Although down from last month's rate, February's seasonally adjusted annualized rate for used-vehicle sales is expected to stay above the 37 million mark, according to Edmunds.com, which put out a forecast for monthly new- and used-car sales late last week.

Specifically, Edmunds anticipates there will be 3.35 million used sales this month, versus 3.12 million used sales in January. The resulting used-car SAAR would be 37.2 million, down from 38.7 million last month.

These projections arrived shortly after the largest publicly traded dealer groups wrapped up their reports on their respective full-year and fourth-quarter 2012 performances, including used-car sales totals.

Starting with AutoNation, it posted 42,978 used retail sales in the fourth quarter for a 2.5-percent gain, moving 180,973 used retail vehicles for full-year 2012 (up 5.8 percent)

Group 1 Automotive sold 20,180 used retail units in the fourth quarter for a 13.5-percent gain, while selling 85,366 in the full-year period for a 21.1-percent hike.

At Sonic Automotive, the dealership group sold 102,556 retail used units in 2012, up from 96,355 used retail sales in 2011. Sonic moved 23,943 used retail units in the fourth quarter, compared to 22,520 in the final period of 2011.

Lithia Motors achieved full-year used retail sales of 47,965, a gain of 21.6 percent.  Lithia sold 11,943 used units during the final quarter of 2012, up 21.7 percent year-over-year.

Asbury Automotive Group sold 13,681 used retail units in the fourth quarter, up from 13,483 a year earlier. For the year, it moved 57,434 used cars, up from 54,009 in 2011.

Penske Automotive Group increased its used retail sales 16.2 percent in the fourth quarter at 34,991.  For the year, it sold 145,580 used vehicles for a 19.8-percent hike.

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.