SAN DIEGO -

The certified pre-owned offering within the Costco Auto Program has experienced a similar growth wave to that of the overall CPO market recently, leaving management pleased with the level of engagement and interest from dealers and consumers, alike.

However, they are planning on making their used-car offering even bigger.

Discussing, first, the strength of the CPO offering, Costco Auto executive vice president Rick Borg said:  “We’re pleased, obviously, on an ongoing basis with our overall numbers, because we are strong and we have rode the trend, if you will, for factory-certified vehicles along with the industry over several years, now that we’ve been promoting CPO cars.

“And it has proven to be something that members respond to, and that there is a demand for it,” he continued. “We’re happy that we have dealers that have seen that opportunity, as well, in participating with us by offering CPO vehicles at their locations for our program.”

This is where the expansion comes in. The program has been piloting what is calls Select Pre-Owned for a few months and has plans to roll out it in 2014.

 “One of the things that we’re going to be focusing on in 2014 is including ‘SPO,’” said Costco Auto Program president Gina Paolino, who described these cars as “higher-end pre-owned vehicles” that might not be eligible under an OEM CPO program but still have some of the OEM warranty remaining.

“We are planning on growing that market for the Costco members,” she added. “So we moved from new to new and CPO; and now we’re going to be moving from new to CPO to also SPO.”

In explaining the program, the Costco Auto Program website indicates that “not every used car can be classified as ‘select pre-owned’ by the Costco Auto Program. Select pre-owned vehicles must meet certain eligibility requirements.”

Also included among the benefits is the fact that “repairs can be made at any franchised dealer (manufacturer-backed warranty).”

Borg added: “A Toyota dealer obviously can’t certify a Honda, but the opportunities for a still-in-warranty Honda being at a Toyota dealership, or any other dealership for that matter, is certainly a quality vehicle and is certainly in great shape and that’s something we want to take advantage of to have that offering for Costco members, as well.”

Costco has been piloting the program in a few areas, and Borg said they had been successful thus far.

“It’s doing well. We’re still going through some of the analysis, and doing some tweaks on it,” Borg said. “The pilots have been going well for several months now and we look forward to see how we can expand that and open that up.”

Most In-Demand Brands for Costco CPO

Earlier this month, the Costco Auto Program shared its top 10 most-requested certified pre-owned vehicles for November. The company later followed up and also provided top 20 year-to-date (January through November) brands and OEM request lists for 2012 and 2013. 

Brand Rankings — January through November 2013
1. Toyota
2. Honda
3. Ford
4. Chevrolet
5. Nissan
6. Lexus
7. BMW
8. Subaru
9. Hyundai
10. Acura
11. Volkswagen
12. Mercedes-Benz
13. Audi
14. Kia
15. Mazda
16. Jeep
17. GMC
18. Volvo
19. Dodge
20. Infiniti

Brand Rankings — January through November 2012
1. Toyota
2. Honda
3. Ford
4. Chevrolet
5. Lexus
6. Nissan
7. BMW
8. Hyundai
9. Subaru
10. Acura
11. Volkswagen
12. Mercedes-Benz
13, Audi
14. Kia
15. Mazda
16. Jeep
17. GMC
18. Volvo
19. Infiniti
20. Dodge

OEM Rankings — January through November 2013
1. Toyota
2. Honda
3. GM
4. Ford
5. Hyundai
6. Nissan
7. Volkswagen
8. BMW
9. Chrysler
10. Subaru
11. Mercedes-Benz
12. Mazda
13. Volvo
14. Land Rover
15. Mitsubishi
16. Fiat
17. Jaguar
18. Saab
19. Suzuki
20. Isuzu

OEM Rankings — January through November 2012
1. Toyota
2. Honda
3. GM    
4. Ford    
5. Hyundai
6. Nissan    
7. Volkswagen    
8. BMW    
9. Chrysler
10. Subaru    
11. Mercedes-Benz
12. Mazda    
13. Volvo
14. Mitsubishi
15. Land Rover    
16. Jaguar    
17. Fiat    
18. Suzuki    
19. Saab    
20. Isuzu    

 

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.