Chapman Automotive, Summit Automotive, World Auto buy dealerships; Speigl acquires first stores

Seven dealerships, selling domestic and import brands, changed hands in four separate third-quarter transactions.

Three of the transactions involved groups listed on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list. Here's a look at the deals.

Arizona expansion
Chapman Automotive Group of Chandler, Ariz., has expanded into Yuma, Ariz., with the purchase of three domestic stores in the southwest part of the state.

Chapman on Sept. 8 bought Fisher Chevrolet, Fisher Buick-GMC and Fisher Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram from retiring owner Joe Fisher.

The dealerships have been renamed Chapman Chevrolet, Chapman Buick-GMC and Chapman Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram. The three Yuma stores last year sold a combined more than 4,000 new and used vehicles, according to a news release on the transaction.

"We weren't pursuing any acquisitions at the time the Tim Lamb Group brought this opportunity to us," Ted Chapman, co-CEO of the Chapman group, told Automotive News. "And we reviewed their package on Fisher Automotive very thoroughly, and we became interested very quickly. The stores are really well-performing stores and ... it expands our footprint in Arizona to Yuma."

The family-owned and operated Chapman group launched in 1966 with a Chevrolet store in Chandler and now has 19 brands and 23 locations. The group also has dealerships in the Tucson, Phoenix and Payson areas in Arizona and Henderson and Las Vegas in Nevada.

Chapman ranks No. 46 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 18,569 new vehicles in 2020.

Fisher's dealerships date to 1982. He got his start as a mechanic.

"I feel comfortable knowing that my team will be valued and highly respected by the Chapman organization which has a reputation for minimal turnover and many long-term happy employees," Fisher said in a statement.

Ken Koehler of Tim Lamb Group's Southwest Region brokered the transaction.

Summit Automotive Partners of Centennial, Colo., which has dealerships in five states, has expanded in Colorado with the acquisition of a Honda dealership.

Summit on Sept. 13 bought Freedom Honda in Colorado Springs from Piercey Automotive Group of Irvine, Calif.

Summit Automotive ranks No. 54 on Automotive News' most recent list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 16,205 new vehicles in 2020, while Piercey ranks No. 67 on the same list, retailing 13,469 new vehicles in 2020.

Piercey has four other Honda stores and one Toyota dealership, with stores located in California and Arizona, according to its website.

Summit is owned by George Gillett and family, along with partners, and includes Action Nissan in Nashville; the Berlin City Auto Group with dealerships in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont; Groove Auto in the Denver area; and Groove Silverthorne in Colorado. The dealership group sells Ford, Mazda, Honda, Lexus, Buick, Dodge, Kia, Subaru, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, GMC and Jeep, according to its website.

A message on the Freedom Honda website from Bret Peterson, Freedom Honda's general manager, said the store would join Summit's Groove Auto.

"With this larger organization behind us, the best will get even better," Peterson wrote in the post. "We'll have the resources to better serve you and the entire community, to offer a wider variety of vehicles and reach a higher level of customer experience."

Bill Scrivner of Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, a buy-sell firm in Frisco, Texas, represented the seller in the transaction.

World Auto Group of Springfield, N.J., has purchased its second Subaru dealership, as the group again reaches a 10-store count.

World Auto on Aug. 31 bought Route 46 Subaru in Hackettstown, N.J., west of Newark, from Frank Esposito and Frank Tackett.

The Subaru store was among a group of dealerships that agreed to a nearly $220,000 settlement with the New Jersey attorney general in 2019 to resolve allegations that the dealership and others violated the Consumer Fraud Act, Used Car Lemon Law and other consumer protection regulations that oversee vehicle sale and advertising. The Subaru store and other dealerships agreed to change business practices and to go through binding arbitration to handle customer complaints.

World Auto has renamed the dealership Subaru World of Hackettstown.

World Auto Group Operating Manager Chris Preziosi told Automotive News that the acquisition came as an opportunity from a friend and one the group thought was a "good deal."

"We're really happy to be to have another Subaru store and be partners with SDC, Subaru Distributors Corp.," Preziosi said. "They've been great partners with us."

In May, World Auto sold Nissan World of Red Bank in New Jersey to Michael Ianelli of Integrity Auto Group, and in November the group purchased Audi Newton in New Jersey.

The family-owned group, which dates to 1991, also sells Audi, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen.

World Auto ranks No. 148 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 4,916 new vehicles in 2020.

Former dealership group president Michael Speigl bought his first dealerships on Sept. 1 when he acquired Dunning Subaru and Dunning Toyota in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Speigl bought the dealerships from retiring dealer Julie Dunning after the two were introduced by a mutual friend, Speigl said. The stores have been renamed Subaru of Ann Arbor and Toyota of Ann Arbor.

The Dunning family had owned the Toyota store since 1970 and the Subaru store since 1986.

Speigl most recently was a group vice president with public retailer Lithia Motors Inc. Lithia in 2019 acquired Williams Automotive Group, based in the Tampa, Fla., area, and where Speigl had been president.

For Speigl, who relocated to Ann Arbor with his family, the acquisition and move north is a homecoming of sorts. Speigl is from Grand Rapids, Mich., located on the state's west side, but graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Speigl said he frequently came back to Ann Arbor in the summers as well as for university football and basketball games.

"To have the opportunity to buy Toyota [and] Subaru of Ann Arbor that's been family-owned for 50 years, in a place that's near and dear to our hearts, it was just too much to pass up," he said.