CARY, N.C. -

More than 2.8 million late-model vehicles hit the auction market last year, according to J.D. Power Valuation Services.

This marked a 3.2-percent bump in late-model auction volume, the company said in its latest Guidelines report.

Some of those, of course, would be off-lease vehicles. Cox Automotive is anticipating 3.89 million off-lease units in 2018, which would be up from 3.59 million in 2017.

While that’s more than an 8-percent hike, the growth in off-lease volume is slowing down a bit.

Off-lease volume in 2017 was up more than 16 percent, following a more than 22-percent gain in 2016, according to data in a Cox Automotive presentation.

Still, 2018 is expected to be a record year for lease returns, according to Edmunds.

Case in point: there were 4 million vehicle leases written in 2015, the company said in its 2018 Automotive Industry Trends report, which was a 12-percent hike.

The following year was the peak, with just under 4.5 million lease originations, before the market trimmed down below 4 million again in 2017, Edmunds said.