Just one month after posting the first year-over-year decline since June 2014, the certified pre-owned market closed the second-best quarter on record with more than 211,000 sales in September.

According to Autodata Corp, the estimated 211,083 CPO cars sold during the month represented a 12.1-percent year-over-year increase. That pushed the third-quarter figure to 653,383 units, beating the year-ago sum by 6.9 percent.

Not only that, the Q3 total was only 1.1 percent less than the number of CPO vehicles sold in the second quarter, which ranks as the strongest quarter of all time, according to Autodata.

Through September, year-to-date sales stand at an estimated 1.93 million, which outpaces last year by 10.6 percent.

So, in all likelihood, yearly CPO sales should hit 2 million units this month.

As for September, the daily selling rate for the month was at 8,443, up 7.6 percent year-over-year, Autodata indicated. The firm also noted that the daily rate for September was nearly even with August's, even though the monthly sales figure for September was 4.2 percent lower than August. 

Breaking down the tally, the Big 3 sold 76,160 certified vehicles for September (up 12.8 percent), and they have moved 705,319 for the year (up 15.1 percent). Asian brand CPO sales reached 99,126 units in September (up 12.7 percent), and year-to-date numbers have reached 888,406 units (up 7.8 percent).

European brands sold 35,797 certified units in September (up 9.2 percent). They have moved 335,145 CPO vehicles through nine months, beating last year’s pace by 8.7 percent.