CARY, N.C. -

There have been 3.84 million auction sales of vehicles age 8 or younger so far this year (through Oct. 24), according to NADA Used Car Guide.

This is a 7-percent hike from the same period of 2015, and the gain for late-model volume is even stronger.

The company said in its latest Guidelines report that auction volume for cars up to 3 years old is up 10.8 percent. The highlight in that late-model class is the 2013 model-year auction volume, which has climbed 31.9 percent year-to-date due largely to off-lease supply.

On the retail side of the used-car market, Edmunds.com is calling for roughly 2.8 million used-car sales in November, which would be down from 3.1 million in October. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate for used-car sales, however, is likely to climb from 37.8 million to 37.9 million.

As far as the new-car side, Edmunds predicts that the year-to-date tally will reach 15,844,726 units by the end of this month, up ever-so-slightly from the year-ago period (15,838,458 sales)

And last year, of course, turned out to be a record year for new-car sales.

“It’s probably no coincidence that this month’s strong sales performance come at the same time that the Dow Jones Average reached an all-time high,” Edmunds executive director of industry analysis Jessica Caldwell said in a news release. “Now that the presidential election is over, shoppers have more confidence in the economy than they had just a month ago, and that gives them extra motivation to make big-ticket purchases.

“If this month’s forecast holds, December’s year-over-year sales only need to be flat to set a new annual record in 2016,” she said. “Get your popcorn ready because it’s going to be a nail-biter.”