TORRANCE, Calif. -

The certified pre-owned segment had its second-strongest month on record during March, but perhaps the biggest story throughout the auto industry was the impact the disaster in Japan had on automakers as their operations, supply and production were among just a few of the areas affected by the devastation.

In light of the disaster’s aftermath, a couple of CPO executives shared how the certified segment, in particular, has been affected.

At Honda, national remarketing manager Dan Crowe pointed out that dealers will likely have to make adjustments in light of the disaster’s impact.

“With the temporary interruption of new-car production and the declining new-car inventory, dealers will have to rely on their pre-owned operations to carry them through the spring selling season,” Crowe shared.

“Since certified vehicles are core part of our dealers’ pre-owned inventory, I anticipate our CPO sales will remain strong throughout the next several months,” he added.

Subaru’s Jim Sarchese also offered his take on how the aftermath of the disaster may affect dealers.

“Used-car values are already very strong, and dealers are driving them even higher as they seek to procure adequate inventory for the summer months,” he explained.

“Finding adequate inventory was our biggest challenge last year and now with potential new-car production shortfalls dealers will need to get creative to find other methods of consistent supply,” Sarchese continued.

Moving along to discuss March results, the CPO industry enjoyed quite a robust month.

In fact, the 162,092 certified units sold marked the second-best CPO total ever, according to Autodata Corp. It also marks an 11.7-percent year-over-year increase as well as a 21.2-percent sequential hike.

The CPO market improved 13.6 percent year-over-year and moved a total of 419,593 units during the first quarter. Autodata also reported that seven brands — Hyundai, Kia, Maserati, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru and Volkswagen — notched best-ever months for CPO sales, and several others were close to breaking records.

For Honda, Crowe said both the Acura and Honda divisions posted significant gains in CPO sales. Acura improved by 24 percent to 4,552 certified units sold, while Honda showed a 22-percent gain as it moved 20,586 CPO vehicles. Quarterly sales for the Honda brand were at 54,079 units  (up more than 23 percent), with Acura posting CPO sales of 12,782 units (up more than 37 percent).

At Subaru, Sarchese indicated that Subaru sold 2,200 units. This marks a 37.5-percent hike over the year-ago period. First-quarter CPO sales came in at 6,062 units, up 44.9 percent year-over-year.

Next up was Toyota, which had its best-ever March with 31,127 CPO units sold. This marks an 18.3-percent improvement over the year-ago period. The previous best-ever March was in 2008, when Toyota moved 27,144 certified vehicles.

Toyota’s first-quarter CPO sales totaled 81,170 vehicles, an increase of 26.2 percent from the same period of 2010.

“Our dealers have truly raised the bar with our certified used-vehicle program. Toyota dealers continue to take advantage of the strength in the used-car market,” said Toyota’s Tom DeLuise.

“They leverage the Toyota fuel economy message, quality and reliability reputation, along with the Toyota certified warranty piece-of-mind, to sell Toyota certified vehicles,” he continued. “Toyota certified vehicles not only bring new customers to the Toyota brand, it is a great customer retention tool for our dealers.”

Lexus also notched its strongest March on record for CPO sales, as it moved 6,587 units. This represents a 16.3-percent hike over March 2010, when the previous record was set.

First-quarter certified sales for the brand came in at 17,773 units, a 15.8-percent improvement over the year-ago period.

On the domestic front, Ford moved 11,292 CPO vehicles in March, down 11.2 percent from the year-ago period. Through three months of 2011, Ford sold 28,917 CPO vehicles, down 14.6 percent year-over-year.

Breaking it down by brand, the Ford division sold 9,357 CPO vehicles in March, marking a 13.4-percent decrease. CPO sales for Lincoln/Mercury hit 1,935 units, a 1-percent gain.

Over at General Motors, its certified brands combined to sell 31,138 vehicles in March, a 14.3-percent hike from March 2010. First-quarter CPO sales came in at 78,207 units, which is 8.7 percent stronger than the first quarter of last year.

GM Certified Used Vehicles had sales of 28,822 units in March, compared with 24,532 in the same period of 2010.

Meanwhile, Chrysler moved 10,700 CPO units in March, an improvement of 9.8 percent from the prior-year period. Through the first three months of the year, CPO sales totaled 27,898 units, up 14.6 percent.

By brand, Dodge moved 4,116 CPO units in March, a gain of 3 percent from the same period of 2010.

Jeep notched CPO sales of 3,456 units, up 14.4 percent year-over-year. The Chrysler brand’s CPO sales reached 3,128 units, a gain of 14.9 percent.

Continuing along, Mercedes-Benz’s certified sales dipped 7.2 percent in March as the automaker finished with 7,236 CPO vehicles sold. Through the first three months of 2011, the company sold 19,539 CPO vehicles, down 3.2 percent from last year’s pace.

BMW reported CPO sales of 8,288 units in March, down 28.9 percent year-over-year. Through March, its year-to-date certified sales were at 22,957 units, down 16.7 percent.

Continuing on, Volkswagen dealers moved 6,878 CPO vehicles for the month, a 52.8-percent hike. CPO sales for the first three quarters were 16,126 units, a 57.9-percent uptick.

Audi’s CPO sales reached 3,318 vehicles in March, compared with 2,551 units a year ago. Quarterly CPO sales hit 8,127 units, up from 6,035 through the first three months of 2010.

As for Volvo, it recorded certified sales of 1,118 units during the month, which was off 31.5 percent from the prior year. Through the end of March, it sold 2,893 certified vehicles, a 34.2-percent dip.

At Nissan North America, the Nissan brand sold 7,948 CPO vehicles, up 5.1 percent year-over-year. The first-quarter certified sales total was 19,856 units, an improvement of 2.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the Infiniti brand’s CPO sales for March dipped 1.2 percent to 1,149 vehicles sold. Quarterly certified sales came in at 2,935, which marked a 5.3-percent hike.

Over at Mazda, its dealers moved 1,636 CPO vehicles, up 239 percent from March 2010. Certified sales in the first quarter reached 4,349 units, a 237-percent improvement.

Hyundai achieved March CPO sales of 3,893 units, up 121.6 percent over the same period of 2010. It moved 8,925 CPO units during the first three months of 2011, which is a 124.7-percent gain.

Kia had CPO sales of 745 units. This marked a 30.9-percent year-over-year rise. First-quarter CPO sales hit 2,013 units, a 29.7-percent gain.

Among the other automakers, Porsche moved 771 certified vehicles during the month, up 10 percent from a year ago.

Mini sold 163 CPO units, compared with 206 units in March 2010.

Jaguar’s CPO sales hit 339 units in March, versus 297 certified sales a year ago. Land Rover’s certified numbers, meanwhile, dipped from 263 units to 190 units in March.

Saab’s certified sales fell from 223 units to 140 units.

Mitsubishi had CPO sales of 29 vehicles, compared with 43 units in March 2010. Bentley was estimated to have moved 30 CPO units in March.

Maserati reported that it sold 37 certified vehicles, compared with 19 in March 2010.