Dealer groups have kicked off the week of NADA Show 2022 much like they’ve spent the past year-and-a-half: with a flurry of buy-sell moves. Starting with the publicly traded variety, Group 1 Automotive announced Monday it has purchased Charles Maund Toyota in Austin, Texas, a store expected to bring in annual revenues of $435 million. […] [Read More]

More than 100 dealerships have another reason for celebration. On Monday, Edmunds announced the winners of the 2022 Edmunds Five Star Dealer Awards. This year’s awards honor 94 dealers nationwide for outstanding customer satisfaction ratings, with an additional 18 earning the prestigious Edmunds Five Star Premier Dealer designation. To qualify for a Five Star Dealer […] [Read More]

AutoNation named two new chief operating officers on Thursday: one for its used-car standalone store, auto auction and collision center businesses; and another for its franchise business. COO and president Jim Bender was set to leave the company Friday, as previously announced. Appointed as COO of the non-franchised business is Dave Koehler, currently the Eastern […] [Read More]

We begin this dealer group M&A roundup in the Southwest, where Phoenix-based Earnhardt Auto Centers has sold two Las Vegas stores — Earnhardt Buick GMC and Earnhardt Mazda — to Jerry Seiner Dealerships, a group based in Utah. This was announced Thursday by Kerrigan Advisors, which represented the Earnhardt group in the transaction. “The sale […] [Read More]

General Motors and Ford claimed top honors again as part of the 26th annual Automotive Loyalty Awards orchestrated by IHS Markit. However, for the first time, Honda earned the accolade closely associated with franchised dealerships. IHS Markit recognized GM for its leadership as top manufacturer for automotive loyalty in the U.S. in 2021. This is […] [Read More]

Here’s some good news for BMW dealerships looking for more personnel to man their service bays. Universal Technical Institute (UTI) has launched the first session of its new BMW FastTrack technician training programs at its Orlando, Fla., campus, the second location to begin offering the 12-week advanced training program. A collaboration between the German automaker […] [Read More]

It’s likely been experienced by you first-hand or by one of your dealership colleagues or managers. It’s the test drive that turned wild; almost into something from Hollywood. Well, perhaps now we can have a chuckle about the incident and make a comparison to some of the most famous movie segments that involved vehicles traveling […] [Read More]

Used-vehicle market resiliency is likely to be on display again this month, as one projection has February retail sales improving from the opening month of 2022. Meanwhile, if franchised stores actually have new models to retail, they’re generating grosses that sometimes only their used departments can. TrueCar said on Friday that used-vehicle sales this month […] [Read More]

AutoNation has named a new executive who will be chief operating officer for its Precision Parts business and executive vice president and head of mobility, business strategy and development. Appointed to the role effective March 1 is Gianluca Camplone, who was most recently was an executive at McKinsey & Company. Camplone, who joins the retailer’s […] [Read More]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, three of the four most populated states are California, Texas and New York. Coincidently, highlights from Urban Science’s 2021 Automotive Franchise Activity Report (FAR) showed those three states generated the most significant state-level changes, too. Overall, Urban Science indicated last year produced continued stability and slight growth for the […] [Read More]