There’s a new No. 1

Lithia Motors, once the smallest and lowest-ranked of the publicly owned dealership groups, blew by longtime leader AutoNation in new-vehicle retail sales in 2022.

April 02, 2023 12:00 AM

Publicly traded groups on 2023 list

There’s a new No. 1. Lithia Motors, once the smallest and lowest-ranked of the publicly owned dealership groups &ndash blew by longtime leader AutoNation in new-vehicle retail sales in 2022. AutoNation had held the top spot since 1997. Lithia, which continued buying dealerships in 2022 at a far faster pace than its rival, retailed 271,596 new vehicles last year, up 4.2 percent. By contrast, AutoNation retailed 229,971 new vehicles in 2022, down 12 percent. Lithia’s numbers included a modest number of sales in Canada and at motorcycle and recreational vehicle dealerships, but it would have surpassed AutoNation by a wide margin even without those.

2022 rank	2021 rank	Dealership group	Total new retail units
1	2	Lithia Motors Inc.	271,596
2	1	AutoNation Inc.	229,971
3	3	Penske Automotive Group Inc.	185,831
4	4	Group 1 Automotive Inc.	154,714
5	5	Asbury Automotive Group Inc.	151,179
6	7	Sonic Automotive Inc.	101,168

Source: Automotive News Research & Data Center

There’s a new No. 1. Lithia Motors, once the smallest and lowest-ranked of the publicly owned dealership groups — blew by longtime leader AutoNation in new-vehicle retail sales in 2022. AutoNation had held the top spot since 1997. Lithia, which continued buying dealerships in 2022 at a far faster pace than its rival, retailed 271,596 new vehicles last year, up 4.2 percent. By contrast, AutoNation retailed 229,971 new vehicles in 2022, down 12 percent. Lithia’s numbers included a modest number of sales in Canada and at motorcycle and recreational vehicle dealerships, but it would have surpassed AutoNation by a wide margin even without those.