CARY, N.C. –

Signs are pointing to another best-ever year for the certified pre-owned market.

There were 1.16 million CPO vehicle sales in the first five months of the year, according to Tuesday’s Data Point report from Cox Automotive, beating year-ago figures by 2%.

May continued what has now been a three-month streak of certified sales increases, following a slow start to 2019. Cox Automotive said there were about 252,000 CPO sales in May, up from 249,000 a year ago.

The company said the certified pre-owned market is “growing at a comfortable pace,” with this likely to be the ninth straight record year.

“As the used-vehicle market continues to see strong consumer demand with ample supply of off-lease units coming to market, the CPO market is primed to continue to see favorable growth and is on pace to set another record,” Cox Automotive analysts said.

As for the overall used-car retail market, franchised dealers increased used-car sales by 1.4% year-over-year in May while independents saw their used sales dip 1.0%, KAR Auction Services chief economist Tom Kontos said in his monthly report, citing data from the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Sharing data from the first quarter, Edmunds said in its latest Used Vehicle Report that there were 10.45 million used-vehicle sales in Q1, down from 10.62 million used sales a year earlier.

Franchised dealers, though, increased their used-car sales from 2.97 million to 3.11 million for the quarter, according to Edmunds.