Used-car sales continue to climb in May

Despite record-high wholesale prices and limited supply, used-car sales continued to gain traction in May.

Cox Automotive said in a Data Point report last week that there was a 3% year-over-year hike in used-car sales last month.

The total used-vehicle SAAR was an estimated 41.0 million in May, steady with April and up from 39.9 million in May 2020, Cox said.

Looking at sales specific to dealerships (and taking private-party sales out of the equation), Cox said the retail SAAR for used-car was an estimated 22.4 million in May, again steady with April.

In May 2020, the retail used-car SAAR was 21.1 million.

In late May, TrueCar was forecasting that the month’s used-vehicle sales would end up beating year-ago figures by 13% and besting April’s total by 4%.

The firm was projecting that once final numbers were tallied, there was likely to have been 4.0 million used-car sales in May.

One of the hottest segments of the used-car market has been certified pre-owned. While industrywide figures were not yet available as of press time, a couple of automakers have shared May results.

Mazda, for instance, had its strongest May on record for CPO, moving 6,846 units during the month. That beat year-ago figures by 10%.

Volvo had 4,057 CPO sales last month, moving its year-to-date tally to 17,080 units.