ATLANTA -

If the Used/CPO Car Insights Report from AutoTrader.com is any indication, it appears the big winner in the certified pre-owned market last month was the luxury segment.

Pushed by pent-up demand and the strong cross-shopping trend of consumers browsing both new and used models, luxury CPO vehicles — along with new luxury rides — showed a significant uptick in consumer interest in October.

“The majority of consumers consider both new and pre-owned choices when they are searching for their next vehicle, so it is no surprise that we saw a spike in activity around luxury cars on the CPO front in the same month that we saw an increase in new luxury car shopper activity,” explained Rick Wainschel, AutoTrader’s vice president of automotive insights.

“There are strong signs of pent-up demand for luxury vehicles among car shoppers, indicating that despite continuing economic headwinds, there are more consumers willing and able to consider higher end choices,” he added.

In fact, 11 of AutoTrader’s “Big Movers” on the CPO side during October were luxury models. The list of Big Movers is comprised of vehicles that show strong gains in consumer interest on a month-over-month basis.

One example is the certified Land Rover Range Rover Sport, which jumped 237 positions on the list of most-viewed CPO vehicles, representing the biggest increase. Several other luxury SUVs joined the CPO Ranger Rover Sport, including the Mercedes-Benz GLK Class (up 20 positions) and the Audi Q4 (up 16), as well as Infiniti’s FX Series, which moved ahead 10 spots.

Luxury passenger cars were also well represented on the CPO Big Movers list, including three from Jaguar. More specifically, the XJ climbed 34 positions, the XF jumped 30 spots and the XK was up 28 positions.

Additionally, six of the site’s 20 most-viewed certified models during the month were luxury passenger cars. No other segment had more models make the list. That included the BMW 3 Series, which was the No. 1 CPO model yet again. The Audi A4 also cracked the top 10 at No. 7, and four others made the top 20.

And among all CPO segments (including mainstream), luxury cars were the most popular on AutoTrader.com. They joined luxury SUVs as the only certified segments to see interest climb.

Other Trends

Moving along, AutoTrader also delved into additional trends spotted during the month.

Breaking the list of most popular CPO models down further, the Honda Accord ranked as the second most popular certified vehicle during the month,
followed by the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, the Toyota Tundra and the Ford F-150, respectively.

As for the breakdown of most popular CPO segments, following luxury cars was midsize SUVs in the No. 2 position, with luxury SUVs in third and midsize cars in fourth. Taking the No. 5 spot was the full-size truck segment.

On the certified pricing front, Hyundai was the big highlight. Several of its vehicles showed hefty year-over-year gains in asking prices.

That included the Tucson (up 29.4 percent), which showed the second-highest gain, the Hyundai Sonata (up 26.6 percent), the Accent (up 18 percent) and Elantra (up 15.8 percent).