BANDON, Ore. -

CNW Research president Art Spinella said “unusual” several times Thursday when discussing July’s used-vehicle sales data with Auto Remarketing.

Spinella chose the adjective because he wanted to explain why it was important to emphasize last month’s used sales figure based on month-over-month comparison rather than year-over-year.

First, here are the numbers from CNW: Total used sales in July came in at 4.58 million units. That amount was off 0.41 percent versus the same month a year ago when the combination of sales at franchised and independent dealerships as well as private-party transactions totaled 4.60 million.

What Spinella stressed was that compared to June, July sales moved up 2.1 percent, triggering the first “unusual” comment.

“Actually the July data is about where it should be for this time of year, considering that we’re looking at 40 million total used car sales for 2013,” Spinella said. “July is usually down a little bit compared to June. But last year was such a weird year in terms of supply and demand and all of that. It’s not surprising that it’s off a little bit from last year.”

Spinella went on to say that it’s “unusual for July being higher than June historically, that actually is a very good sign for the market. Last year was just such a strange year anyway that making comparisons to last year is really kind of tough and not really telling much. It’s really the month-over-month that’s far more important at this point.”

CNW broke down how July sales settled at franchised and independent stores as well as private-part deals

— Franchised dealers saw a year-over-year decline of 2.17 percent to 1.76 million with a 38.3 percent share of total used sales. Compared to June, sales at franchised stores rose 0.81 percent.

— Independent dealers’ sales last month jumped nearly 2 percent to 1.54 million. Compared to June, sales at independent lots rose 0.72 percent.

— Private-party sales slipped 0.76 percent from 1.3 million to 1.29 million in July. Compared to June, these sales climbed 5.65 percent.

Off-Lease Supply Impact on July Results

After looking at the overall July used-sales numbers, Spinella spelled out how some average transaction prices improved last month thanks to more off-lease vehicles making their way into the used-vehicle market.

While average transaction prices fell for franchised dealers compared to a year ago — sliding 4.2 percent — CNW determined these stores enjoyed the first rise month-over-month rise of the year as July transaction prices ticked up 3.96 percent from June.

The fortunes weren’t as rosy for independent dealers as average July transaction prices softened 4.1 percent versus a year ago and dipped 0.36 percent versus June.

Meanwhile, July private-party transaction prices increased 2.14 percent versus a year ago and 0.41 percent compared to June.

CNW indicated the supply of younger vehicles to the used-vehicle market can be seen in July’s data, including:

— 1-year-old models rose 4.3 percent versus June
— 2-year-old cars and trucks were up 2.7 percent
— 3-year-old vehicles rose 5.5 percent
— 4-year-old models climbed 2.5 percent
— 5-year-old models were up 4.7 percent

On a share of total sales basis, CNW determined 1- to 5-year-old vehicles climbed 4.1 percent to a 23.99-percent share from 23.05-percent in June.

Comparing year-over-year, this late-model share improvement was “dramatic,” according to Spinella, spiking 72.8 percent from last year’s level of 13.34 percent.

“That’s the first time this year that we’ve seen a month-over-month transaction price increase, which is also heartening to say the least,” Spinella said.

“It is usual for it to happen in July and from that standpoint it was little bit of a surprise,” he continued. “But if you look further, there were far more 1- to 5-year-old cars on the market, which obviously had an impact on average transaction prices.

“We’re starting to finally see some of the off-lease vehicles that were done during the recession, starting to come back to market,” Spinella went on to say. “The numbers are looking pretty good for 1- to 5-year-olds. To see that 72-percent increase from last year is really critical because those are very profitable vehicles to sell.”

Editor’s Note: For more CNW data and commentary about the buy-here, pay-here market as well as financing of used-vehicles, look for today’s edition of SubPrime News Update or visit subprimenews.com.

Nick Zulovich can be reached at nzulovich@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.