CARY, N.C. -

Sales reports from the first month after the best year in the history of the certified pre-owned market have begun to surface, and it appears a few brands have raced out of the gates to begin 2013.

Mazda, for example, just finished off its best January ever with 2,560 CPO sales, said Roger Basa, the company’s manager of CPO and remarketing. This also marked a 60-percent year-over-year increase in certified sales.

Likewise, Volkswagen had its strongest January on record, moving 7,324 certified vehicles. In addition to being a 23-percent year-over-year improvement, the company said this was the ninth straight monthly record and was only the 10th time that VW has moved more than 7,000 CPO rides.

At Ford, its certified brands combined to sell 14,876 vehicles during the month for a 45-percent gain. Breaking that figure down, there were 13,411 Ford/Mercury units sold (up 52 percent) and 1,465 Lincoln models sold (up 3 percent).

Audi increased its January CPO sales by 10.6 percent, selling 2,843 units. Mercedes-Benz sold 8,159 certified vehicles for a 17.5-percent year-over-year increase.

Meanwhile, Porsche sold 857 certified vehicles last month for a 5.5-percent gain. Lexus posted 5,074 CPO sales, down 3.9 percent from Jan 2012.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned to Auto Remarketing for more CPO sales results as they are released, and be sure to see our Feb. 1528 print issue on “The Best CPO Dealers in the USA.”

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.