CARY, N.C. -

What a difference a year makes. 

According to analysis from Cox Automotive, the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of total used-vehicle sales was 40.5 million last month, which is 117% stronger than March 2020, when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and the impact to markets quickly escalated. 

In addition to soundly beating the year-ago used-car SAAR of 18.5 million, the used-car sales rate in March was also stronger than February’s clip (38.0 million) and where the market was in March 2019 (39.2 million), according to Cox.

Looking at Cox Automotive’s estimated used retail SAAR, which includes only the sales involving a dealer, March’s rate came in at 22.2 million. That compares to 9.8 million in March 2020, 20.8 million in February 2021 and 20.6 million in March 2019.

Cox Automotive is forecasting 39.3 million total used-vehicle sales in 2021, softer than the 40.0  million in 2019 but up from 37.2 million last year. 

The company anticipates 40.2 million total used-vehicle sales in 2022 and then 39.8 million in 2023. 

Analysts are projecting 21.5 million retail used-vehicle sales this year, which would beat both 2020 and 2019 figures. Last year, there were 19.7 million used retail sales, down from 21.0 million in 2019.

Elsewhere, TrueCar said in late March it was forecasting 3.6 million used-vehicle sales for that month, which would beat February figures by 1% and eclipse year-ago numbers by 104%.

TrueCar was projecting 10.33 million used-car sales for the first quarter, which would beat year-ago figures (8.61 million) by 20%. 

And in a news release recapping its latest NADA Market Beat data, the National Automobile Dealers Association said short new-car supply is helping to drive used-car sales and prices.