Santa may not have delivered the monthly sales results exactly as the dealers wanted in December, but boy did he dole out smashing year-end results instead.
St. Nick valued a long-term vision much more.
And certified executives said they are optimistic about 2008, building on last year's results, a trend well noted since new-car sales may have a tough time shaking out of their doldrums.
According to figures supplied this week from the Autodata Corp., December CPO sales were 128,852, 1.4 percent below last December.
But Autodata officials pointed out that fourth quarter sales registered 390,575 units, a 0.7-percent increase over the previous final quarter in 2006, but still below the fourth-quarter high of 398,172 sales in 2004.
However, 2007 sales closed at 1,680,348 vehicles, representing a 2.1-increase from 2006's 1,645,616 units.
Hitting all-time highs in 2007, according to Autodata, were Honda, Acura, Toyota, Lexus, Audi, BMW, Mini, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac, Hummer, Hyundai, Porsche and Subaru.
For the year, Autodata officials said that domestic share fell 1.7 percent to 46.9 percent, while Asian nameplates gained 1.9 percent to 37.9 percent. European share declined 0.1 percent to 15.2 percent, executives added.
Total 2007 sales for all certified General Motors' brands were 516,039 vehicles, down 1 percent. However, annual sales for GM Certified Used Vehicles in particular hit 451,565 units, up 1 percent from its category-leading sales results in 2006. Chevrolet, meanwhile, again finished the year as the industry's top-selling single-make CPO brand with 299,444 sales.
"Helping to drive our 2007 results were the introduction of a new five-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty, the launch of a newly enhanced GMcertified.com Web site and new marketing partnerships with leading automotive listings sites Cars.com and Automercado.com," noted Paul Pejza, manager of GM Certified Used Vehicles. "GM Certified dealers' inventory is now listed on 300-plus Web sites."
Looking ahead, Pajza said that GM Certified Used Vehicles is positive about potential 2008 sales.
"We have in place a new first-quarter rate incentive support program offering rates as low as 2 percent on select vehicles, which we're confident will drive increased consumer consideration and leads to dealers," he said.
"Our marketing campaign will focus on increasing the number of leads delivered to GM Certified dealers, with the majority of our marketing budget being focused on the digital space," Pejza added.
Toyota dealers could not top last December's CPO sales. However, they easily outpaced the full-year 2006 figures — 271,627 units versus 261,620.
That certainly pleased Norm Olson, sales operations manager for Toyota Certified Used Vehicles.
"In 2007, Toyota Certified faced many inventory, sales and economic challenges. However, our field organization and our dealers rose to the occasion and set an all-time new TCUV sales record," Olson observed. "We surpassed our own internal objective, and we ended up with almost every area recording an all-time, best-ever sales year.
"It's all about making very quick adjustments to volatile market conductions. It's also about communication, listening to the dealers, the field organization and reacting swiftly to their needs," he added.
Gazing the best he can into his crystal ball, Olson said that the automaker's certified program offers a "substantial" profit center for its dealers, and TCUV will continue to position the program to support and facilitate the sale of new Toyota vehicles.
"In 2008, we will have increased off-lease vehicles, which will expand inventory availability and we fully expect our sales to stay on track," he said.
Lexus not only surpassed December 2006, it also bested its year-to-date sales figures, coming in at 50,341 units for the year, which represented an 8.3-percent increase.
"December was a fantastic month for Lexus Certified Pre-Owned, and we closed out a very successful year," said Matthew Kaleba, national certified pre-owned and fleet manager for Lexus. "Our dealers are building some fantastic momentum as we move into 2008, and we do expect our sales to continue to grow throughout the year ahead.
"Balanced dealership operations will be more important than ever this year, and our dealers are utilizing the certified pre-owned program to maximize their opportunities for success," he added.
Over at Honda, its dealer body posted 203,903 certified sales for the year, crushing 2006's 185,648 sales. Acura also had a strong year, claiming 38,928 CPO units in 2007, as compared with 36,969 during the prior year.
"Despite the slowing of the economy, it was a record-breaking year for both the Honda and Acura certified programs," said Dan Crowe, Honda and Acura's manager of remarketing. "The sales momentum for HCUC and ACPV started early in the calendar year and carried through most of 2007."
Crowe said 2008 will be a challenging year for the auto industry as a whole. "For the ACPV and HCUC programs, we are anticipating only a slight sales increase for the year," he projected.
Over at Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, the manufacturer drew solace in its December near 1,000-unit uptick in certified sales, though for the year it fell short, posting 156,661 for 2007, down from 173,837 in 2006.
"We were encouraged to see improvement in December '07 versus December '06, and while we finished down for the full year in 2007 as compared with the prior year, we made substantial progress after an especially slow first quarter," noted Tom Cornellier, manager of certified pre-owned, remarketing e-business and marketing for Ford.
"Ford recognizes the importance of CPO's impact on vehicle residual values, dealer profitability and customer satisfaction. So given the anticipated tough economic climate in 2008, we plan to support and adjust the program during the course of the year to offer enhanced value to both our dealers and retail customers," Cornellier added.
Moving on, Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers solidly outdistanced 2006, selling 122,028 CPO units in 2007 versus 116,604 the previous year.
That was great news to Bud Place, senior manager of vehicle sales and marketing for Chrysler.
"2007 was another record year for our Brand Spankin' Used CPOV brand," Place said. "This was our sixth consecutive year of sales growth. In fact, for the sixth consecutive year, our year-over-year growth rate more than doubled that of the industry certified segment, firmly establishing us as the fastest CPOV brand over the past six years."
Place said 2008 may be more challenging, as economists have predicted. "But we remain quite bullish regarding our prospects for continued sales growth for our CPOV brand," he said.
BMW dealers used a whopping 9,496 to 5,901 sales advantage in December to wallop its 2006 year-end figure of 80,373 units, recording 89,795 sales in 2007.
According to Joan Horst, pre-owned manager-marketing for BMW of North America, the automaker knew that a large number of off-lease BMWs were coming back into the market, which would make 2007 challenging.
Horst pointed out that BMW of North America undertook a new advertising campaign that featured a national, regional and local component, leading to increased foot traffic to its dealerships. At the same time, she said the automaker rolled out an "aggressive" set of sales support programs that "cemented" the Certified Pre-Owned BMW value proposition in the minds of customers and prospects alike.
And BMW of North America also worked closely with its sales centers to ensure that they were "geared up" to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the off-lease volume, she added.
"The fact that in 2007 BMW achieved record CPO sales results in the face of weakness in the overall used-vehicle market and uncertainty in the U.S. economy is a testament to the underlying strength of the BMW brand and the professionalism and competence of BMW dealers around the country," Horst noted.
"As we enter 2008, the combination of good supplied off-lease vehicles, solid sales support programs and a high level of dealer engagement all continue to play an important role in the overall sales success of the BMW CPO program," she added.
Nissan dealers posted 55,422 CPO sales in 2007. That's up from 49,015 certified vehicles sold in 2006.
Mercedes-Benz also topped its 2006 year-end sales results, as its dealers sold 50,929 CPO units in 2007, as compared with 47,737 vehicles the previous year.
Volkswagen did not do as well. Its 2007 sales reached 33,377 units. That's compared with 37,747 certified vehicles sold during 2006.
Audi, on the other hand, had a positive year, easily outdistancing 2006's 24,588 sales with 27,062 units sold in 2007.
Volvo was down, however, in 2007. Its dealers sold 23,721 certified vehicles this past year, compared with 26,864 units in 2006.
Meanwhile, Porsche dealers liked their 2007 results, as they sold 6,581 units. That's up from 6,114 certified vehicles the previous year.
Land Rover couldn't claim the same. Its dealerships posted 6,156 CPO sales in 2007 versus 6,952 the prior year.
Subaru doubled its 2006 certified results in 2007, as its dealers recorded 4,498 sales this year versus 2,249 sales the previous 12 months.
"This equated to a 200-percent increase over 2006, our first full year in the CPO business," said Jim Sarchese, national manager of Subaru added security. "Needless to say, we are very excited to see the program making these strong gains, and we think that we have a lot of untapped potential yet to come.
"We are looking to further increase and support CPO in the second quarter of 2008 through improved Internet and direct marketing presence," he added. "Therefore, we think we can achieve another year of solid growth."
Finally, at Hyundai its dealers ended 2007 strong. The Korean automaker reached 3,440 CPO sales during the year. That's a giant leap from 2006, when the program was introduced and its dealerships posted 207 certified units sold.
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