Two large Midwest auto retailers expanded their footprints with second- and third-quarter acquisitions in their home states, while another Midwest group sold two California stores to a first-time buyer.
Here’s a look at the deals involving domestic and luxury brand stores in California, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Each of the transactions involved an auto retailer ranked on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups.
Victory sells two California stores
Victory Automotive Group, an active dealership buyer and seller this year, sold two Northern California dealerships last month.
Victory Automotive on Aug. 23 sold McConnell Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram and McConnell Chevrolet, both in Healdsburg, Calif., north of San Francisco, to Kardar Automotive, Victory Automotive COO Rodger Olson confirmed to Automotive News in an email.
The dealerships were renamed Healdsburg Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram and Healdsburg Chevrolet.
Ali Kargaran, Alex Karegaran and Amir Darabi are Kardar Automotive’s principals, according to Phil Vogel, managing director of Vogel Strategies of Burlingame, Calif. Vogel represented Victory Automotive in the transaction. This was Kardar Automotive’s first acquisition and the group is based in Healdsburg, Vogel noted.
The sale was Victory’s first since it sold a North Carolina Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership in February, Olson confirmed. Victory Automotive bought two Tennessee dealerships in April and two Ohio stores in June.
Victory Automotive, of Canton, Mich., ranks No. 19 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 28,535 new vehicles in 2022.
LaFontaine Automotive buys first Infiniti dealership
LaFontaine Automotive Group has expanded its luxury brand offerings with its latest Michigan acquisition.
LaFontaine Automotive on Aug. 11 bought Ann Arbor Infiniti, west of Detroit, from fellow Michigan auto retailer Fox Motors, LaFontaine spokesperson Max Muncey confirmed to Automotive News in an email.
The dealership was renamed LaFontaine Infiniti Ann Arbor. It marks the first Infiniti dealership for LaFontaine, Muncey said. Infiniti joins Cadillac, Volvo and Genesis in LaFontaine’s luxury brand portfolio.
Fox Motors housed the Infiniti franchise out of its Nissan dealership in Ann Arbor. Muncey said LaFontaine moved Infiniti to a former used-vehicle store it already owned in Ann Arbor.
The acquisition was LaFontaine’s first since it bought a metro Detroit Chevrolet dealership in March, Muncey said. In addition, LaFontaine this year opened a standalone Polestar store, also in metro Detroit, and bought a Lincoln dealership in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Fox Motors, meanwhile, has been an active dealership buyer in 2023 with purchases in Grand Rapids and metro Detroit.
LaFontaine Automotive, of Highland, Mich., ranks No. 25 on Automotive News‘ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 24,750 new vehicles in 2022. Fox Motors, of Grand Rapids, ranks No. 54 on that same list, with sales of 14,457 new vehicles in 2022.
Kunes Auto buys two Wisconsin dealerships
Kunes Auto Group gained two footholds in metro Milwaukee after acquiring General Motors dealerships in Wisconsin.
Kunes Auto COO Scott Kunes said the group on May 31 purchased All-Star Buick-GMC in Oak Creek, Wis., from Boyland Auto Group.
“We are very excited for that deal,” Kunes told Automotive News. “We’ve always been in the southeast Milwaukee market, but this was our first foray into the metro Milwaukee market.”
Renamed Kunes Buick-GMC of Oak Creek, the store is south of downtown Milwaukee.
Boyland Auto CEO Dorian Boyland, a former Major League Baseball player drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, also sold a Honda dealership in Oak Creek in January.
“The decision to sell my two Milwaukee stores and leave the state that was the birthplace of my academic and professional sports careers, was a very difficult one,” Boyland said in a statement.
Scott Mackie, senior vice president of the Midwest region for buy-sell firm National Business Brokers in Irvine, Calif., represented Boyland in the Kunes transaction.
Kunes Auto of Delavan, Wis., on Aug. 1 also purchased John Paul’s Buick-GMC in Greenfield, southwest of Milwaukee. The Jones family sold the store, renamed Kunes Buick-GMC of Greenfield.
The acquisitions were the first auto dealership transactions of the year for Kunes Auto, which also owns RV dealerships, Kunes said. A wholesale parts operation at the Greenfield location made the deal more enticing, Kunes said.
“They do roughly $2 million [in sales] in wholesale parts a month and that’s a business we have not been in,” Kunes said. “We’ve done wholesale parts at all of our stores, but not to the extent they do.”
Kunes said he hopes both stores allow the group to increase its dedication to community visibility.
“We tend to be in more rural or medium-sized communities,” Kunes said. “We’re hoping to bring our large community presence to the metro Milwaukee market as well.”
Kunes Auto ranks No. 96 on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 9,233 new vehicles in 2022.
