AutoNation hosted a conference call on Wednesday to recap its first-quarter performance, which was highlighted by a record Q1 earnings per share from continuing operations of $0.97, a 29-percent increase compared to 2014, as well as year-over-year net income gains and total revenue increases.

But perhaps a more telling note was spoken by the company’s chairman, chief executive officer and president, Mike Jackson, in regards to recalls, where he expressed dissatisfaction with the overall process of how they have been handled.

When asked if the market should expect the rate of recalls to remain high in the future and increase in perpetuity, Jackson’s not convinced they'll continue to be as large as they have been in the past, but he’s also not happy with the current process of how they are dealt with.

“I think it probably will be high, but whether it’s this high, I’m not convinced at all,” Jackson said. “These are two extraordinary recalls that are so broad and so old that to say we’re going to have these type of recalls, open-ended, I’m not necessarily there. But I think the feeling within the industry is, if in doubt, recall; recall the sooner the better.

“And certainly the whole process, somehow, some way, needs to be improved. It’s really broken the way it is today, almost dysfunctional. We get it all done at the end of the day, but it’s certainly not ideal, and certainly, the customers deserve something better than what’s going on today. But to say we’re going to be open-ended at this level I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that.”

According to AutoNation’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, Bill Berman, recalls represent 5.2 percent of the company’s customer care gross profit, which Jackson estimates to be roughly 25 percent of the increase in customer care gross profit since the spike in recalls began.

The two “extraordinary” recalls that Jackson mentioned are the company’s largest, the General Motors ignition switch recall and the Takata airbag recall. According to Berman, the company has repaired roughly 23,000 GM ignition switches and 48,000 Takata airbags. These repairs account for 60 percent (GM) and 20 percent (Takata), respectively, of the vehicles AutoNation would reasonably expect to execute based on retail sales history and industry standard completion rates, the company said. 

Separately, discussing the acquisition front, Jackson also hinted that there are a lot of conversations ongoing, but didn’t want to nail down any sort of commitment to expansion until the deals were done.

“I think it’s fair to say that there is a lot of activity and a lot of discussion underway from willing sellers,” Jackson said. “And we’ll see if that leads to transactions.”

For a full listing of AutoNation's first-quarter results, click here.