CARY, N.C. -

The combined same-store new-car sales for the six publicly traded dealer groups were fairly steady in the third quarter, falling a shade under 1% year-over-year, according to company filings and Cox Automotive estimates.

But their used-car sales?

Same-store sales were up almost 11%, according to the same data set.

As such, “the trend in our industry is crystal clear: New sales are down, while used sales are significantly up,” Cox Automotive said in a report.

But it’s not just the big dealer groups that are seeing rising used-car sales.

There were 230,346 certified pre-owned vehicle sales industrywide in October, according to a separate analysis from Cox Automotive. That sum beats year-ago figures by 8% and bests prior-month numbers by 12%.

Through 10 months, there have been more than 2.3 million CPO sales year-to-date, which is 2.9% ahead of the year-ago pace, Cox said. And 2018 was a record year.

In fact, with 365,000 more sales, 2019 would already match prior-year sales figures, the company said. Once this year is in the books, expect to see a year-end tally of 2.75 million certified sales, Cox said in the report.

The market is not without challenges, though.

“As we move into the holiday shopping season, new-vehicle incentive programs will be a headwind facing the CPO market,” Cox Automotive said. “If incentives increase, consumers will see competitive monthly payments when comparing a new unit and a CPO unit, which could put downward pressure on CPO growth.”

Conversely, incentives on CPO vehicles may help. The Q3 Autotrader Cross-Shopping report, which looked at used-to-CPO cross shopping, found that incentives (37%) were the most appealing saving opportunity for CPO vehicles over finance offers (33%) or sales events (30%).