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BANDON, Ore. —  Based on how the market performed in the first half of the month, used-vehicle sales for August are expected to climb almost 5 percent year-over-year, with the upswing in used sales for independents serving as a key catalyst, according to CNW Research.

The same can't be said for the sequential comparison of used-vehicle transaction pricing, though. These prices were down from July for both independent and franchise stores, marking the third straight month of sequential softening.

Looking at the sales projections in more detail, CNW predicts that used-vehicle sales will total 4.05 million units in August, an improvement of 4.7 percent from August 2009.

Independents' sales are forecasted at 1.43 million, up 13.2 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, franchise dealers are likely to see their used sales fall 1.2 percent to 1.39 million units.

Casual sales are on pace to come in at 1.23 million vehicles, up 2.8 percent.

With regards to pricing, franchise dealers' average transaction price is $10,219, down 2.4 percent from August 2009 and 0.96 percent from July.

The average price for independents is $8,557, up from $8,498 a year ago and off 0.77 percent compared to July.

Casual Sales

Continuing on, CNW spotlighted a trend in the casual sales sector of the used-vehicle market regarding paid advertisements. CNW found that in the midst of free online ad networks like craigslist.org and the increasing use of social networking, not as many people are using paid ads to sell their rides.

For instance, 67.2 percent of private-party sales were getting the word out through some form of paid advertising back in 1995. Typically, these sellers relied on the local newspaper, CNW explained.

The proportion using paid ads ballooned to nearly three-quarters of the private-party market (74.4 percent) in the subsequent five years thanks to online marketplaces like AutoTrader.com increasing their footprint.

However, 2000 was the peak of that trend, which has since declined every year since, coming in at 23.4 percent using paid ads through the first half of 2010.

The heaviest decline was between 2005 — when the proportion was at 55.4 percent — and 2006, when it slid down to 38.6 percent. CNW president Art Spinella noted that this decline in 2006 reflected the "national-awareness explosion of free online sites" that occurred that year.

"Then social networking sites like Facebook entered the fray," he shared.

Ultimately, Spinella added, "The impact of this trend doesn't bode well for conventional means of selling used cars such as paid classified advertising in newspapers."

He went on to say: "Any business that relies on paid ads by consumers to sell a vehicle will have to dance faster over the coming few years. Better quality vehicles removes much of the necessity to sell quickly. When it comes to this particular transaction, Americans have become very patient."

Moving on, CNW pointed out that a 10-year-old vehicle has an equal chance of being involved in a private-party sale as it would a dealership sale.

However, more than 80 percent of 18-year-old vehicles are sold via casual sales.