CARY, N.C. -

Penske Automotive Group’s same-store used retail sales jumped more than 17 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, part of what Manheim’s Tom Webb calls a “pretty picture” for the used operations of the seven publicly traded dealership groups.

Penske was the most recent public retailer to announce quarterly results, and much like its peers, it had a piping hot quarter on the used-car side.

Revealing Q2 results Wednesday morning, Penske said it retailed 41,061 used units on a same-store basis during the period, which was a 14.9-percent hike from the second quarter of 2012.

Overall, Penske moved 42,332 retail used units for a 17.4-percent upswing.

Same-store used retail revenue totaled $1.05 billion for Penske (up 13.2 percent) in the second quarter, and for the first half of the year, it reached $2.02 billion (up 8.6 percent).

During the first two quarters of 2013, Penske moved 79,304 used retail units on a same-store basis for a 10.5-percent hike. Overall used retail unit sales were at 82,429 vehicles (up 13.7 percent).

In a blog post published Wednesday, Webb talked about the current state-of-affairs within the seven public retailers as it relates to Q2 same-store retail used unit sales and the corresponding gross margins.

“It’s a pretty picture,” Webb said in this blog. “Same-store retail used unit sales increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.  And, the magnitude of the increase (13.2 percent) was the largest since the second quarter of 2010 (a time when the comps were much easier).”

He added: “It’s true that sales-weighted gross margins declined from their year ago for the 14th consecutive quarter, but the size of the decline was minuscule.

“Gross margins were basically the same in the second quarter of this year as compared to last year and the first quarter of this year.  The decline in wholesale values in the second quarter of this year helped stem some of the earlier erosion in margins.”
 

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