August represented the best-ever certified pre-owned sales month in history, besting the prior record CPO sales total by more than 15,000 units.

According to Autodata Corp., there were 222,675 certified pre-owned sales in August, making it the strongest month of all time for CPO sales.

The previous record was set in May, when dealers moved 207,371 CPO vehicles.

(The industry sold 181,106 CPO cars in June and 199,950 certified cars in July).

August’s sum also beat year-ago figures by 11.1 percent.  Through eight months, there have been 1.56 million CPO sales, an 8.8-percent increase.

Breaking the August total down further, domestics sold 77,918 CPO cars last month for a 19.8-percent hike. This moved their year-to-date sum to 545,034 certified units (up 13.7 percent).

Asian brands moved 102,154 certified units, down a modest 0.4 percent year-over-year. Through eight months, they have sold 735,732 CPO units, which beats the year-ago pace by 3.4 percent.

European brands increased their CPO sales nearly 30 percent, selling 42,603 units. So far in 2014, they have moved 275,418 certified vehicles for a 15.2-percent hike. Such widespread strength in certified likely bodes well for the overall used-car market, as a recent analysis by KeyBanc projects CPO will be a big driver for pre-owned sales in years to come.

And several brands have reported record CPO sales individually, as well.