ATLANTA -

This past quarter made it 17 straight that the publicly traded dealership groups increased their same-store used unit sales, according to the latest blog post from Manheim’s Tom Webb.

Not to mention, the past two quarters have shown double-digit gains for these retailers, he noted

“With respect to unit volumes, it is very good trend indeed,” Webb, Manheim’s chief economist, wrote in the post, which can be found here.

“And, notably, these dealership groups (as well as large private ones) are also growing through acquisitions,” he added. “The big are indeed getting bigger.”

Lithia Motors, for example, revealed two store acquisitions in October alone, announcing its purchase of Stockton Nissan Kia on Oct. 7 and its acquisition of Fresno Lincoln Volvo on Oct. 24. Both dealerships are in California.

In June, Lithia announced the purchase of the O’Brien Auto Group of Salem in Salem, Ore., bringing three new stores into the fold.  That followed news from April, when Lithia was granted a new Mini franchise in Anchorage, Alaska.

“As the improvement in new-vehicle sales growth moderates, acquisitions will become an increasingly important component in our strategic plan,” Lithia president and chief executive officer Bryan DeBoer said when the Stockton Nissan Kia deal was announced in early October.

Update on Margins

Turning to the portion of Webb’s post on used retail gross margins, the Manheim economist pointed out that these, meanwhile, were still slow for the public groups in Q3.

However, they climbed “fractionally from their year level on a sales-weighted basis,” Webb pointed out.

One of these retailers, Penske Automotive Group, was covered in an Auto Remarketing report from earlier this week, which looked at Penske’s average gross profit per used retail unit during Q3 and its gross margins.

Penske moved 43,518 used retail units in the third quarter (including U.S. and international operations), which was up from 38,287 used retail sales in Q3 of 2012.

Average gross profit per unit on these vehicles was $1,870, an increase of $19 or 1 percent compared to last year. Gross margins on these vehicles were at 7.4 percent, up 10 basis points.

 

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.