BANDON, Ore. -

CNW Research determined the amount of pre-approved loans, subprime buyers and the percentage of January's used-vehicle sales to buyers with FICO scores below 550 all increased year-over-year.

The firm indicated the level of pre-approved financing for a used-vehicle purchase last month came in at 7.52 percent, up from 6.65 percent a year ago.

Meanwhile, CNW discovered 764,472 of January's used-vehicle sales included a subprime buyer, a 24.67 percent rise from the same month last year.

Furthermore, the firm found that 20.65 percent of last month's used sales had buyers with FICO scores below 550. Last January, that figure stood at 15.01 percent.

With a good bit of the country hampered by severe weather, the used-car market last month wasn't quite as solid as it was a year ago, as sales dipped 0.72 percent, according to CNW.

That said, franchised dealers bucked the trend, boosting their used-car sales by more than 2 percent.

Overall, used-car sales fell from 2.35 million in January 2013 to 2.34 million in this most recent month.

Franchised dealers, however, saw their sales rise 2.4 percent year-over-year with 851,116 used vehicles sold in January. Independents showed a 0.57-percent decline with 823,945 sales.

There were 695,087 private-party sales, off 4.6 percent from January 2013.

As CNW president Art Spinella explained in an earlier forecast, January can be a tricky month for the used-car market. Sales in the year's opening month don't necessarily indicate what the rest of the year might have in store.