TORONTO -

Wrapping up an impressive year for the growing certified pre-owned market in Canada, December CPO results marked records for numerous OEMs, as many ended 2012 with double-digit sales increases.

One of these  brands was Honda, finishing off 2012 with a 24.1-percent year-over-year lift in CPO sales in December, as it sold  1,768 certified units. And overall, Honda’s Canadian CPO sales climbed by 12.4 percent over 2011, as the company moved a total of 21,886 CPO rides.

Commenting on Honda’s recent success, manager of used-vehicle operations Todd Fowler told Auto Remarketing Canada, “We are very proud of our dealer network for achieving this level of growth and elevating our Honda certified brand. We look forward to their continued success in 2013.”

As for the automaker’s luxury arm, Acura Canada sold 245 CPO units in December, down from 252 sold in the same period of 2011. That said, the brand saw an increase in its yearly sales rate, with 3,540 CPO units sold in 2012, up from 2,806 in 2011.

“This was an incredible year for the Acura certified program, where several times we exceeded our highest monthly sales records and year-over-year, we achieved an outstanding 26.2-percent growth in CPO sales,” Fowler said.

“Thanks to the dedication, commitment, and momentum the Acura dealer network has created,
in addition to the evolution of the Acura certified program, 2013 is sure to be another record setting year,” he continued.

Next up, Volkswagen Canada saw a significant 20-percent rise over 2011 CPO sales rates.

Luigi Fiorino, manager of used-vehicle sales at Volkswagen Canada, said, “Dealers performed extremely well in 2012 achieving an impressive sales increase of 20 percent versus 2011.  This is primarily due to the excellent efforts of our dealers and the introduction of VW’s global used-car brand, ‘Das WeltAuto,’ in Canada.”

Breaking VW’s numbers down further, the company saw 872 CPO sales during the month, up 7 percent from 818 in December of 2011.

For the whole year, VW sold 13,711 units, up from 11,448 in 2011.

Over at Audi, Jonathan Breton, manager of certified pre-owned and corporate sales, told Auto Remarketing Canada the company achieved its best year ever for CPO sales and finished with a best-ever month of December, as well.

December sales totaled 268 units, rising 13.1 percent over 237 sales from December 2011.

Overall, in 2012, Audi sold 4,174 Audi CPO vehicles, putting the OEM 2.6 percent ahead of 2011 year-end figures of 4,067.

“Despite modest increases in off-lease maturities in 2013, we expect even greater growth with our CPO business this year,” Breton said.

Highlighting another popular European luxury nameplate, Mercedes-Benz Canada saw CPO sales gains right through the year, as well.

With 818 vehicles sold in December, the Mercedes-Benz Pre-Owned division ended 2012 by recording an overall gain of 9.4 percent with a grand total of 14,310 CPO vehicles retailed.

And the news from the Asian OEMs was much the same.

For Hyundai, the company’s CPO vehicle program sold 654 units for the month to bring the year-to-date total to 11,836.This final number marks a significant increase of 175 percent from the total in 2011.

Over at Mazda, Bryan Leaitch, manager of  certified pre-owned, said the company sold 326 CPO units in December, which brought the company to  3,311 total certified sales for 2012.

Lastly, Toyota Canada sold 1,412 units this past December, down from 1,767 during the same period of 2011.

That said, the company did see year-over-year gain in this segment. Overall, Toyota Canada sold 24,531 CPO units for 2012, up from 23,581 in 2011.