Canada's Ride Automotive Expands Into the U.S.

Ride Automotive Group recently purchased Simi Valley Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram and Marin Mazda in San Rafael, California, marking the Canadian automotive group’s entry into the United States.

The purchase by Ride Automotive closely follows other Canadian dealership groups' expansion into the U.S. Canada’s Alpha Auto Group purchased a Mercedes-Benz store in California in November.

Jason Stopnitzky, co-founder of buy-sell firm Performance Brokerage Services in Irvine, Calif., facilitated both transactions for Ride Automotive. He predicts Ride Automotive’s customer-centric approach and broad industry knowledge will continue its growth.

The closings in both cases went smoothly, according to Stopnitzky.

“In both situations, the sellers walked away saying, ‘The deal went exactly as I predicted and suspected, and these guys did exactly what they said they would do,” Stopnitzky said.

Ride Automotive Group owns Orleans Kia and Kia 417 in Gloucester, Ontario.

Both the Simi Valley dealership in the greater Los Angeles area and Marin Mazda in the greater San Francisco area will keep the names they had before the transactions.

Ride Automotive will focus on integrating its latest acquisitions for now but eventually plans to explore more growth opportunities in Canada and the U.S.

“We haven’t proven ourselves here [in the U.S.] yet,” VJ Sehdev, executive vice president of Ride Automotive told Automotive News. “For the time being, our complete focus is just to prove ourselves within this market and in the States. We’ll be keeping our Canadian stores and looking to grow, when the time is right, on both sides.”