AJAX, Ontario -

After a hearty month to kick off 2012, it appears Canda’s certified pre-owned market has continued to build steam, as several of Canada’ leading brands have reported strong growth in the first two months of 2012.

Among these brands is  Audi, which has benefited from its dealers kicking their trade-in sourcing up a notch. Audi’s Canadian certified sales climbed 13.8 percent to 296 units in February, while its year-to-date sales jumped 9.3 percent to 552 vehicles.

“Overall, inventory availability from lease returns is relatively stable, although lower than last year,” said Jonathan Breton, manager of certified pre-owned and corporate sales.

“Our increase over last year’s retail business has been a result of greater dealer engagement when sourcing vehicles from trade-ins,” he continued. “An example of this is one of our dealers that recently held a private sale event found that roughly 60 to 70 percent of those sales that had trade-ins were eligible for our Audi certified pre-owned program.”

Next up was Honda Canada, where the flagship division had 1,636 CPO sales in February, up more than 500 units compared to February 2011. So far this year, it has sold 3,121 certified vehicles, versus 2,432 CPO sales in the first two months of 2011.

“Honda is continuing its already impressive start to 2012 by once again surpassing last year’s sales for the month of February by an incredible 47.4 percent,” said Honda Canada’s Todd Fowler.

“Also, in a year-to-date comparison, our certified sales in 2012 have exceeded last year by 28.3 percent. We are very proud of our dealer network to achieve this level of growth and elevate the Honda certified brand,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Honda Canada’s Acura division increased its CPO sales from 179 units to 310 vehicles, which represented its best-ever month. In two months, dealers have sold 568 CPO rides, up from 370 at this point in 2011.

“February was a very exciting month for Acura, as we are proud to announce we achieved the highest certified sales month in the history of the program at 310 units,” Fowler added.

“February represented an incredible 73.2-percent growth over last February’s sales, and a 53.5-percent increase in a year-to-date comparison to last year,” he went on to note. “The fact that this achievement was accomplished during the shortest month of the year bodes very well for the future of the Acura certified pre-owned program.”

Over at Volvo Canada, dealers moved 92 certified vehicles in February, compared to 55 a year ago. Through the first two months of the year, Volvo has 176 CPO sales, compared to 103 in the year-ago period.

“Volvo Canada’s certified pre-owned program continues to attract more and more premium vehicle buyers every month by providing an industry-leading offer that not only includes a rigorous inspection and reconditioning regiment and CarProof report, but also a six-year/160,000-kilometer warranty and roadside assistance,” said Emanuel Lichtinshtein, the company’s national fleet sales, CPO & remarketing manager.

Volkswagen’s CPO sales reached 886 units in February, compared to 699 a year ago. In two months of 2012, certified sales have hit 1,693 units, up from 1,412 CPO sales a year ago.

Toyota had its best-ever February for CPO sales, with 1,803 units being sold for a 35.4-percent year-over-year hike.

Likewise, Mercedes-Benz Canada had its best February for pre-owned, pulling in 969 sales (up 44.8 percent). Year-to-date, it has sold 1,828 pre-owned units for a 41.3-percent gain.

At BMW Group Canada, the BMW division pulled in 832 pre-owned sales (down 8 percent) while Mini moved 93 certified vehicles (down 47.8 percent).