FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -

Used inventory is getting stronger for AutoNation — including supply for its “very robust” certified pre-owned business — and improvements have also been noticed in used retail sales and total used gross profits, as well.

Calling AutoNation’s jump in same-store retail used unit sales a “good step,” president and chief operating officer Mike Maroone laid out the progress the retailer has made on the used inventory front during Thursday’s quarterly conference call while also giving some perspective on the company’s used-car profitability.

Asked by to shed some light on the used inventory situation during the Q&A portion of the call with investors, Maroone said: “We’ve definitely seen some improvements in supply. It’s still not where we would like it to be, but there is a very robust CPO business.

“CPO increased 17 percent for us in the quarter. It’s about 30 percent of our used business, and we are seeing more availability there,” he continued. “So, even in the last two quarters, we’ve seen some dramatic shifts in product; we’ve also tried to add capabilities, both buying vehicles online, putting together centralized buying teams, and doing some other kind of ‘out-of-the box’ things to increase our used-vehicle availability .

“We’re really pleased with our used business, and to get 9-percent volume growth on a same-store basis is a good step for us. We’re hoping there’s even more there.”

Overall, AutoNation pulled in same-store retail used unit sales of 50,377 for the second quarter, beating year-ago sales of 46,236 units.  AutoNation took in a total of $80.9 million of same-store retail gross profit on these sales, a 7.7-percent hike from the second quarter of 2012.

Same-store gross profit per used vehicle retailed was down modestly year-over-year (1.1 percent), as it dipped from $1,624 to $1,606.

The relationship between used supply and margins was something Maroone also addressed back in April during the company’s first-quarter conference call, as detailed here in this Auto Remarketing story.

On Thursday, he was asked about the aforementioned gross profit per unit metric, particularly in light of stronger volume for AutoNation and what the questioner observed to be increasing gross profit per unit levels among many outside dealers.

Maroone pointed out that the year-over-year decrease in gross profit per used unit retailed for AutoNation was only $18 on about a $1,600 base.  What’s more, two of the company’s operating segments actually saw an uptick in margins.

“If I look inside the segments, we grew margins in domestic and import. There was a little more pressure in premium luxury, as it’s quite a competitive market,” Maroone noted. “There were some shortages in some new products that are caused by some upcoming product launches. So that off-lease premium luxury car was in a lot of demand. But all-in-all, I think that there was a very solid job done in used to drive the volume and the gross at that kind of level.”

He later added: “We would like to stabilize (margins) or even get better going forward.  Again, two of the three segments grew, one put a little pressure. But all in all, our total gross … everything is up 8 percent on the used side on 9 percent volume, so pretty comparable.”

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.