BANDON, Ore. -

Learning that used-vehicle sales potentially showed the highest October in four years, Auto Remarketing sought feedback directly from the frontlines — both independent and franchised dealers. Just what are they reporting?

At Select EuroCars, an independent dealership in Waterloo, N.Y., specializing in Volkswagens, president Joel Osserman said he can’t pinpoint the reason for topsy-turvy trending for used sales at his store.

The dealership was on track for a best-ever year through the first eight months of 2010, but it was a different tune in September and October

Osserman said his store’s used sales last month weren’t bad and actually improved 10 percent from September, but they were still off almost a third from October 2010.

“It’s all over the place. I don’t have trends. I thought I did,” he told Auto Remarketing on Wednesday morning. “I was heading for a best year (ever). September and October sure knocked that out.”

As to why sales acted they way they did during the past two months, Osserman said, “I really don’t have any good explanation.”

He added: “It may turn around for us this month. We hope it does.”

Offering the take of a franchised dealer, Ray Mungenast — president of the Mungenast Automotive Family, a St. Louis-area dealership group with several franchises — said that the issue on the used-car side for his group is supply and procurement.

“If cars are available, you really have to pay up for them,” he noted.

While he didn’t have October sales figures yet, Mungenast noted used sales were not as strong as new sales for his group.

Of course, across the board, it appears things were relatively strong for dealers on the used-car front in October, if CNW’s data is any indication.

In addition to the supply issue, Mungenast also pointed to incentives on the new-car side, which has caused consumers to shift a bit more to the new side instead of used.

Overall, there were 2.91 million used sales during the month, up from 2.59 million in October 2010, CNW indicated. Used sales had not reached this landmark in an October since 2007. That month, used sales were at 2.98 million.

Breaking October 2011 down further, franchised dealers notched 1.01 million used sales. A year ago, their used sales came in at 891,773 units.

For independent dealers, their used sales reached 979,583 units last month, up from 877,081 used sales in October 2010.

One of those independent dealers, Jeff Braatz, said October wasn’t necessarily “strong” for his store — Paradise Motors, which does a combination of buy-here, pay-here and the credit acceptance business — but it was in line with what was forecasted and was a “good” month.

The Lansing, Mich. dealership — which being a BHPH store, is different than traditional dealerships — moved a little more than 50 used units, up “quite a bit” from the 40 used units it sold in October 2010. Moreover, the store moved around 35 in September.

Moreover, the dealership is moving about 55 or 56 units per month (with most of the strength being seen in the spring, per usual), compared to 44 sales a month last year.

Braatz, who is the owner of the dealership, said the improvement boils down to consistent marketing and the store’s word-of-mouth reputation.

“In our world, we’ve been somewhat of an institution in the area for what we do,” he noted.

Offering some overall perspective on the industry’s used sales, CNW president Art Spinella said it appears pent-up demand was the main driver.

“While we’re still analyzing the data, it appears the key motivation for buying a used vehicle was a large backlog of pent up demand coming to market,” Spinella said.

During the third quarter of 2011, pent-up demand was at 486,750 units, a 141-percent increase from the year-ago period, CNW’s data indicated.

“These are people who postponed a used-vehicle acquisition for the past 18 months and now need to replace their car or truck or feel sufficiently comfortable economically to make an acquisition,” he continued. “We expect this trend to continue with both November and December sales exceeding the same months last year by significant double digits.”