WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J. –

The certified pre-owned vehicle market climbed more than 8 percent in April and approached 233,000 sales for the month, according to Autodata Corp.

Releasing figures late Wednesday afternoon, Autodata said there were 232,853 CPO sales last month, which beat year-ago figures by 8.3 percent and pushed the year-to-date tally to 879,211 sales (up 5.9 percent).

Lexus had its best month ever with 8,894 CPO sales (up 27.8 percent) and has now sold 31,888 certified vehicles this year (up 19.6 percent), according to Autodata.

Asian-brand CPO sales reached 112,696 for the month (up 13.8 percent) and have hit 417,866 year-to-date (up 11.5 percent).

European sales were up 0.9 percent for the month at 37,405 units sold, but were down 1.2 percent year-to-date at 140,740 CPO sales.

The Big 3 recorded 82,752 certified sales in April (up 4.9 percent) and 320,596 sales year-to-date (up 2.5 percent).