DEARBORN, Mich. -

Ford declared this week that the OEM is on pace to set an all-time certified pre-owned vehicle sales record this year with 228,000 Ford, Lincoln, Mercury CPO sales.

Should the Blue Oval hit that level, it would represent a 32-percent growth in sales versus last year.

Early reports to Auto Remarketing showed that Ford turned a total of 21,370 CPO units in August, raising its total for the year so far to 152,536 certified vehicles.

“A robust CPO program keeps more vehicles in the dealer network,” said John Felice, general manager of Ford and Lincoln sales. “It improves residual values, enhances dealer profitability, brings more customers to Ford and Lincoln dealerships, and may ultimately result in lower vehicle costs for our customers.

“As sales of our new products continue to grow, so will the demand for high-quality, low-mileage pre-owned Ford and Lincoln vehicles,” Felice continued.

Todd Fites, national CPO sales manager, says Ford and Lincoln CPO programs enable customers to get a like-new vehicle with new-model peace of mind, and allow many to enter a vehicle segment such as luxury that they couldn’t otherwise afford.

“Fifty percent of these customers are new to the Ford and Lincoln brands, and research shows a new CPO customer is twice as likely to come back and buy a new Ford Motor Company product in the future,” Fites said.

The top five Ford CPO volume vehicles year to date are:

—F-150
—Fusion
—Escape
—Focus
—Edge

The top five Lincoln CPO volume vehicles year to date are:

—MKZ
—MKX
—MKS
—Navigator
—MKT

Editor’s note: Keep tabs with Auto Remarketing as more sales results come in from the CPO market.

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