The Chinese market for used light vehicles has maintained growth for six straight months, with July sales increasing 8.6 percent year on year to roughly 1.26 million according to the tally of the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

The trade group attributes the sustained market expansion to measures the central Chinese government has taken to remove restrictions on used-vehicle transactions.

While pushing provincial governments in recent years to allow local residents to purchase used vehicles from other provinces, the central government also enacted a policy in June to simplify registration of used vehicles bought for private use. 

Under the new policy, car shoppers can use identity cards instead of residence registry records as previously required to register their newly bought used vehicles. 

In July, sales of used crossovers and SUVs advanced 11 percent to some 205,600, while deliveries of secondhand sedans rose 8.8 percent to around 924,400.

Some 96,500 multi-purpose vehicles changed hands in the month, an increase of 6.0 percent from a year earlier. 

But deliveries of used minibuses dropped 6.0 percent to about 30,300.

For the first seven months, used-car sales in China gained 14 percent from a year earlier to approach 8.3 million.