Kia, Stellantis and Toyota dealerships sell across 3 states

One busy dealership group acquired its sixth dealership of the year, another group added two new stores and a dealer added a second dealership to his portfolio in deals that closed in the second and third quarters. Here's a look at the deals involving import and domestic brands and stores in Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire.

One transaction involved an auto retailer ranked on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups.

Flow Automotive Cos., which in April bought five dealerships in Charlottesville, Va., returned to the central Virginia city with its latest purchase.

Flow Automotive, of Winston-Salem, N.C., bought Price Kia in Charlottesville on July 10 from cousins Sandra Price Amato and Dan Price, said Bennett Acuff, Flow Automotive's group president.

The dealership was renamed Flow Kia of Charlottesville.

It marks Flow's first acquisition since the group bought Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, Honda and Subaru dealerships, all in Charlottesville, from Umansky Automotive Group, Acuff said.

Kerrigan Advisors, a sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev., represented the Prices in the Charlottesville transaction.

Victory Automotive Group made its second acquisition of the year with a two-dealership purchase in the second quarter.

Victory Automotive bought C&C Toyota and C&C Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram, both in Marietta, Ohio, from father and son Jim and Jason Cobb on June 15, said Blair Sharpe of the Tim Lamb Group, a dealership buy-sell company in Columbus, Ohio. Sharpe represented the sellers in the transaction.

The dealerships were renamed Victory Toyota Marietta and Victory Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram Marietta, which is in southeast Ohio near the West Virginia border. The acquisition also included a service center and car wash in nearby Parkersburg, W. Va.

It marked Victory Automotive's first purchase since it bought two Tennessee dealerships in April, Rodger Olson, Victory Automotive's COO, told Automotive News in an email.

Victory Automotive also sold a dealership in the first quarter.

Victory Automotive, of Canton, Mich., ranks No. 19 on Automotive News' most recent list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 28,535 new vehicles in 2022.

Dealer Daniel Enxing added a second dealership to his portfolio with the June 2 purchase of Dan O'Brien Kia North Hampton in New Hampshire.

The store sits about 10 miles away from Enxing's first dealership, Volvo Cars of Exeter.

Enxing told Automotive News via email he plans to build a new facility in the next five years for the renamed Enxing Kia adjacent to the Volvo store.

Both dealerships are about 60 miles north of Boston.

O'Brien sold three dealerships selling the Nissan, Subaru and Kia brands in 2022, most recently the former Dan O'Brien Kia Norwood in Massachusetts to fast-growing McGovern Automotive Group.

A December settlement with the New Hampshire Attorney General's office required O'Brien to pay $1.25 million regarding allegations of unfair and deceptive practices at Dan O'Brien Kia of Concord, N.H. The North Hampton dealership was not involved in the allegations leveled by the state attorney general.

Interest in the Kia brand continues to rise. O'Brien at one point had three Kia dealerships, said Nancy Phillips, president of Exeter, N.H., buy-sell firm Nancy Phillips Associates, which represented O'Brien in the North Hampton sale.

"[O'Brien's dealerships] have all attracted a lot of serious attention from a lot of purchasers," Phillips said. "Kia is definitely way, way up on the desirability list."