It’s not the 6.52-percent year-over-year decline in used-vehicle sales that concerns CNW Research president Art Spinella. The troubling part about used sales from August, he says, is the month-over-month decline of more than 15 percent.

That said, the start of September is showing some promise.

All told, there were 3.82 million used vehicles sold last month, which compares to 4.08 million used sales in August 2013, according to CNW. This latest monthly sales total is down significantly from the nearly 4.5 million used sales in July.

Spinella said in comments accompanying CNW’s used-car sales data that he was not surprised by the year-over-year drop, “as it is a regular August slip versus the previous year.”

But he added: “The month-over-month decline, however, is somewhat distressing because the usual pre-Labor Day sales tend to be for students returning to school and likely needing more reliable transportation.

“There was, however, a slight surge on the first of September used-floor-traffic, which may result in September numbers offsetting much of that decline.”

Year-to-date numbers (28.66 million used sales through August) are slightly behind year-ago figures. At this point of 2013, there had been 28.81 million used sales.

Breaking down August figures, franchised dealers sold 1.46 million used vehicles, down from 1.55 million a year ago. Through eight months, they have sold 10.46 million used cars, compared to 10.60 million in the year-ago time frame.

Independent dealers sold 1.21 million used units in August, against 1.40 million in August 2013. Year-to-date sales are at 9.33 million, compared to 9.56 million through August of last year.

There were 1.15 million casual sales in August, versus 1.14 million a year earlier. There have been 8.86 million private-party sales so far this year, up from 8.65 million through August 2013.