SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Franchised dealers are not just selling more used cars. A greater proportion of those cars are certified pre-owned vehicles.

In fact, the certified side of the business represented nearly 21 percent of total franchised dealer used-vehicle sales in the third quarter, compared to a CPO share of just under 19 percent in the same period of last year.

These CPO statistics and more are found in the Q3 2014 Used Vehicle Market Report from Edmunds.com, which pegged industry-wide used sales at 9.16 million for Q3 and 27.89 million year-to-date.

During the third quarter, franchised dealers moved 2.97 million used vehicles, according to Edmunds. Over 611,000 of those were CPO units, meaning that certified pre-owned commanded a 20.59-percent share of all used sales at franchised dealerships.

In Q3 of 2013, franchised stores sold 2.86 million used cars, with 540,260 being CPO (or, an 18.87-percent share for CPO).

Through three quarters of 2014, franchised dealers had moved 8.59 million used vehicles year-to-date, 1.74 million of which were CPO. 

That translates to 20.31-percent CPO penetration. A year ago, CPO share was at 19.02 percent through Q3, as 1.57 million of the 8.27 million used cars franchised dealers sold in the first three quarters were certified.

Here’s another way to look at it: Overall used sales for franchised dealers climbed 3.7 percent year-over-year in Q3. CPO sales jumped 13.1 percent.

Similarly, year-to-date franchised dealer used sales were up 3.9 percent through September; certified sales were up 10.9 percent.

Used-Sales Drivers

In the report, Edmunds analysts went on to explain what has lifted the overall hike in used-vehicle sales. One big factor? There is more inventory available.

“With the new-car sales rate in 2014 being the highest since 2006, there is simply more volume coming onto dealers’ used-car lots in the form of trade-ins,” analysts said in the report.

In fact, there has been a trade-in with nearly half (47 percent) of new-vehicle sales this year, the report noted.

 And with new-car sales projected to reach 16.5 million in 2014, that “nets a lot of trade-ins and a full used-car lot.”

Comparatively, only about 35 percent of new-car sales had a trade-in back in January 2008, according to a chart included in Edmunds' data set.

There’s also the boost in lease returns, which tends to benefit CPO supply, in particular.

“After leasing fell into the doldrums in 2009, it has been climbing ever since,” analysts noted. “There has been an uptick in number of lease returns — this leads to more certifiable vehicles which have seen the heftiest gain among all the used vehicle segments.”

And based on the data charts in Edmunds’ report, the number of lease returns seems poised to only grow from here.

As of the end of Q3, leases commanded more than 25 percent of new-vehicle sales — and they’ve been around that mark for nearly the entirety of the past seven quarters.