As discussed in previous installments of this blog series, six primary publicly traded auto dealers own over 1,300 new vehicle franchised dealerships as of year-end 2022. In other words, that’s less than 10% of the total number of dealerships in the U.S. (approx. 16,750 as of NADA’s mid-year 2022 report). The proportion of total U.S. dealerships that these publics own has increased, though it still demonstrates how fragmented the industry continues to be.
Our goal in highlighting Public Profiles is to serve as a reference point for private dealers who may be less familiar with the public players, particularly if they don’t operate in the same market. Larger dealers may benefit from benchmarking to public players. Smaller or single-point franchises may find better peers in the average information formerly reported by NADA or more regional 20 Group reports but might still find value in staying plugged into public auto dealers’ performance.
This week’s post covers Asbury Automotive Group, the second smallest of the six publicly traded automotive retailers in the United States.
