Hyundai certified-used sales surge
 | Jose Froehlich: “Aggressive objective” |
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Hyundai, one of the fastest growing new-car brands, is also among the fastest growing brands in sales of certified pre-owned vehicles.
The brand's certified used-vehicle sales for the first six months of 2012 jumped 67 percent from the year-earlier period to 33,165 units.
Industrywide certified-used sales for the first half rose 6 percent to 917,157, data compiled by the Automotive News Data Center and Autodata Corp. show.
Jose Froehlich, senior manager of Hyundai Certified Pre-Owned, attributes the program's sales growth to enhancements such as increased dealer participation, more advertising on third-party Web sites and special finance rates from Hyundai's captive finance arm. "Hyundai will exceed 2012 CPO sales volumes in 2013," Froehlich predicts. "We are not content to leave well enough alone and will have an aggressive objective for next year."
Froehlich says 692 of Hyundai's 820 dealerships sell certified-used vehicles, a 26 percent increase over 2011. "Just under half of our top 20 new-car selling dealers also happen to be in our top 20 for certified pre-owned," he says. "Participation by these influential dealers has certainly impacted the decision of others dealers to begin selling Hyundai CPO."
Hyundai is increasing its advertising on AutoTrader.com and Cars.com -- sites with which it has previous relationships. It added Edmunds.com to its advertising partnership mix for the third quarter.
In January, Hyundai Motor Finance began offering special finance rates to certified pre-owned customers with top-tier credit. For example, through July, it is offering rates of 0.9 percent for contracts up to 36 months and 1.9 percent for contracts of 37 months to 48 months.
You can reach Arlena Sawyers at asawyers@crain.com.
