BANDON, Ore. –

For dealers and finance companies that specialize in working with consumers with credit scores below 550, May turned out to be a pretty good month for used-vehicle sales.

CNW Research found that turns to buyers in this credit segment increased by more than 9 percent year-over-year as the industry posted 734,165 retail used sales to consumers typically considered to be either subprime or deep subprime.

Last month’s performance was even more positive for buy-here, pay-here dealers as CNW determined these operations saw their sales jump 20.9 percent in May versus the same month last year.

In a used-vehicle market that was static overall, franchised dealers increased their used sales more than 4 percent from a year ago, moving 1.42 million pre-owned units off their lots in May.

CNW pegged May’s overall used sales total at 4.39 million units. This total — which includes numbers from franchised and independent dealers, as well as private-party transactions — was essentially unchanged from May 2013, CNW said.

Used sales were up almost 11 percent month-over-month.

As franchised dealers increased their used sales 4.3 percent year-over-year, independents sold 1.42 million used cars for a 3.4-percent gain.

There were 1.36 million casual sales, down from 1.48 million in May 2013.

Average used-car transaction prices for franchised dealers came in at $15,467, a 25.5-percent year-over-year increase driven by what CNW described as a newer and pricier inventory mix.

Meanwhile, transaction prices for independents fell from $7,218 to $6,883.

Prices in private-party deals climbed 8.3 percent to $7,519.

CNW said there was a 15-percent month-over-month and year-over-year increase in the total value of all monthly used sales, which it pinpointed at close to $45 billion.

Staff writer Joe Overby contributed to this report.