Two pairs of retailers among the 10 biggest dealership groups in the country as ranked by Automotive News swapped places for 2019.
The companies in the top 10 stayed the same, with AutoNation Inc., Penske Automotive Group Inc. and Lithia Motors Inc. once again leading the annual list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S. The groups were ranked using 2019 retail new-vehicle sales.
Hendrick Automotive Group and Sonic Automotive Inc. traded spots to come in at Nos. 5 and 6. Hendrick retailed 115,394 vehicles last year, up 3.2 percent. Sonic retailed 114,131 vehicles, down 7 percent.
Staluppi Auto Group and Ken Garff Automotive Group also swapped positions to come in at Nos. 9 and 10. Staluppi retailed 62,570 new vehicles in 2019, up 5.8 percent. Ken Garff sold 59,305 new vehicles, down 6.8 percent.
New-vehicle sales fell for all six publicly held dealership groups, with AutoNation, Sonic and Penske posting the sharpest declines. AutoNation's new-vehicle sales fell 9.1 percent to 282,602 in 2019, the first time they've dropped below 300,000 since 2013. New-vehicle sales for Penske dropped 5.6 percent to 222,800.
The dealership groups in the top 10 collectively sold 1,429,622 new vehicles, including fleet vehicles, or 8.4 percent of the U.S. light-vehicle market. Sales from the companies in the top 10 made up 38.8 percent of the top 150's total new-vehicle sales.
The companies on the list collectively retailed 3.5 million new vehicles, a decline of 1.2 percent vs. 2018. That matched the overall industry decline in new light-vehicle sales for 2019, when 17.1 million were sold in the U.S.