Full-year certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles will likely see a double-digit percentage decline in 2022, the lowest in eight years, predicts a recent Data Point Report from Cox Automotive.

The report, based on Cox’s analysis of Motor Intelligence data, reported 211,609 CPO sales in August. This represents a 2.6% month-over-month increase and a 5.1% year-over-year decrease.

When Cox compared these numbers to used car retail sales involving a dealer, it found CPO sales performed favorably on a year-over-year basis and slower on a month-over-month basis.

Overall used vehicle retail sales climbed 11% month-over-month and fell 9% year-over-year, according to dealership data from Dealertrack. In contrast CPO sales gained 2.6% month-over-month and fell 9% year-over-year.

“While CPOs remain the next best alternative to new vehicles in this market, our current sales rate is, on average, 30,000 less per month than in 2019,” Chris Frey, senior manager of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive, said in the report.

“Year-to-date CPO sales are down almost 16% through August. Currently, CPO sales are on track to finish near 2.4 million in 2022, down around 11% from last year’s 2.7 million,” he concluded.