Certified pre-owned sales fell more than 11% year-over-year in September and were off 5% from August, according to a Cox Automotive analysis of Motor Intelligence data.

With 201,707 CPO vehicle sales, September marked the softest sum in seven months.  And through nine months, year-to-date certified sales are at 1.84 million, down 15% from the 2.16 million in the first three quarters of 2021, Cox said.

But it wasn’t all bad news for the certified segment.

 “The one upgrade in our quarterly forecasting updates for Q3 was to take CPO sales up slightly,” said  Chris Frey, senior manager of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive, in a news release.

“CPO has been up and down this year as it’s impacted by supply and demand, but we should see CPO end the year at 2.4 million,” Frey said. “The value of an extended warranty cannot be understated, especially in a rising cost environment.”

However, as Cox pointed out in a quarterly analysis call late last month, that 2.4 million figure would be a 12% year-over-year decline and even softer than the 2.8 million peak reached in 2019.

According to data that Cox shared with Auto Remarketing, there were 619,662 certified sales in the third quarter. That is down from 699,809 CPO sales in Q3 of 2021.

Among individual automakers sharing certified sales results, Mercedes-Benz — after reporting its second strongest first-half CPO sales ever — posted 33,624 certified sales in the third quarter. That beat second-quarter sales by 1.6%, the company said. Through three quarters, Mercedes has moved 99,652 certified vehicles.

At Mazda North American Operations, certified sales were down 26% year-over-year last month, with dealers selling 4,134 CPO vehicles.