CARY, N.C. -

Look for used-vehicle sales this month to slow from March but beat year-ago figures significantly.

That’s according to TrueCar, which is forecasting 3.4 million used sales for April. That monthly sum would be 6% softer than March, but mark a 58% increase from April 2020, which was the first full month of the COVID-19 pandemic.

TrueCar said in late March it was forecasting 3.6 million used-vehicle sales for that month, which would beat February figures by 1% and eclipse prior-year numbers by 104%.

TrueCar was projecting 10.33 million used-car sales for the first quarter, which would beat year-ago figures (8.61 million) by 20%.

The first quarter was certainly fruitful for public retailers reporting sales results so far.

Asbury Automotive Group, which reported earnings results Tuesday, sold 23,519 used retail vehicles in Q1, beating year-ago figures by 16%.

Lithia Motors & Driveway sold 59,027 used retail units during the first quarter, a 38.5% increase.

AutoNation moved 71,780 used retail units for a 27.8% gain.

Cox Automotive reported that the 13-month rolling used-car SAAR was at 40.5 million in March, up from 18.5 million in March 2020. It was at 38 million in February of this year and 38.1 million in January.

Looking at Cox Automotive’s estimated used retail SAAR, which includes only the sales involving a dealer, March’s rate came in at 22.2 million. That’s up from 9.8 million in March 2020.

This year began with a used retail SAAR of 20.8 million in both January and February, according to the Cox data.

Cox Automotive is forecasting 39.3 million total used-vehicle sales in 2021, softer than the 40.0 million in 2019 but up from 37.2 million last year. 

The company anticipates 40.2 million total used-vehicle sales in 2022 and then 39.8 million in 2023. 

It projects 21.5 million retail used-vehicle sales this year, which would beat both 2020 and 2019 figures. Last year, there were 19.7 million used retail sales, down from 21.0 million in 2019.