UPDATE: Story has been updated to reflect the CPO sales hit a four-month high, not six-month high, in February.

It appears the certified pre-owned vehicle market may have turned a corner last month.

Snapping a six-month decline, February CPO sales of 191,860 units beat January figures by 15.3% and marked the highest monthly sum since October, according to a Data Point report from Cox Automotive.

The Cox data, citing Motor Intelligence, indicates last month’s CPO tally was still close to 8.5% softer year-over-year.

And it’s still softer than pre-pandemic CPO sales of 238,223 units in February 2020 and 211,514 CPO sales in February 2019, according to the Cox analysis.

However, the company maintains its projection for 3.0 million certified sales this year, which would be an all-time record.

“This forecast is supported by what is expected to be a record tax refund season and the attractiveness of certified pre-owned vehicles to consumers desiring like-new vehicles,” the company said.

Toyota's CPO milestone

Speaking of positive news for the certified segment, one automaker, in particular, has recently hit a milestone for CPO growth.

The 7 millionth Toyota certified pre-owned vehicle to be retailed through the automaker’s program recently rolled over the curb at Holman Toyota in Mount Laurel Township, N.J.

Toyota said on Monday that the vehicle marking this milestone for the CPO program that launched in 1996 was a 2019 Toyota Camry acquired by Wayne Maver Jr., a 20-year-old from Vincentown, N.J.

To celebrate the purchase, Toyota presented Maver with a check for the total purchase price of the Camry. Maver also was presented with a $1,000 gas card from Carfax and given a four-year/55,000-mile maintenance plan.

According to a news release, the dealership and automaker also made a $5,000 donation in Maver’s name to the American Bladder Cancer Society, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of bladder cancer and advocating for research into a cure, treatment, early diagnosis and quality of life issues of survivors.

For insights from more automaker CPO programs, stay tuned for the April edition of the Auto Remarketing magazine, where we recognized the top 10 certified pre-owned dealers for more than a dozen OEM programs.

Overall used market even stronger than CPO

Going beyond certified pre-owned, the used-car sales market, in general, appears to be faring better, too.

Actually, even better than CPO.

The 3.43 million overall used cars sold in February marked the best month since August, when 3.51 million used cars were sold, according to data from Cox Automotive.

February’s used-car sales tally beat January’s 3.03 million used sales and were up from 3.36 million used sales in February 2021, the data shows.

Moreover, used retail sales — or those originating at a dealership — were at their highest levels since August. Cox estimates there were 1.81 million used vehicles sold through dealerships last month, up from January’s tally of just under 1.60 million.

Not to mention, February’s retail used sales figure also beat the year-ago tally of 1.76 million.