April through June represented the best second quarter ever for certified pre-owned sales, according to Edmunds.com, which said dealers sold 678,169 CPO units.

This beat year-ago figures by 2.6 percent. 

Used-car inventories are getting younger at franchised dealerships, cars are coming off lease and CPO sales continue to break records.  

Certified has become a bigger part of franchised dealers' used-car operations than in the early half of the 2010s, but it is relatively even with last year in terms of sales share. 

In its Q2 2016 Used Vehicle Market Report released Thursday, Edmunds said 22.6 percent of franchised dealers’ used-car sales in the second quarter were CPO units.

This was on par with Q2 of 2015, when 22.9 percent of their used sales were certified.

“We do expect CPO units to increase in sales, but so far this year the mix with standard used sales has stayed flat with last year,” Edmunds said in the report.

In the second quarter of previous years, CPO has commanded 18.8 percent (2011), 18.0 percent (2012), 19.9 percent (2013) and 20.5 percent (2014) shares of franchised used sales.

Franchised inventory younger

Along those same lines, the percentage of franchised dealers’ used-car inventory that is 3 years old or newer has steadily moved north in the last four years.

In the second quarter of this year, 58 percent were in this age bracket.

It dipped from 48 percent in Q2 2011 to 44 percent in Q2 2012, but it has climbed gradually each year. Half of franchised dealers' used inventory was 3 years or younger in Q2 of 2013, and that share has been above 50 percent in the second quarter of every year since.

Not surprisingly, this is largely being driven by off-lease volume, which continues to rise.

And so, too, will this age group’s share of used inventory.

“As the influx of lease returns impacts the market, we see that the share of 3 years old or younger vehicles sold at dealerships continues to pace well above 50 percent,” Edmunds said in the report. “At this rate, we should expect to see the share of near-new vehicles hit 60 percent by the end of the year.”