DULUTH, Ga. -

Asbury Automotive Group announced on Tuesday its fourth quarter results from 2012, as well as full-year numbers.

Used vehicles were ramping up the dealer group’s revenue as 2012 wrapped up, with used-vehicle retail revenue rising by 5 percent during the last quarter.  For Q4 2012, used-vehicle retail revenue came in at $269.3 million, up from $255.3 million during the same period of 2011.

And during the Q4 2012 conference call held Tuesday to discuss the results, Craig Monaghan, Asbury's president and chief executive officer, said, “Investments we are making in our business are obviously paying off … In light of where we were just a few short years ago, I couldn’t be more proud of our performance.”

As for used wholesale revenue for Q4 2012, this number came in at $51.6 million, up a significant 28 percent from year-ago period.

Used-vehicle sales were up slightly, as well. For used-vehicle retail units, Asbury sold 13,681 units, up from 13,483 sold during the same period of 2011. This marked a 1-percent increase year-over-year.

Commenting on the overall results,  Monaghan, said, "We are pleased to announce record fourth-quarter and full-year results. These results demonstrate the benefits of the operating leverage we have built into our business model, which we expect will continue yielding strong results as North American automotive sales continue to recover. |

"We expect the recovery of automotive sales to continue in 2013 due to the increasing average age of vehicles in the U.S., extremely attractive financing rates, and the availability of exciting new products."

As for full-year results, used-vehicle sales and revenue were up in this respect, as well.

Specifically, total used-vehicle retail revenues came in at $1.1 billion, up 8 percent from the 2011 figures.

As for used vehicle wholesale revenue, this number came in just a shade under 2 million, up 7 percent from 2011’s $186.6 million.

Moving along to used-vehicle sales, the dealership group retailed 57,434 pre-owned cars last year, up 6 percent from 54,009 in 2011.

Wrapping up the conference call before the question and answer period, Monaghan expressed enthuisam for the coming year, noting, “We expect the recovery of automotive sales to continue in 2013 due to the current age of the vehicle fleet, extremely attractive financing rates and the availability of exciting new products.”

During the Q&A period of Tuesday’s conference call, one of the hot topics was used supply.

When asked about how used growth and supply spikes will fare in the future, Asbury's executive vice president and chief operating officer Michael Kearney explained, “I think as we saw particularly in December with a very large increase in our new volume, we started to see quite a few more trade-ins coming in; and as we pointed out earlier, with the improving sales over the last 24 months, we are seeing quite a bit more trades coming into the stores.

“When you couple that with the program we put in place a few years ago, the way we handle them (trade-ins),  how we move them around stores, how we value them, we will continue to see a little more product out there,” he continued.

Kearney went on to not that the company has more leases and daily rental product coming off cycle, which will boost used supply, as well, in 2013 and beyond.

And wrapping up his commentary, Kearney made a direct connection between new- and used-vehicle sales within the dealership group.

“Our view is that the margins are stable at the present time; availability or product is a lot better, and we think that will continue as long as new-vehicle sales continue to grow at the rate they have been growing,” he concluded.