After eclipsing the best-ever annual sales mark in 2012, the certified pre-owned market began 2013 by setting a record for the strongest January of all time, according to Autodata Corp.

There were 150,626 certified vehicles sold last month, which was a 14.9-percent year-over-year improvement, Autodata said, also noting that all-time records were set at Mercedes-Benz, Kia and Mini.

Breaking down the results further, domestics grabbed 32.6 percent of the market, while European brands had an 18.1-percent CPO market share.  Leading the market were Asian OEMs, which took a 49.3-percent share.

Brand Breakdown

Shortly before press time, sales reports from individual brands began to surface, and it appears a few have raced out of the gates to begin 2013.

Mercedes-Benz’s best-ever month included 8,155 CPO sales, which was a 17.4-percent year-over-year uptick, and Kia sold 2,178 units (up 91.1 percent) in its record month.  As for the third record-breaker, there were 398 Mini CPO units sold, compared to 144 in January 2012.

And some brands posted their strongest Januaries on record.

Mazda, for example, just finished off its best January ever with 2,560 CPO sales. This also marked a 60-percent year-over-year increase in certified sales.

Likewise, Volkswagen had its strongest January on record, moving 7,324 certified vehicles. In addition to being a 23-percent year-over-year improvement, the company said this was the ninth straight monthly record and was only the 10th time that VW has moved more than 7,000 CPO rides.

Additionally, Hyundai achieved a January record with 5,393 certified sales, which was up 16.8 percent from January 2012.

Elsewhere, at Ford, its certified brands combined to sell 14,876 vehicles during the month for a 45-percent gain.

Breaking that figure down, there were 13,411 Ford/Mercury units sold (up 52 percent) and 1,465 Lincoln models sold (up 3 percent).

There were 23,693 sales of the certified Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac and Saturn models at General Motors (an 11.3-percent increase), while CPO sales for Cadillac were roughly static at 1,544.

Chrysler Group’s certified sales reached 8,932 units for a 3.7-percent uptick. This did not include Fiat’s 6 CPO sales last month. Meanwhile, Toyota’s certified figures climbed 11.8 percent at 26,523 units sold. Lexus posted 5,074 CPO sales, down 3.9 percent.

There were 17,861 Honda CPO units sold (up 5.1 percent) and 3,119 Acura units sold (up 6.9 percent).

Nissan sold 8,243 certified vehicles (up 16.4 percent), and Infiniti moved 840 (down 10.2 percent). Subaru’s CPO sales came in at 2,455 units for a 46.9-percent gain.

Audi increased its January CPO sales by 10.6 percent, selling 2,843 units.  BMW notched 5,888 CPO sales for a 10-percent hike. Meanwhile, Porsche sold 857 certified vehicles last month for a 5.5-percent gain.  Volvo sold 922 certified units for a 9.9-percent uptick.

Jaguar had 283 certified sales (up 11 percent), Land Rover sold 547 (up 16.4 percent) and Maserati sold 24 (down 17.2 percent).

Mitsubishi was estimated to have sold 50, and Bentley was estimated to have sold 30.
 

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