Bill Nash
President, Chief Executive Officer at CarMax
Thank you, David. Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us. For the first quarter of FY'23, our diversified business model delivered total sales of $9.3 billion, up 21% compared with last year's first quarter, driven by growth in average selling prices and wholesale volume gains, partially offset by a decline in retail used units sold. Across our retail, wholesale channels, we sold approximately 427,000 cars in total during the first quarter, down 5.5% versus last year's period. In our retail business, total unit sales in the first quarter declined 11% and used unit comps were down 12.7% versus the first quarter last year.
Our performance was driven by the same macro factors that led to a market-wide decline in used auto sales during the quarter, including lapping material stimulus benefits paid in the prior year, widespread inflationary pressures including challenges to vehicle affordability and lower consumer confidence. We began the first quarter with a double-digit decline in comp sales during March, continuing the fourth quarter performance we discussed on our last earnings call. Comps then improved sequentially with May ending in a low single-digit decline.
While we don't intend to talk about it each quarter, market share data provides additional context to our performance and indicates that our relative performance remained strong. Based on external data, we gained share each month from January through April, the latest periods for which title data is available. We believe the share gain reflects the strength of our business model and omnichannel platform, which gives us the ability to successfully manage through cycles like this one. In short, we remain focused on delivering the most customer-centric experience in the industry and we believe we are well positioned to deliver profitable market share gains in any environment.
We reported first quarter retail gross profit per used unit of $2,339, up $134 per unit versus the prior year period. We continue to focus on striking the right balance between covering cost increases, maintaining margin and passing along efficiencies to consumers to support vehicle affordability. Wholesale units were up 2.7% versus the first quarter last year, despite a calendar shift, which negatively impacted auction volume compared with the prior year. Wholesale volume was also pressured by our decision to reallocate some older vehicles from wholesale to retail to meet consumer demand for lower price vehicles. We estimate that without these 2 factors, our wholesale unit growth would have been above 10%.
Wholesale gross profit per unit was $1,029 in line with $1,025 a year ago. We are pleased that we continue to drive wholesale unit growth, even as we lapped last year's nationwide launch of our instant online appraisal offering on carmax.com and in the face of the industry-wide decline in used sales. We believe our wholesale business provides an incremental growth lever and is a valuable component of our diversified business model. We bought approximately 362,000 vehicles from consumers and dealers during the first quarter, up 6% versus last year's period. We continue to be the nation's largest buyer of vehicles from consumers purchasing approximately 345,000 cars in the quarter, up 3% versus last year's record results. This enabled our self-sufficiency to remain above 70% during the quarter. We also sourced approximately 17,000 vehicles through our Max offer, our digital appraisal product for dealers that we mentioned during our last call. This is up 183% versus last year's period. As a reminder, buying directly from consumers and dealers lowers our acquisition cost, enhances our inventory selection and provides profitable incremental wholesale volume.
CarMax Auto Finance or CAF delivered income of $204 million, down from $242 million during the same period last year as the provision for loan losses normalized versus last year's favorable adjustment. Jon will provide more detail on customer financing, the loan loss provision and CAF's contribution in a few moments. At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Enrique, who will provide more information on our first quarter financial performance. Enrique?