After stalling dangerously on Wall Street, publicly traded auto retailers are hitting the gas again, according to a Wall Street Journal story by Karen Lundegaard.

Just a year ago, the big dealers' stocks were trading in the single digits, and many investors had virtually stopped buying dealerships. But now, despite lean times for Detroit's Big Three automakers, shares of the major publicly traded players in the sector,

including AutoNation Inc., UnitedAuto Group Inc., and Group 1 Automotive Inc., have at least doubled from a year ago; some, such as Sonic Automotive Inc., have quadrupled.

All will report fourth-quarter results in the coming weeks, and many have said results will be better than previously forecast. The run-ups have been so strong that the sector is attracting attention from short sellers -- not much of a problem a year ago, when there was little room for the stocks to fall further.

Why the sudden change of fortunes? According to the Journal, the auto retailers are doing a better job of convincing investors that they can weather a downturn in new-vehicle sales by drawing revenue from higher-margin sales of used cars, parts, service, finance and

insurance.

Their argument that they should be viewed as "specialty retailers," not adjuncts to the

cyclically affected automakers, is also getting more credence from investors, according to Lundegaard's story. "Now people are believing it," says Theo Wright, chief financial officer at Sonic, the second-largest of the dealer

groups, based in Charlotte, N.C.