With the best third quarter ever and a sales increase of more than 6 percent in September, the certified pre-owned market passed the 2 million unit sales mark for the year.

The market remains ahead of the 2016 pace by one percent, meaning another record year is likely in the works. 

Autodata Corp., which released updated CPO sales figures through nine months on Tuesday,  said there were an estimated 221,902 certified vehicle sales in September, which beat year-ago figures by 6.6 percent.

This capped a record third quarter, where dealers moved 679,367 units.

In addition to besting Q3 2016 figures by 0.5 percent, it was the strongest third quarter on record and the second-best quarter ever for CPO sales,  according to Autodata. 

The best?

The second quarter of 2017, which was 2.1-percent stronger than the most recent period.

With consecutive strong quarters on the books, the CPO market has now tallied 2.02 million sales for the year, which beats the first nine months of 2016 by 1.0 percent.

Looking at September results in more detail, the Big 3 moved 75,477 units for the month (up 14.6 percent) and are relatively steady (up 0.3 percent) with year-ago figures, having sold 696,123 units year-to-date.

Asian brands climbed 2.7 percent in September with 109,125 CPO sales and are steady year-to-date (up 0.4 percent) with 982,621 sales.

European brands moved 37,300 units for the month, which was a 3.4-percent gain. That included a best-ever month by Land Rover, which sold 1,829 CPO vehicles (up 11.7 percent).

Through nine months, European CPO sales are up 4.1 percent at 342,099 units.