All six of America’s big publicly traded dealership groups enjoyed year-over-year gains in F&I profit per vehicle retailed in Q3, led by record highs at AutoNation and Sonic Automotive.
The nation’s six largest publicly traded dealer groups all increased F&I profit per vehicle retailed in the second quarter, led by AutoNation’s $1,926 per copy and Lithia Motors’ segment-leading 11% improvement.
Group 1 Automotive has launched AcceleRide, a fully online buying process that includes vehicle configuration, trade-in valuation, and financing options, at 79 U.S. dealerships.
Carvana broke into the top 10 in its first appearance on Automotive News’ list of the nation's Top 100 Used Retailers, more than doubling its output to more than 94,000 units and outpacing the Asbury, Larry H. Miller, and Ken Garff groups.
A preliminary assessment by Houston-based Group 1 Automotive found that employees were able to protect most of the company’s inventory in its Houston and Beaumont, Texas, stores from the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey.
Not even another strong performance in U.S. new-vehicle margins, a record quarter in the group's U.K. market, and a profitable quarter in Brazil were enough to offset "extreme weakness" in Group 1's energy price-impacted markets.
For the year, the nation’s third largest dealer group grew its U.S. F&I per-copy average by $129 from the prior year to $1,644. Company officials, however, tell investors and equity research analysts ‘not to model anything higher.’
Margin over volume was the message coming out of Group 1 Automotive during its third-quarter earnings call. The dealer group reported that a sharp decline in unit sales offset improved new-vehicle margins, as well as gains in F&I and parts and service.
The dealer group's U.S. F&I operations increased its per-copy average by $26 to a record $1,564. Including operations in the United Kingdom and Brazil, the group's consolidated average increased 0.7% to $1,385.
Group 1 Automotive's U.S. F&I operations realized a 4% increase in F&I profit per retail unit, with the group's per-copy average settling in at $1,525 in 2015's end-of-year quarter.