BANDON, Ore. and CARMEL, Ind. -

Certified pre-owned vehicles fetched roughly $2,800 more on average last year than used cars that were not certified but in the same age range, according to CNW Research, which said that premium is expected to rise modestly in 2015.

More specifically, CNW is targeting a $3,100 CP0 premium this year.

“Because many in the middle class are being squeezed out of the new-car market because of higher prices and soft wage gains, CPO becomes a solid alternative,” CNW president Art Spinella said in January’s Special Forecast Issue of the company’s Retail Automotive Summary.

“And it’s one that consumers believe provides the new-car smell without the new-car payment,” Spinella added.  “That said, in 2014 consumers paid about $2,800 more for CPO models than comparably aged non-CPO used cars.”

Strong sales of certified vehicles — and the higher prices they command — also came up in an analysis of used-car sales by ADESA’s Tom Kontos.

In his latest Kontos Kommentary, he pointed to numbers from CNW indicating a “respectable” overall retail used sales figure of 29.6 million for 2014, which was “very close” to the year-ago sum and adds some shine to a relatively soft December.

“Moreover, the composition of those sales included a higher percentage of higher priced, and typically higher grossing, certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles, which totaled 2.3 million units in 2014 versus 2.1 million the year before,” Kontos said. “CPO sales were particularly strong in December, rising 3.9 percent month-over-month and 17.2 percent year-over-year, according to figures from Autodata.”