CARY, N.C. -

Certified pre-owned penetration of used-vehicle unit volumes within some of the largest publicly traded dealer groups was found to be as high as 35 percent, according to data from KeyBanc Capital Markets, which indicated most of the six retailers in its set had CPO shares between 25 percent and 30 percent.

KeyBanc’s August survey of industry contacts and dealers released last week found that Penske Automotive Group’s CPO sales represented 35 percent of its used-vehicle volume, with AutoNation and Group 1 Automotive both commanding 30-percent certified share.

Certified sales account for 25 percent to 30 percent of Sonic Automotive’s used volume, and 15 percent to 20 percent of used sales for Lithia Motors, KeyBanc said.

It was estimated that CPO takes a 25-percent share within Asbury Automotive Group’s used operations.

The figures for each of these six either beat or are in line with numbers for the overall industry. According to the 2013 Q2 Used Car Marker Report from Edmunds.com, certified as a percent of franchised used sales was at 19.9 percent in the second quarter, down from a record 21 percent in Q1.

Shortly after Penske’s second-quarter earnings conference call this summer — where chairman Roger Penske cited the retailer’s high CPO penetration rate, per a transcript of the call published by SeekingAlpha.com that can be found here — Penske executive vice president of investor relations and corporate development Tony Pordon told Auto Remarketing: “Our CPO business is being helped by our brand mix, as we are 96 percent foreign nameplate and 69 percent luxury.  

“After leasing took a step back during the recession, it began returning in 2010 and those cars coming off lease help the CPO business,” he continued in this Auto Remarketing story. “We expect that to continue.”

But it’s not these large, public groups that are commanding such high levels of certified share within their respective used-car businesses.

Consider Bill Luke Chrysler Jeep Dodge & Ram.

Owned by Don Luke, this franchised dealership was No. 4 on Chrysler Group’s list of top-selling certified dealers in 2012 with 683 CPO sales. The store is selling even more these days: its 1,089 year-to-date CPO sales total puts the dealership at No. 1 on the automaker’s list for 2013.

In an interview with Auto Remarketing this summer, Luke said half of the used vehicles it sells are certified models.

Reaching such a level of CPO success has required a significant investment in processes and a dealership-wide buy-in from the staff and management, Luke said, not to mention training.

On the consumer-facing end, the sales staff has to know how to emphasize the CPO value and then execute. The service department has to be willing to put in the extra involvement in reconditioning vehicles to be certified, and management has to be willing to make the investment in the program.

And that dealership-wide CPO buy-in, Luke said, “takes time.”

Going back to look at that training aspect in more detail, this will be one of the many certified pre-owned best practice topics on tap for this fall’s CPO | The Pre-Owned Conference, set for Nov. 11 and Nov. 12 as part of the Used Car Week conference series being held Nov. 11–15 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego.

At 2 p.m. on Nov. 11, Ben Abrahams and Warren Melville of Sandy Group, will offer a presentation on “Training with Impact — The Process that Leads to CPO Success.”

A description of the workshop is below.

Most automotive remarketing professionals understand the need for a successful CPO program and the philosophy behind it.  Our challenge is how we integrate CPO into the wholesale and retail cultures.

The highest hurdles await us in our own organizations.  CPO is expected to be successful with the smallest budgets.  So it's vital that CPO training is carefully thought out and executed.   Going through the motions of traditional training tools may not provide the lift and engagement you're looking for. 

In this session we'll show you how to use a training process to change culture, transfer knowledge and build passion around a successful CPO program whether you are at an OEM headquarters or a dealership.

Learning Objectives:

• Key training elements for CPO success
• Holistic training for CPO
• Sustained results
• The perfect trainer
• Training for transparency
 

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