CARY, N.C. -

The latest reading of used-car sales projections shows a fairly strong market, including the certified pre-owned segment of the industry.

ALG is expecting the third quarter will wrap up with 10.26 million pre-owned sales for the quarter. While that would be off 3.9% from the second quarter, it would be a 1.8% hike from Q3 of 2018.

September should end up with 3.42 million used-car sales, ALG said, which would beat year-ago figures by 3.4% and remain relatively steady with August numbers (up 0.1%).

Edmunds is calling for 3.3 million used-car sales this month, versus 3.4 million last month. The resulting seasonally adjusted annualized rate would be 39.7 million, against 39.8 million last month.

Looking at August figures in more detail, KAR Auction Services chief economist Tom Kontos said in his latest monthly report, citing data from NADA, that franchised and independent dealers increased their combined retail used-car sales by 4.0% year-over-year last month.

The August figures were off 0.4% from July, he said in the Kontos Kommentary.

The market continues to be strong for CPO sales, as well. Citing Motor Intelligence, Cox Automotive said in a Sept. 17 Data Point report that there were 260,725 certified car sales in August, compared to 234,096 a year ago.  They were also up from 236,579 in July.

That represents gains of approximately 11% and 10%, respectively.

“The increase was primarily driven by the shifted calendar which brought an extra selling day (including Labor Day) into last month,” Cox Automotive said in the report.

Through eight months, there were more than 1.9 million certified sales year-to-date, the company said.  That beats the pace in the record 2018 by 3%.

“This year CPO sales are growing at a comfortable pace above 2018’s record-setting performance. Favorable supply of vehicles entering the market will continue to support used retail sales,” Cox said.