BANDON, Ore. -

On top of the certified pre-owned market setting an all-time record for sales last month, it was found that CPO units almost 40 percent faster their non-certified counterparts in March, according to CNW Research.

What’s more, the premium for CPO vehicles has gone up 64.3 percent since the beginning of 2011, as of the end of March.

And as reported previously in Auto Remarketing, last month represented the best sales total ever for the CPO market, according to Autodata Corp., which said there were 174,471 certified units sold. 

“Certified pre-owned (vehicles) continue to move off of dealer lots more quickly than the same vehicles that are not certified,” said CNW president Art Spinella.

“In March, the typical CPO vehicle stayed in inventory for only 24.8 days, compared to 41.2 days for the same age and model vehicles that were not certified,” he continued. “The demand for these vehicles is also pushing prices upward.”

In fact, the premium on a CPO vehicle was $2,274 at the end of March. This compares to $1,384 in January 2011.

CNW’s analysis for the overall used-vehicle market, however, wasn’t as rosy.

Based on the “decided cooling” shown in first half of the month, it appears April will be one of the weaker months of 2012 with regards to the year-over-year comparison.

CNW is projecting 3.73 million used sales for April, which would be up just 1.2-percent year-over-year. As such, the year-to-date growth would slow to 5.8 percent.

Breaking it down, franchised dealers are projected to climb 3.5 percent with 1.42 million used sales, and independents are expected to move 1.33 million used units (down 1.3 percent).

Though private-party sales are expected to climb 1.5 percent to 990,500 sales, this is “dramatically” softer than the growth they had been showing.

As for pricing, franchised dealers saw a 0.72-percent year-over-year dip in transaction prices during early April, as these came in at $10,971. On a month-over-month basis, their prices fell 2.51 percent. Transaction prices for independents ($9,693) were up 2.84 percent year-over-year and fell 1.83 percent sequentially.

“On the positive side of the price story, both franchised and independent dealers received a higher percentage of their asking prices,” Spinella noted.

Offering some more used market context, he added: “The used-car market remains strong and profitable for dealers. But the incursions made by sell-it-yourself websites such as craigslist.com have hammered the two ends of the spectrum.

“Those with newer vehicles (one to five years old) found they were holding gold,” Spinella continued. “Those with 15-year-old vehicles or older found there wasn’t much of a trade-in value even at independent lots specializing in buy-here, pay-here; So they, too, turned to sell-it-yourself sites.

“That appears to be reversing course. Reason: A significantly longer period to sell a car,” he concluded.