Lithia Motors sells Subaru dealership; Dobbs buys Chevy store

Lithia Motors Inc. sold one of its Subaru dealerships in the second quarter, while Dobbs Equity Partners' auto retail portfolio entered a new state late last year and a dealership group bought its third franchised store in the first quarter.

Here's a look at the deals involving import and domestic stores and dealerships in Montana, Indiana and Ohio. One transaction involved an auto retailer ranked on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list.

Lithia Motors divested a Subaru dealership in Montana this month.

The publicly traded auto retailer on May 4 sold Lithia Subaru of Great Falls to Jeremy Day Automotive Group, Tom Dobry, Lithia's vice president of marketing, confirmed to Automotive News in an email.

The dealership was renamed Great Falls Subaru.

Great Falls Subaru currently is Jeremy Day's only dealership and marks his return to store ownership, according to Greg Krueger, partner at Sterling Mergers and Acquisitions in Boise, Idaho. Krueger's firm represented Lithia in the transaction.

Day previously owned a Ford dealership near Salt Lake City but sold it to Ken Garff Automotive Group in 2018, Krueger noted.

The Subaru divestiture is the latest dealership sale by Lithia this year.

Lithia in April sold a Honda dealership in Texas and it sold a California Stellantis store in March. In January, Lithia also closed its BMW of Utica dealership in New York.

In two separate acquisitions, Lithia acquired three California dealerships in January and three Las Vegas dealerships in March. Lithia also bought a Honda dealership near Toronto on May 2.

Lithia, of Medford, Ore., ranks No. 2 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 260,738 new vehicles in 2021.

Dobbs Equity Partners late last year added a domestic dealership to its lineup and expanded to a new state: Indiana.

Dobbs Equity of Memphis, Tenn., on Dec. 6, bought Blossom Chevrolet in Indianapolis from Mike Chase and an undisclosed partner.

Chase remains dealer operator of the store, which has a more than 50-year history, and retained an undisclosed ownership percentage in the dealership, according to Haig Partners, a buy-sell firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which represented the seller in the transaction.

The dealership's name was retained.

"Dobbs Equity Partners is thrilled to expand our presence in Indianapolis and are grateful that Mike Chase will continue to be a part of the team," John Dobbs Jr., the firm's CEO, said in a statement. "We anticipate further growth and expansion in the Midwest with Mike and his team leading the effort."

Rick Greene, COO of Dobbs Equity Partners, told Automotive News that the group is under contract to buy five more dealerships.

Chase said while he opted to sell the Chevy store, he wanted to find a buyer that would let him stay involved in the dealership.

"I'm excited to continue growing the enterprise and pursuing new opportunities with the Dobbs team," Chase said in a statement.

The acquisition follows Dobbs Equity's November 2021 purchase of Papa's Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in New Britain, Conn.

The Dobbs family got its start in auto retail in the 1920s. Dobbs Automotive Group in 1998 sold more than 20 dealerships to Republic Industries Inc., which in 1999 changed its name to AutoNation Inc.

Today, the Dobbs Family Automotive portfolio has nine franchised rooftops, with dealerships also in Kansas, Arkansas and Texas.

Hinderer Motor Co. bought its third new-vehicle dealership with the purchase of a Ford store in the first quarter.

Hinderer Motor on Feb. 28 acquired Beford Ford in Washington Court House, Ohio, from Mark Beford.

It was Beford's last dealership, according to Tim Lamb Group, which represented Beford in the transaction.

The dealership was renamed John Hinderer Ford. Washington Court House is southwest of Columbus.

Hinderer Motor also owns John Hinderer Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, John Hinderer Honda and John Hinderer Honda Powerstore, a powersports dealership, all in Heath, Ohio.