CARY, N.C. -

The amount of off-lease inventory flowing into Kia’s certified pre-owned program will likely double this year. That’s proving fruitful for a brand that just finished its best two months ever for CPO sales. 

And, most likely, the CPO market as a whole. 

In July, Kia moved 7,007 certified units for a 20.6-percent year-over-year gain, according to Autodata Corp.

The automaker said in a news release Monday that this marked the second-best month it has ever had for CPO.

No. 1? That was June. Kia sold 7,403 CPO cars that month (up 21 percent).

Like much of the industry, increases in off-lease volume have helped drive nice gains in certified sales for Kia, which said its CPO numbers were up 12 percent in the first four months of 2016.

Year-to-date, Kia is up 14.8 percent with 43,935 CPO sales.

In June, Kia was joined in the record-breaking ranks by Land Rover, which also posted its best-ever month for CPO, according to Autodata.

In July — which was the second-best CPO month of all time for the industry itself — five brands (BMW, Lexus, MINI, Nissan and Subaru) reached best-ever sales, Autodata said. All told, there were 234,243 certified sales, beating last July’s figure by 5.6 percent, the firm said.

There have been 1.56 million certified vehicles sold so far this year (a 4.1-percent increase, Autodata said) and comments from Autotrader’s senior analyst in Kia’s news release suggest the industry could go much higher.

“CPO sales growth will skyrocket in the near future, approaching 3 million in the next couple of years and surpassing 4 million by the end of the decade,” Michelle Krebs said.

“A robust CPO program will be critical to automakers and their dealers to build sales and customer loyalty, and maintain strong residual values for leasing customers and buyers trading in their vehicles,” she added.

One of the ways in which automakers can drive more of the off-lease volume to CPO is through the lower mileage allotments on leases, says Edmunds.com.

In the company’s Lease Market Report for the first half of 2016, Edmunds said that the average annual mileage on leases has fallen steadily in the past 11 years: It dipped from 13,060 miles in the first half of 2005 to 11,990 miles in the first half of this year.

Lower mileage allotment “leads to better condition of off-lease vehicles, which can command higher used prices,”  Edmunds said in the report.

“Low miles also lead to a greater possibility of CPO-able vehicles, which allows automakers to have a hand in used vehicle profits,” it adds.