DULUTH, Ga. –

Calling it a “very competitive market” for car sales and margins, Asbury Automotive Group’s president and chief executive officer explained how the retailer achieved an earnings increase in the third quarter.

"Despite a very competitive market for vehicle sales and margins, our strong parts and service customer pay performance combined with capital deployment enabled us to deliver 6-percent EPS growth,” Asbury’s Craig Monaghan said in a news release.

In the company’s quarterly results shared Tuesday, Asbury also provided a rundown on how its used-car operations fared in Q3, recapping year-to-date pre-owned results, as well.

Third-quarter used results

In Q3, used-car retail revenue was down 4 percent year-over-year at $423.3 million. Retail used gross profit for Q3 was $31.9 million, down 9 percent year-over-year.

Asbury sold 20,030 retail used vehicles during the quarter, which was a 6-percent drop.

Its used-to-new ratio of 74.7 percent was down from 75.1 percent in Q3 of the previous year.

Average gross profit per unit on used was down 4 percent at $1,593 for the quarter.

Gross margins dropped from 8.0 percent to 7.5 percent.

Through 9 months

Looking at year-to-date numbers, Asbury has pulled in $1.25 billion in used retail revenue, down 4 percent from the first three quarters of 2015.

Used retail gross profits are down 4 percent at $101.4 million.

The dealer group has sold 59,378 used retail units through three quarters, which is a 6-percent decrease. The year-to-date used-to-new ratio is 77.5 percent, compared to 79.1 percent in the prior-year period.

Average gross profit per unit of $1,708 was up 2 percent year-over-year.

Gross margins on used retail were steady at 8.1 percent.