Who is behind these multi store dealerships?

[SnoKing]

Example Lithia and Auto Nation in the West and others in different parts of the country. Who is behind these mega dealers that seem like Pacmans gobbling up stores across wide areas of the country? Snoking

 

[sag2]

They are public companies doing business as public companies do. They look for opportunities and purchase when and where they think they can make a profit. Lithia started out in Medford Oregon with one store, then he purchased another and another. After the dad died one of the kids (Sid DeBoer) kept it going and built quite a little empire. Then one day he had the bright idea to take it public. He (Sid) is still somewhat active, but his son now runs the day to day operations.

 

[mwilson]

The OEM's want fewer dealer principals (owners) to deal with.

It is happening in the truck world as well, Google up Rush Truck Centers, MHC (Murphy Hoffman) and VVG (Velocity Vehicle Group).

 

[GDTurner]

I'm from California, and we have Lithia dealers locally, but they are not Dodge/Ram dealers. Anyway, my 2003 broke down in oregon, and after looking all over the state, it turned out that a Lithia dealer in Eugene had the best deal. I was already looking in California, and the deal I got from Lithia was way better on my 2015 3500 than I had seen locally in California on a 2500, which is what I was looking for. I assume that as a big corp., they meet better monthly sales and get more kickbacks, hence the better deal. I even tried to get a dealer in Newport, where we were stuck, to get a dealer trade for the same price. They could not match the price, so I had to go a few hundred miles to Lithia to get the truck. I'm not advocating anything, just saying that I assume that because they are so big, one might be able to get a better deal; I did, for some reason or another. (I paid 43,000 for a 2015 SLT 3500 Cummins with a 68RFE and 8.4 system, in June 2015. From what I've seen, that was a good deal.)

 

[TJJEEPER]

I bought my '06 from Lithia. I also purchased the "Lifetime" oil change package. Bring it into any Lithia dealer and the oil change was free. Fast forward to the '08 economy collapse and the dealer I purchased from closed (wasn't local but close to a regular stop for work). Then the local Lithia dealer changed hands and I was left with a useless lifetime oil change. I got enough oil changes to take the sting out. Lithia was good to me but the truck was purchased through the "affiliate" program where the cost was somewhere around 2% above dealer cost.

The mega dealers do the volume to be able to make better deals but you have to work at it. You'll do no better than the next dealer if you don't do your homework!

 

[RustyJC]

There are a few names that Nascar fans might be familiar with who have made their fortunes from ownership of multiple dealerships - Roger Penske and Rick Hendrick for two examples.

Rusty

 

[SnoKing]

Here is one of the stories. No connection to Dale Earnhardt / DEI racing. Snoking

http://www.earnhardt.com/about-earnhardt-auto-centers/