Sonic Automotive Inc. acquired four luxury dealerships in California, a purchase the company expects will add $500 million in annual revenue.
The nation’s sixth-largest public retailer on June 30 finalized the purchase of Jaguar-Land Rover Los Angeles, Jaguar-Land Rover Newport Beach, Jaguar-Land Rover San Jose, and Land Rover Pasadena from luxury dealer US Auto Trust.
San Jose is the furthest north of the California locations, Newport Beach the most southern, with about 410 miles between the two.
Sonic CEO David Smith said that the company has successfully done business in the state for decades, with some of the group’s best performing dealerships in northern and southern California.
“It’s just an outstanding car market; people love their cars,” Smith told Automotive News. “It’s part of the biggest car culture in America.”
Smith didn’t share any planned changes at the dealerships.
He said it was huge privilege to become the largest Jaguar-Land Rover dealer in the country based on sales volume.
“They’ve been very good to us; they’re great partners,” Smith said. “I think it’s going to be a very successful acquisition.”
Executives from US Auto Trust were not available for comment.
The transaction is significant both because of the store count and the stores’ performances, according to Kerrigan Advisors, a sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev., which represented US Auto Trust in the transaction.
Ryan Kerrigan, the firm’s managing director, said two of the stores, Los Angeles and Newport Beach, consistently finish in the top five in the country based on sales volume.
He estimated the four dealerships sell a total of 2,000 to 3,000 new units a year.
“In our experience, it’s very unusual to have two top stores and four stores in total being sold for J-LR,” Kerrigan said.
It was not immediately clear if Sonic planned to drop Jaguar from the L.A., San Jose or Newport Beach locations. Jaguar did not appear to be included when US Auto Trust bought the Pasadena dealership in December 2021.
Jaguar since 2023, when it had 195 U.S. franchises, has been offering incentives to dealers to leave the brand. At the start of 2025, there were 122 total Jaguar franchises in the U.S., according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center.
US Auto Trust was founded in Los Angeles in 2018 by Ed Glazer, one of the owners of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Glazer started the group with the purchase of an Aston Martin store in Newport Beach, Calif., that same year.
Before the Sonic deal, the retailer owned eight luxury dealerships — all in California. It added Jaguar-Land Rover Newport Beach in December 2019, Jaguar-Land Rover San Jose in March 2021 and Jaguar-Land Rover Los Angeles in August 2022.
With the sale, the group now owns four dealerships selling the Aston Martin, Lotus and Cadillac brands, according to its website.
“These dealerships are strong, proven assets, and Sonic is well-positioned to take them over,” Glazer said in a statement.
Sonic, which has indicated a bullish stance on expanding its franchised dealership footprint in media interviews and recent investor presentations, in October bought out a partner in a Georgia Volvo store and added its first franchised dealership in Louisiana in December.
With the California acquisition, Sonic owns nearly 115 automotive franchised dealerships in the U.S., including three Jaguar dealerships that also sell Land Rover in Texas. The group also has three other Land Rover sites in Georgia, Colorado and Alabama, according to its website, as well as a few certified used locations for both brands.
It also owns powersports stores in several states and the sprawling Echo Park used-car operation.
Sonic Automotive, of Charlotte, N.C., ranks No. 6 on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups in the U.S., retailing 111,450 new vehicles in 2024.
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 290 dealerships generating more than $9 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.
Contact us to learn more about Kerrigan Advisors’ sell-side services.
All of our conversations are 100% confidential.
