Auto retail giant Lithia Motors Inc. exited Alabama last month with the sale of a Subaru dealership and the group sold two additional dealerships — which it owned for just a few months — in the third quarter of 2022.
Ryan Mayer, owner and president of Tameron Gulf Coast dealership group, bought Subaru of Mobile on March 30, he confirmed to Automotive News.
The dealership was renamed Tameron Subaru. It marks the first Subaru dealership for Mayer’s group and its first acquisition since buying a Mississippi Kia dealership from Group 1 Automotive Inc. in April 2021.
“Subaru is high on our list of brands that we want to acquire,” Mayer told Automotive News. “Obviously, there’s not many Subaru dealerships around and that one was right in the center of what we consider our market. We aggressively pursued Lithia and eventually were able to come to an agreement. It was something that made sense for them and for us.”
Tameron Gulf Coast, of Daphne, Ala., now has five dealerships across Alabama and Mississippi.
Lithia said in its first-quarter earnings that it had sold a dealership, which it did not identify, in the quarter, and that the store generated revenue of $46 million in the past year.
A Lithia spokesperson confirmed that Subaru of Mobile is that dealership.
The auto retailer entered Alabama when it bought the Subaru dealership in July 2021.
Lithia has expanded further in the Southeast U.S. — a key region in its growth plans and where the retailer has the fewest number of stores. It entered Mississippi and Georgia and has continued to grow in Florida.
The March transaction marks the second Subaru dealership Lithia has sold in the past year. In May, it sold a Subaru dealership in Montana.
Before the March deal, Lithia last sold a dealership in December, when it divested a Buick-GMC store in the Detroit area.
In the third quarter of 2022, Lithia also divested a dealership in southern Florida that it had acquired just months earlier.
Lithia on Sept. 28 sold Lehman Mitsubishi in Miami Gardens, Fla., the company confirmed.
Oleg Kislyansky, dealer principal of Auto Services Unlimited, confirmed that his group bought the dealership from Lithia.
Auto Services Unlimited, of Independence, Ohio, near Cleveland, moved the Mitsubishi store to the site of Miami Car Credit, a used-vehicle dealership it owned in Miami Gardens, and renamed the combined store North Miami Mitsubishi, Kislyansky said.
This represents his group’s first acquisition since 2021. Auto Services Unlimited bought a Honda dealership in Ohio in October and a New Jersey Hyundai store in November of that year, Kislyansky said.
Kislyansky had an ownership stake in Infiniti of Coral Gables in Florida, but he and Bernie Moreno sold that dealership to Dennis & Co. Auto Group in August.
Lehman Mitsubishi was one of seven Lehman Auto World dealerships Lithia bought on June 27.
Lithia also sold John L. Sullivan Chevrolet in Roseville, Calif., on Aug. 30, the auto retailer confirmed.
Manuel Prieto, dealer principal of Prieto Automotive in Fresno, Calif., confirmed to Automotive News in an email that his group purchased the dealership and renamed it Roseville Chevrolet. Roseville is northeast of Sacramento.
On Jan. 30, 2022, Lithia bought the Chevrolet dealership along with two other stores from John Sullivan of Sullivan Auto Group.
Lithia, of Medford, Ore., ranks No. 1 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 271,596 new vehicles in 2022. Lithia’s sales figures include dealerships outside of the U.S.
