Incentive spending and discounts needed for some vehicles, they say.
Major retailer sees big used-vehicle sales boost, but overall revenue, profit down.
All six of America’s big publicly traded dealership groups enjoyed year-over-year gains in F&I profit per vehicle retailed in Q3, led by record highs at AutoNation and Sonic Automotive.
The four-acre, 93,000-square-foot Beverly Hills BMW has been sold for $70 million, an amount billed as the highest ever paid to acquire a Los Angeles auto dealership.
Carvana broke into the top 10 in its first appearance on Automotive News’ list of the nation's Top 100 Used Retailers, more than doubling its output to more than 94,000 units and outpacing the Asbury, Larry H. Miller, and Ken Garff groups.
The automotive retailer announced that co-founder B. Scott Smith is stepping down as CEO, president, and director of the public dealer group. His brother David Burton Smith will assume his role as CEO, while executive Jeff Dyke was promoted to president.
F&I, used retail sales, and fixed ops helped dampen Sonic's third quarter declines in volume and gross profit per unit (GPU) retailed. The group also reported that its EchoPark locations increased their F&I per-copy average by 16.3% to $1,078. Overall, the group's F&I operations averaged $1,341 per copy during the period.
Poor retail sales were offset by a 3.1% increase in total F&I gross profit and a 40.5% increase in revenue at Sonic Automotive's EchoPark locations. While declining oil prices have hurt the company's performance in the Houston market, officials are confident the group will recover.
Record F&I and fixed-ops gross profit helped Sonic Automotive offset low vehicle sales. But the big story for the publicly traded dealer group was the performance of the F&I offices at its one-touch EchoPark dealerships. They increased their per-copy averages by 54.1%.
Sonic executives said the company is delaying plans to launch a captive finance company in light of the CFPB’s recent settlement with Honda Finance. But the group has given the go-ahead for the first phase of its much-delayed hybrid sales process.
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