Data shows Chevy, California stand out in number of deals
First-quarter dealership buy-sell transactions jumped 32 percent year over year, and California was the most active state by the number of stores sold, according to preliminary first-quarter 2026 Automotive News data.
The 95 first-quarter deals also showed publicly held retailers sold more stores than they bought, while Chevrolet changed hands more than any other brand.
Readers with All Access subscriptions can visit Automotive News’ online database for detailed and researched information on first-quarter deals and more than 2,100 dealership buy-sell transactions tracked since 2021.
Here are key takeaways from confirmed first-quarter deals. Automotive News may add to the tally as it learns of additional transactions.
The number of dealerships and franchises involved in the transactions also rose in the first quarter compared with the same 2025 quarter.
The 95 deals involved 133 dealerships representing 189 franchises, Automotive News found, up from 88 stores representing 152 franchises in the first quarter of 2025.
“Most of it was actually related to a slow first quarter in 2025 because of the election hangover from late ’24,” said George Karolis, president of Presidio Group, an investment banking and dealer advisory firm in Denver and Atlanta.
More deals closed in the first quarter of 2026 as buyers and sellers concurred on “normal” earnings to base store valuations for the first time since before the COVID- 19 pandemic, said Joe Ozog, president of Charlotte, N.C., advisory firm Ozog Consulting Group.
“At the end of COVID, no one could agree on what the valuations were,” Ozog said.
“The sellers wanted to hold onto COVID valuations and the buyers said ‘COVID is over.’” The disparity stalled deals, Ozog said.
There were also several multistore deals in the first quarter. The top two buyers by store count were Jeff Wyler Automotive Family Inc., of Milford, Ohio, and MileOne Autogroup, of Towson, Md., each buying six stores. Jeff Wyler Automotive ranks No. 27 on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 29,522 new vehicles last year.
The top two sellers by store count were Asbury Automotive Group Inc., of Atlanta, unloading 10 stores, and Mark Brentlinger’s Midwestern Auto Group, selling six Ohio luxury stores to Jeff Wyler. Asbury Automotive ranks No. 5 on the top 150 list, retailing 181,204 new vehicles in 2025.
California was the state where the most dealerships were bought and sold in the quarter. Sixteen stores traded owners in the Golden State during the quarter.
Factors driving dealership sales included more dealers nearing retirement age, facility image requirements, and mid- to large-size retailers divesting stores, according to buy-sell firm Haig Partners’ Q1 2026 Haig Report.
“Many owners and CEOs of these groups have decided to focus on owning only larger stores and are selling their smaller stores and/or weaker franchises,” the report said. “These smaller, weaker dealerships were profitable during the COVID era, but as
conditions have changed, some have become money losers and are being sold.”
Publicly traded auto retailers sold more stores than they acquired in the quarter.
Collectively, the publics bought four dealerships, the same as a year earlier.
Lithia Motors Inc. bought a Mercedes-Benz store in its headquarters city of Medford, Ore., and a Toyota store in Gallatin, Tenn. Lithia ranks No. 1 on the top 150 list, retailing 382,921 new vehicles in 2025.
Penske Automotive Group Inc., of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., bought two Lexus dealerships in Florida. Penske in its quarterly report said it spent $667.9 million on the acquisitions in the quarter.
Penske’s purchases of Lexus of Orlando and Lexus of Winter Park in Florida are believed to represent the highest price paid for two U.S. dealerships, including real estate, according to dealership sell-side firm Kerrigan Advisors’ Q1 2026 Blue Sky Report.
Penske Automotive, No. 2 on the top 150 list, retailed 259,502 new vehicles last year.
Meanwhile, Penske, Asbury, No. 3 AutoNation Inc., No. 4 Group 1 Automotive Inc. and No. 6 Sonic Automotive Inc. sold a combined 18 dealerships in the quarter. Lithia did not sell dealerships in the period. That total is up from seven sold collectively by the publics a year earlier.
Asbury in February sold 10 dealerships in South Carolina, Indiana and Missouri. Sonic, of Charlotte, N.C., was the second biggest publicly held seller, divesting four domestic and import-brand stores in Missouri and Texas.
The group retailed 115,981 new vehicles last year. Group 1, of Houston, sold two Mercedes-Benz stores in California. It sold 224,166 new vehicles in 2025.
“The publics aren’t selling their stores or in sell mode,” Karolis said.
“It’s portfolio management. ... They’re all inquisitive, looking to grow.”
Ten stores traded hands in the first quarter in Missouri, up from one store selling in the state in the same period last year.
Publicly traded groups Sonic and Asbury no longer own franchised dealerships in Missouri.
Sonic in March sold Honda, Hyundai and Nissan dealerships in Jefferson City to McLarty Automotive Group.
McLarty Automotive of Little Rock, Ark., has other stores in Jefferson City and Columbia, Mo. Sonic, which still has a used-only EchoPark store in St. Louis, approached founder Mark Mc- Larty last year to see if he wanted to buy its franchised dealerships in Missouri, McLarty told Automotive News.
McLarty Automotive ranks No. 22 on the top 150 list, retailing 31,269 new vehicles in 2025.
Sonic declined to comment on the sale of its Missouri stores.
Retailers in neighboring states and as far away as the East Coast have shown interest in Missouri dealerships, said Doug Smith, CEO of the Missouri Automobile Dealers Association, which represents 368 new-car dealers.
“Buyers are from all over the country,” Smith said. Asbury in February sold six luxury dealerships in two Missouri cities to privately held MileOne Autogroup, marking its entry into Missouri. MileOne CEO Steve Fader in a statement said the rare acquisition fit its “strategy of expanding our footprint with leading luxury brands in attractive markets.”
Asbury in February said it would use sale proceeds to reduce its leverage ratio and for share repurchases.
Performance Brokerage Services has seen interest in Missouri stores from small- and medium-size retailers, said Matt Willis, a partner for the Irvine, Calif., buy-sell firm.
“It is definitely more of your family-owned businesses,” Willis said, as opposed to large public groups.
Chevrolet dealerships were bought and sold the most of any brand franchises in the quarter.
Twenty-six Chevy stores changed owners, more than three times the eight bought and sold in the year-ago period.
Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram stores were the second most-traded by brand, with 11 bought and sold. That’s down from 14 Chrysler and Jeep and 16 Dodge and Ram stores that were bought and sold in the year-ago period.
Nissan also had 11 stores trade in the first quarter, up from five a year earlier.
There is high demand for Chevrolet franchises, dealers told Kerrigan Advisors in its 2025 Kerrigan Dealer Survey released in January.
“Chevrolet has the highest expectation of increase in value of the domestics as well, above Ford, and so they are the leading domestic in the buysell market from what we see,” said Erin Kerrigan, managing director of Kerrigan Advisors, a dealership sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev.
Melissa Burden contributed to this report.
Kerrigan Advisors is the leading sell-side advisor and thought partner to auto dealers nationwide. Since its founding in 2014, the firm has led the industry with the sale of more than 300 dealerships generating more than $10 billion in client proceeds, including two of the largest transactions in auto retail history – the sale of Jim Koons Automotive Companies to Asbury Automotive Group and Leith Automotive to Holman. The firm advises the industry’s leading dealership groups, enhancing value through the lifecycle of growing, operating and, when the time is right, selling their businesses. Led by a team of veteran industry experts with backgrounds in investment banking, private equity, accounting, finance and real estate, Kerrigan Advisors is the only firm in auto retail exclusively dedicated to sell-side advisory, providing its clients the assurance of a conflict-free approach.
Kerrigan Advisors monitors conditions in the buy/sell market and publishes an in-depth analysis each quarter in The Blue Sky Report®, the industry authority on dealership buy/sell market trends and valuations and includes Kerrigan Advisors’ signature blue sky charts, multiples and analysis for each franchise in the luxury and non-luxury segments. To download a preview of the report, click here. The firm also releases The Kerrigan Index™ comprised of the seven publicly traded auto retail companies with operations focused on the US market. The Kerrigan Auto Retail Index is designed to track dealership valuation trends, while also providing key insights into factors influencing auto retail. To access The Kerrigan Index™, click here. To read the 2024 Kerrigan Dealer Survey, click here. To read the 2025 Kerrigan OEM Survey, click here. Kerrigan Advisors also is the co-author of NADA’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Dealership.
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