WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. –

The certified pre-owned market closed the opening half of 2012 with the second strongest month of all time for CPO sales, according to Autodata Corp.

Not to mention, June capped what was the second-strongest quarter on record, as quarterly CPO sales reached 462,116 units for a 3-percent year-over-year gain, the firm said Thursday afternoon.

As for the most recent month, there were 162,165 certified units sold in June, representing an 8.9-percent increase from a year ago. Based on selling days – June 2012 had 27; June 2011 had 26 — the daily selling rate climbed 4.9 percent.

Through June, there have been 917,004 certified vehicles sold, compared to 868,358 CPO sales in the first half of 2011.

Domestics took 31.6 percent of the CPO market for the month, which was off 1.0 percentage points from June 2011. Asian brands grabbed two additional percentage points of certified market share, which came in at 52.1 percent for June.

The share for European brands was at 16.4 percent, which was off 1.0 percentage point from a year ago.