CARY, N.C. -

Granted, March tends to bring the year’s best certified pre-owned sales results anyway, but the CPO market was especially impressive last month, showing no signs of leveling off.  

In fact, last month had the strongest CPO sales total of all time, according to Autodata Corp., which said dealers moved 258,970 certified vehicles in March.

That’s 6.4 percent stronger year-over-year and a 22-percent hike from February.

It also beats the previous record (set in March 2016) by 6.2 percent, according to Autodata.

March’s record CPO sales closed a first quarter where the market climbed 4.2 percent year-over-year and 8 percent sequentially.  Specifically, there were 674,294 certified sales in Q1, Autodata said.

March also meant all-time sales records for nine brands.

Audi, Cadillac, FCA, Kia, Infiniti, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Subaru each posted their best-ever month for CPO.

The Big 3 combined to move 92,385 certified vehicles in March (up 7.2 percent), with quarterly sales at 237,021 units (up 8.9 percent).

Asian brand CPO sales were up 4.8 percent in March at 123,103, while year-to-date sales have moved forward 0.6 percent to 321,984 units.

There were 43,282 certified sales by European brands in March (up 9.5 percent), with 5.1-percent growth year-to-date (115,289 sales).