October 6, 2016 — Lithia Motors announced this morning the acquisition of Audi Auto Gallery in Woodland Hills, CA, from co-founders Harrison Gray and Tony Schwartz. It is Lithia’s 18th dealership acquired this year. The additional $120 million in annual revenue created by the acquisition brings Lithia’s total to approximately $1 billion in acquired revenue this… Continue Reading
Various media reports last week confirm Cadillac is offering buyouts to 400 of its smallest dealerships. The news isn’t a surprise as we speculated numerous times since September 2014 that Cadillac Chief Johan de Nysschen would try to reduce the number of 925 Cadillac dealers down to 400 to 500 stores. The buyouts follow Cadillac’s…
August 13, 2016 — Lithia Motors has acquired Kemp Ford in Thousand Oaks, CA, renaming it DCH Ford it’s fourth acquisition in 2016. The purchase should increase Lithia’s revenues by $65 million annually. The publicly traded dealer group, based in Medford, OR, acquired Riverside Subaru in Riverside, CA in January and Ira Toyota in Milford, MA… Continue Reading
August 12, 2016 — Perhaps the most striking data point from CDK Global’s recent earnings filing is that it is gaining share of the overall North American dealer management system market while also growing the average amount from those contracts. CDK also announced strong results for its 2016 fiscal year along with an agreement with activist investor Elliott Partners to increase the… Continue Reading
August 11, 2016 — Following its June acquisition of the Australian-based Dealer Solutions, Cox Automotive will acquire News Corp’s 50% stake in CarsGuide, an online automotive classifieds site, also in Australia. Once the acquisition closes sometime in the fourth quarter, Cox will combine CarsGuide with Dealer Solutions and Manheim’s Australian division which includes its buying service SellMyCar into… Continue Reading
July 19, 2016 — As news leaked yesteday that the FBI and SEC is investigating Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for possible sales fraud, a key question kept popping up in conversations — how is what FCA allegedly did any different than what other automakers do when it comes to reporting sales? For years — even decades —… Continue Reading
July 18, 2016 — In a meeting with dealers on Friday, Volkswagen executives said they would make a decision within the next month regarding compensating its dealers for damages from the diesel emissions scandal. Friday’s event is part of a series of meetings with dealers in which VW executives are outlining how the company plans to… Continue Reading
July 12, 2016 — Dealership acquisition activity is showing a slight slowdown according to data compiled for TBR’s 2016 Mid-Year Dealership Buy-Sell Report. (Subscribers to The Banks Report can download Excel files with buy-sell activity going back to January 2013). Through June of 2016, there were 108 different transactions accounting for 177 rooftops changing hands. In…
July 7, 2016 — AutoNation announced this morning it is acquiring four luxury dealerships in the Westchester County, New York market. AutoNation is buying BMW Mt. Kisco, Land Rover Mt. Kisco and Jaguar Land Rover Larchmont/New Rochelle from The Premier Collection. It also is adding White Plains Jaguar from DiSimone Imports The new stores are… Continue Reading
July 7, 2016 — The automotive retail technology world is dominated by three players today — Cox Automotive, CDK Global and Reynolds and Reynolds. On the CRM side, the major players are DealerSocket and ELead1One. Meanwhile, Salesforce is hovering around the industry. The question is, will this power structure continue over the next two to…