CARY, N.C. -

UPDATED to include analysis/data from LotLinx.

Recapping used-vehicle sales from May shows a bit of a mixed bag. The month appears to have been much stronger than April, but hit a speed bump the final week.

There was a 20.7% year-over-year decline in used-car sales the final week of May, according to Cox Automotive.

“Like in new, used sales also ran into a tough comparison, and our prior-week numbers were revised down substantially,” Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke said in a video update on Tuesday.

He later added, “As we got to the end of May, we ran into some much tougher comparisons to 2019, and so our estimates for both new- and used-vehicle sales lost some ground in the recovery.”

A week ago, an ALG forecast indicated that used-car sales for May were likely to be about two-thirds of what they were a year ago, but more than double the total from April.

The forecast had called for 2,342,597 used sales for May.

That would mark a 34% year-over-year dip but a 116% month-over-month gain, ALG said.

In a Weekly Market Update distributed Tuesday, LotLinx dissected used-car trends as of Monday night, indicating that there was a slight slowing in the pace of growth. However, used-car sales were up 14.4% from the pre-pandemic pace, LotLinx said.

On a more granular level, Lithia Motors saw “notable improvements” throughout its operations last month, including some impressive gains on the used-car side that brought the retailer’s pre-owned sales back to pre-pandemic levels in the last week of May.

Lithia’s same-store used-vehicle sales in May were up about 8% year-over-year, the company said in a news release Tuesday.

Same-store used-vehicle sales were down about 5% during the first week of May, but were up 22% year-over-year the final week of the month, Lithia said.

The used-car sales gains last week at Lithia were representative of “the strong levels achieved for the first two months of 2020 and prior to the pandemic,” the retailer said.

Over at PureCars, the company’s data indicated that 10 of the country’s 15 best-selling vehicles the week of May 22-28 were used models, as shown below:

1. Ford, F-150, Used
2. Ford, F-150, New
3. Chevrolet Silverado, Used
4. Ram 1500, Used
5. Toyota Rav4, New
6. Chevrolet Silverado, New
7. Honda CR-V, New
8. Ford Escape, Used
9. Jeep Grand Cherokee, Used
10. Chevrolet Equinox, Used
11. Toyota Camry, Used
12. Toyota Corolla, Used
13. Nissan Rogue, Used
14. Nissan, Altima, Used
15. Ram 1500, New