CHARLOTTE, N.C. -

Sonic Automotive’s quarterly used retail sales volume and quarterly per-store per-month used-vehicle sales have never been higher.

The retailer posted a record 27,632 used retail sales during the third quarter, which put its pre-owned average quarterly volume per-store per-month at an all-time high of 91.

These best-ever results were accompanied by across-the-board records throughout Sonic’s operating segments.

It achieved an all-time third-quarter record of 34,087 new-vehicle sales (excludes fleet sales). Sonic also hit Q3 record fixed operations gross profit of $149.1 million and Q3 record F&I gross profit of $68.7 million.

“I’m very proud of our team’s record-setting performance during the quarter and despite the additional costs experienced as we continue our growth initiatives, we were able to deliver growth in our operating metrics compared to the third quarter last year,” said company president B. Scott Smith.

“In addition, we closed on the acquisition of Murray Mercedes Benz of Denver and Murray BMW of Denver, which we expect will generate combined annual revenues of approximately $200.0 million.  These stores will augment our existing platform in Denver, and our acquisition of these stores, along with our plans to open stand-alone pre-owned sales operations, demonstrates our commitment to the Denver market,” he added.

Smith continued:  “Based on our year-to-date performance and internal forecasts, we are updating our targeted guidance range for adjusted earnings per share from previously announced amounts.  We are targeting adjusted fully diluted earnings per share from continuing operations at $1.96-$2.03 for the full year 2013. This update reflects a tightening of our guidance range as we feel comfortable that we will be at the upper end of our original guidance of $1.93 to $2.03.”

Jeff Dyke, executive vice president of operations, noted: “It’s exciting to see the progress we made this quarter.  As announced today under separate cover, we will begin our One Sonic-One Experience launch in mid-2014. True Price is an important part of this launch.  

“We have noted in the past that it would take some time for the True Price process to settle into our culture, and we are finally beginning to see margins improving along with record breaking unit volumes.  While we still have a long way to go, I am encouraged by this quarter’s results as we work toward improving even more in Q4,” he added.

“Overall, we had record breaking performances across new, pre owned, fixed and F&I, so I could not be more pleased with our results and the efforts of this team as we work toward our One Sonic-One Experience launch.”

More information on the new programs Smith and Dyke mentioned can be found here:

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