The same economic drivers helping to lift the new-car market are also benefitting the used-car market, said NADA chief economist Steven Szakaly, whose analysis points out three key metrics pushing demand.

“Just like the new-vehicle market, we continue to see healthy demand for used cars,” Szakaly said in an analysis released by the National Automobile Dealers Association last week.

“Those same factors in the new-vehicle market, which include low financing rates, extra spending money and improving employment opportunities, are driving car buyers to the used-vehicle market as well,” he added.

With retail demand churning along, trade-in values remain high, as well, according to Szakaly.

As for the most recently completed month in the used-car market, projections from industry analysts early last week were pointing to used-car sales for April to finish north of 3 million units.

Edmunds.com called for approximately 3.2 million used-car sales for the month.

Although this would be down from the 3.5 million used sales in March, the resulting used SAAR for April (36.7 million) would edge out March’s pace of 36.1 million.

Meanwhile, TrueCar projected used sales in the neighborhood of 3.07 million vehicles, which would be even with last April.