Lithia mentioned it offered 4 dealerships within the second quarter, together with a Kia dealership in California and Hyundai outlet in New York.
The car retail big, which additionally divested Audi Valencia in California and Hazleton Honda in Hazle Township, Pa., within the second quarter, mentioned it offered Lithia Kia of Stockton on Might 26 and Carbone Hyundai in Yorkville, in upstate New York, on Might 7.
Lithia, the second-largest dealership group within the U.S., had owned the Kia retailer since October 2013 and the Hyundai dealership since 2016. The Hyundai dealership was a part of the retailer’s acquisition of the nine-store Carbone Auto Group in New York and Vermont.
Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer advised Automotive Information final month that the Kia and Hyundai retailer divestitures had been performed for “community optimization and efficiency.”
“They’re simply small companies that we simply handed and felt that another person might in all probability do a greater job representing that producer in that market than we did,” he mentioned.
The Kia retailer is now working as Kia of Stockton. Lahham Automotive holds the supplier license for the shop, in keeping with the California Division of Motor Autos.
The Hyundai retailer is now referred to as Mastrovito Hyundai, led by supplier principal Frank Mastrovito. He previously was COO of the Upstate New York area for Prime Motor Group and labored as vice chairman of gross sales for Carbone Auto Group and Lithia, in keeping with his LinkedIn profile.
Mastrovito had wished to have his personal dealership since he was 12 and “acknowledged a life-long dream,” in keeping with a report from WKTV in Utica, N.Y.
DeBoer mentioned the Audi Valencia sale was associated to contiguous market agreements with Audi.
In Might, Lithia offered Hazleton Honda to Fred Timbrook, Lee Wilson and David Ainsworth of Timbrook Automotive. Lithia had bought the Honda retailer lower than two years earlier from an ailing dealership group. It additionally had purchased Hamilton Honda in New Jersey in that deal.
“We had at all times meant to promote that,” DeBoer mentioned of Hazleton Honda. “We simply wanted the assistance Honda out with a monetary state of affairs that they had with the vendor. So we stepped into it to assist them.”
Lithia, of Medford, Ore., ranked No. 3 on Automotive Information‘ most up-to-date listing of the highest 150 dealership teams based mostly within the U.S., retailing 171,168 new automobiles in 2020. However Lithia’s April acquisition of Michigan’s Suburban Assortment makes it the second-largest group going ahead.