FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -

There were plenty of cars available during the second quarter that were nice fits to be sold as certified pre-owned. And there were plenty of high-mileage used cars for the taking.

Problem was, says AutoNation executive Mike Maroone, there just wasn’t enough of the middle ground.

But the retailer has taken steps to alleviate this issue, and so far, it appears to have paid off.

“We had good enough new-vehicle sales (to generate trade-ins); we didn’t take the kind of trades we wanted to take. And late in the quarter, we went out and started supplementing that inventory and built that inventory as the quarter went along,” he said during the retailer's second-quarter earnings conference call last week. “There was plenty of CPO product, and there was a lot of high-mileage product –— both of which we like — but that mid-tier, affordable used car, we didn’t acquire enough of them, so we just need to re-double our efforts there.”

To recap, AutoNation’s saw some solid increases on the used-car side — as detailed here by Auto Remarketing — but same-store used retail sales did slip 0.5 percent on a year-over-year basis.

“We were pleased with our gross profits being up $91 a car,” said Maroone, referring to the group’s $1,687 same-store gross profit per used vehicle retailed, “but we really did miss some opportunity.

“We ramped up the inventory as the quarter went on and finished the quarter at 36 days’ (supply of used vehicles),” he said. “So, we’ve taken the inventory up about 20 percent; we’re up to about 27,000, I believe, in inventory right now and really need to push the volume button this quarter. We got the gross, we did not get the volume.”

Maroone added: “The CPO business was strong, but clearly we didn’t retail the trades that we needed to retail, and we’re going to really focus on it this quarter, as we have ramped that inventory.”

When asked to give a bit more color, he explained that the challenge was that “supply was tight for the right merchandise,” referring to cars in the “medium-price, reasonable-mileage” ballpark.

“We believe that with more cars coming off lease in the next couple quarters, the supply should be in better shape, but we have ramped our inventories, because we can’t wait for that happen,” Maroone explained.

And by increasing its supply, the retailer began seeing improvements in July, Maroone said, estimating that same-store used sales had climbed 7 percent year-over-year so far in the month.