Data Point
CPO Sales in April Outshine Strong Used-Vehicle Market
Thursday May 13, 2021
Article Highlights
- The certified pre-owned (CPO) market still performed well with 259,242 CPO units sold in April, a 9% month-over-month decrease but a 104% year-over-year increase.
- Year-to-date CPO sales are up 29% versus the same time in 2020, with 956,070 CPO units sold through April.
- In April, Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet continued to be the biggest players in the CPO market, collectively representing more than a third of all CPO sales.
Coming down from a record-breaking month in March, the certified pre-owned (CPO) market still performed well with 259,242 CPO units sold in April, a 9% month-over-month decrease but a 104% year-over-year increase. CPO sales in April 2021 outperformed the same month in 2019 by 25,702 units.
Year-to-date CPO sales are up 29% versus the same time in 2020, with 956,070 CPO units sold through April. For the first four months of 2021, the CPO market is up more than 200,000 units above 2020.
In April, Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet continued to be the biggest players in the CPO market, collectively representing more than a third of all CPO sales. Those three automakers plus Ford and Nissan accounted for 44% of CPO sales this past month. Overall CPO sales in 2020 were led by the big volume players Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet, which represented 30% of total CPO sales.
According to Cox Automotive estimates, total used-vehicle sales were up 69% year over year in April. We estimate the April used SAAR to be 41.0 million, up from 23.6 million last April and up compared to March’s 40.5 million rate. The April used retail SAAR estimate is 22.4 million, up from 12.5 million last year and up month over month from March’s 22.2 million rate.