive officer Mike Jackson is confident two of the most important used-vehicle performance metrics — volumes and gross profit per unit — will both improve during the second quarter.

According to AutoNation’s first-quarter figures shared on Tuesday, the dealer group reported gains in retail volume but softening in gross.

As a whole, AutoNation retailed 60,608 used vehicles in Q1, up by 2,505 units or 4.3 percent year-over-year. When looking on a same-store basis, the retail figure improved slightly more; up by 5.7 percent as those operations moved 59,131 units.

The gross profit on those units is where AutoNation took it a bit on the chin in Q1.

Overall, AutoNation said its gross profit on used-vehicle retail sales dropped by $377 or 23.4 percent to settle at $1,236. The same-store metric was about the same, sinking by 23.8 percent or $389 to come in at $1,243.

“During the first quarter, we saw increasing used unit volumes as we focused on our One Price strategy, which is now fully rolled out at all AutoNation stores, and worked through the majority of the inventory that was previously on recall hold,” Jackson said in a news release.

“We expect to see a sequential increase in the second quarter in both used unit volumes and gross profit per vehicle retailed,” he continued.

Looking at the top-line performance, AutoNation reported Q1 net income from continuing operations came in at $98 million, or $0.97 per share. A year earlier, it was $96 million, or $0.90 per share.

The dealer group added that its Q1 revenue of $5.1 billion and gross profit of $820 million were relatively flat compared to the year-ago period.

Also of note from AutoNation’s Q1 report, the dealer group indicated that its overall F&I gross profit per unit also stayed nearly flat year-over-year, coming in at $1,625.

Furthermore, AutoNation retailed 75,798 new models during Q1; an amount off by 3,209 units or 4.1 percent year-over-year.