Certified pre-owned (CPO) sales in May fell to 208,423 units, down 7% from April’s 223,999 unit sales and down over 22% from May 2021. May’s CPO sales result is the lowest since February and halts four straight months of increases, according to new Cox Automotive analysis. 

Leveraging a same-store set of dealerships selected to represent the country from Dealertrack, Cox estimates that used retail sales declined 1% in May from April as the typical seasonal trend sees declines in May as tax refund season ends. The Dealertrack estimates indicate that used retail sales were down 7% year over year, which was the best year-over-year performance so far this year. 

Chris Frey, senior manager of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive, said this in a news release: “CPO sales are down 17.5% year to date, which was expected due to market dynamics. Earlier this year, we made a downward revision in our CPO sales forecast, as we expected dealers to have lower CPO inventory, as many newer-model used vehicles – vehicles that are often candidates for a CPO program – are being bought up by rental car companies, or simply not being sold through a CPO program while values remain high. Currently, CPO sales are on track to finish near 2.3 million in 2022, down nearly 18% from last year’s 2.7 million.”