The 346 certified pre-owned vehicles that Paragon Honda sold in May was an all-time record for the brand, and the New York dealership’s leadership said the store should eclipse 3,300 CPO sales this year.

The dealership has sat atop Honda’s list of top CPO sellers for quite some time and earned Auto Remarketing’s inaugural CPO Dealer of the Year honors in 2010.

Brian Benstock, Paragon’s vice president and general manager, talked with Auto Remarketing about the record, saying the availability of off-lease vehicles was a big factor in helping the dealership achieve this mark.

What’s more, he anticipates this pipeline will continue growing this year, giving dealers greater opportunity to acquire these CPO-ideal cars.

That said, the CPO market in general is growing, meaning other dealers — including competitors — are seeing their certified sales blossom.

So how does Paragon distinguish itself from other stores, amid these widespread gains?

“Somebody asked me that the other day, and I said it’s like golf clubs,” Benstock said. “If I gave you a set of Ping golf clubs and I had a set of Ping golf clubs … and Tiger Woods had the same clubs, well, our results are going to be dramatically different.

“I would say the same is true in the certified used-car business. I think more people are getting into it; more people are using tools like vAuto and data-mining tools, but the reality is, people that use the tools the best will have a better result,” he continued.

To illustrate how he uses these industry tools differently, Benstock used another sports example: Formula 1 racing. In the 1950s and 1960s, he said, a solid pit stop would take 59 seconds to change two tires. These days, the bar has been raised: four tires changed in about 2.3 seconds.

“So, I think velocity, throughput, speed will continue to be the edge that the sharper dealers have,” he said.

And that, he said, applies to the speed at which dealers can get cars from acquisition to the frontline, turn the inventory and other efficiencies.

“These things will separate the winners from the losers going forward,” he said. “Everybody has time from acquisition to frontline-ready. Everybody has that time. For some dealers, it’s seven days. For some, it’s 14 days.

“In our case, we’re trying to get that down below 12 hours,” Benstock continued. “So, it’s the fresher the fish, the better the dish.”

And that also applies to things like responding to customer leads: the more efficient, the better.

“All of these things tie in,” he said, referring to tools, acquisition-to-frontline-ready speed and response time to customer leads.  “All of these things lead to great turn, great velocity and great throughput.”

Going back to the CPO sales numbers, it’s not just additional supply that’s driving certified strength for Paragon.

For one, the dealership has had great success with its Vehicle Exchange Program, where a consumer can trade in a late-model Honda for a new Honda for a similar or lower monthly payment. Paragon Honda uses the service lane to target in-market drivers of late-model Hondas that are ideal for CPO.

And with increased competition in CPO, Benstock said his store has pushed itself to improve.

“The CPO market is heating up. There are more people involved in it, so we’re forcing ourselves to get better at it,” he said. “We’ve had dealers in our district that have increased their business by 30 and 40 percent. And I think the fact that we’re still up as a mature dealer speaks volumes to some of the changes that our team has made.

“Because we’re not in a static market. People are getting into the game, and things that took us five and six years to figure out, other dealers are able to replicate in a much shorter time. If we’re going to continue to have an edge, we’re going to have to continue to innovate and break down some walls,” he concluded.