CARY, N.C. -

There were 2.55 million certified pre-owned vehicles sold in the U.S during 2015, according to Autodata Corp.

Full disclosure: Two of them will be parked in front of my home this evening.

I won’t tell you their brands or which dealerships they were purchased from, but I will tell you the biggest selling point for me (as a consumer, not a journalist).

It was the peace-of-mind. Buying a used vehicle can be kind of scary, so knowing that the cars had been thoroughly inspected and had OEM backing was reassuring.

But that’s just me and my wiring as a car owner. Reliability, safety and assurance are how to win me over. Some people may favor the practicality or the perks like satellite radio trials or roadside assistnace. 

And as someone who covers the CPO market on a regular basis, I was well aware of what certification offers even before the salesperson told me. I’m no expert on CPO, but I do get to interview folks who are. And I’d like to think my awareness of and openness to certified are on the higher end.  

All that to say, I didn’t need much convincing about the pros to CPO.

Some used-car shoppers will, I imagine, if only because they simply might not be aware.

According to the 2015 Autotrader CPO study, just 45 percent of used shoppers were familiar with CPO in 2014. And while there has been improvement, familiarity was still only at 49 percent in 2015.

There is certainly potential to grow those numbers. Consider, for instance, the new-vehicle side. Autotrader said in the study that 77 percent of new-car shoppers were familiar with CPO in 2015, up from 75 percent in 2014.

And of those used-car shoppers who know about CPO, 82 percent thought positively of it. That’s up from 73 percent in 2014, the study said.

Consideration for CPO among used-car shoppers also climbed from 50 percent to 68 percent in that time frame, according to Autotrader.

Overall, almost two-thirds (64 percent) of the people surveyed by Autotrader said they would consider CPO because of the peace-of-mind from the warranty and inspection process, up from 58 percent in 2014.

So, maybe a lot more folks are like me are finding that reassurance important. But to reach them, you’re likely going to have to educate them. 

Almost exactly a year ago, I talked with vAuto founder Dale Pollak at the 2015 NADA Convention & Expo in San Francisco. The CPO industry has since gone on to post a fifth straight year of record sales (and likely improved its educational/awareness efforts), but i think his thoughts on addressing and emphasizing the peace-of-mind element of certfied cars still rings true. 

“CPO is strong.  I believe in CPO, and I think CPO will continue to get stronger,” Pollak said in the January 2015 interview. “The reason being — like this is a big surprise, ready for this? — every buyer of a used car has a fear of getting a bad car.

“All you have to do is speak to that fear, which well-designed and well-marketed CPO programs do, and you’re going to be rewarded. And I think it’s taken a relatively long time for the buying public to really understand what certification is, and what it’s not,” he continued. “It takes it a good long while, and it’s reaching that moment or point of inflection where consumers actually get it.”