Used Sales Slip Slightly On Icy Weather

With a good bit of the country hampered by severe weather, the used-car market last month wasn’t quite as solid as it was a year ago, as sales dipped 0.72 percent, according to CNW Research.
That said, franchised dealers bucked the trend, boosting their used-car sales by more than 2 percent.
Overall, used-car sales fell from 2.35 million in January 2013 to 2.34 million in this most recent month.
Franchised dealers, however, saw their sales rise 2.4 percent year-over-year with 851,116 used vehicles sold in January. Independents showed a 0.57-percent decline with 823,945 sales.
There were 695,087 private-party sales, off 4.6 percent from January 2013.
As CNW president Art Spinella explained in an earlier forecast, January can be a tricky month for the used-car market. Sales in the year’s opening month don’t necessarily indicate what the rest of the year might have in store.