Last month marked the first year-over-year rise in certified pre-owned sales since September 2021, according to a Cox Automotive Data Point report Tuesday and month-by-month data the company previously sent Auto Remarketing.

Beyond snapping a 14-month streak of year-over-year declines, the CPO market also has this positive sign as year-end draws near: annual sales are likely to meet and potentially exceed Cox Automotive’s projection of 2.4 million units.

Citing Motor Intelligence data, Cox said there were 198,313 certified sales in November. That’s down 4.4% from October, but beats year-ago figures by 9.5%

One example of CPO growth was at Mazda North American Operations, where certified sales climbed 13% year-over-year and reached 4,344 units last month, the automaker said.

Industry-wide, the resulting year-to-date tally after November is 2.24 million units sold, which is down 12.4% from the same period of 2021, according to Cox.

Currently, Cox is calling for 2.45 million certified sales for full-year 2022, which would be 11% softer than 2021.

“Current year-to-date CPO sales hit 2.24 million at November’s end. To match or exceed our call of 2.4 million, CPO sales would have to be 160,000 or more,” senior manager of economic and industry insights Chris Frey said in the report.

“The last time they were at or below this level was in the March to April 2020 selling period,” Frey said. “Given the sales pace this year and barring any major impacts from interest rates or other unforeseen events, we should hit our target — and then some.”

A few market factors are benefitting CPO, Cox said. For one, as some buyers move from new to used given high prices and lack of supply, certified is “being positioned as the best alternative to a new vehicle,” the company said in the report.

CPO vehicles also have average interest rates that are 2 percentage points lower than those on the average used car, Cox said.

Citing its Dealertrack Credit Availability Index, the company said that used-vehicle financing done at franchised dealerships and financing for CPO units “loosened the most” in November.