HOUSTON -

For each used vehicle it retails, Group 1 Automotive has been generating an average gross profit in the neighborhood of $1,500, and you can expect that to remain steady in the second half of the year.

In the company’s latest quarterly earnings call with investors, Group 1 said used-vehicle prices in car segments have been pinched, but with the speed at which the retailer has been able to turn those units, it hasn’t had made a significant impact on pre-owned gross profits.

“The biggest challenge in the used-car market right now is the pressure on the values of the cars. SUV and truck values are actually pretty firm … with the current low fuel prices, we still have a lot of customers trying to trade in cars for smaller SUVs and things like that,” Group 1 president and chief executive officer Earl Hesterberg said during last week’s call.

“And those are the challenges,” he said. “Just like most brands have an excess of new-vehicle car inventory, handling the car portion of the used-vehicle market is where the challenge is and where the most pressure is on values.”

But keep in mind, the dealership group is keeping its used inventory at a days’ supply of 34, said senior vice president and chief financial officer John Rickel.

“So, as long as we’re keeping abreast of what’s going on with those market conditions, we don’t have a lot of depreciation or residual value risk,” Rickel said,

“It’s just basically, you kind of buy them at the market and turn them pretty quickly and you avoid most of that,” he said. “We’ve been running $1,500 a unit and I think that’s a reasonable assumption for your second-half models.”

In the U.S., Group 1's gross profits per used retail sale were $1,496 in the second quarter, down from $1,502 in Q2 of 2015.  For the first half of 2016, they came in at $1,558, up from $1,555 a year earlier.

Looking at consolidated results (including numbers for U.S. and international operations), gross profit per unit on used retail sales was $1,465 in Q2, even with year-ago figures. First-half numbers came in at $1,483, down from $1,501 in the first half of 2015.

Group 1 retailed 65,742 used units globally in the first half of 2016, up 7 percent year-over-year.  In the U.S., it retailed 53,687 used units for a 3.3-percent gain.