Lithia sells California dealership; Ken Ganley Automotive and Ourisman Automotive add dealerships

Auto retail giant Lithia Motors Inc. sold a dealership this month, while Ken Ganley Automotive Group and Ourisman Automotive Group each bought Kia dealerships in the first quarter, and a father-son duo in February acquired a Ford store.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import brands and dealerships in California, Ohio, Virginia and Texas.

Two transactions involved an auto retailer ranked on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list.

Lithia Motors Inc. divested a domestic dealership in Northern California this month.

The publicly traded auto retailer sold Lithia Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat of Santa Rosa in California to Cardinale Automotive Group, of California, on March 14, according to DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Group company, which handled the transaction. George Pero and Alex Covino were brokers in the deal.

The dealership was renamed CardinaleWay Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is north of San Francisco.

The Stellantis store is Cardinale Automotive's 21st franchised dealership across California, Arizona and Nevada, according to its website.

Lithia's divestiture follows its January acquisition of three dealerships in Northern California. Lithia also closed its BMW of Utica dealership in New York in January.

Lithia, of Medford, Ore., ranked No. 3 on Automotive News' most recent list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 171,168 new vehicles in 2020. But its April 2021 acquisition of Michigan's Suburban Collection makes Lithia the second-largest group going forward.

Ken Ganley Automotive Group expanded its presence in suburban Cleveland with the purchase of a Kia store last month.

The growing group on Feb. 16 bought Mentor Kia in Mentor, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland, from Alan Steinberg, said the group's CEO Ken Ganley.

It marks the second Kia dealership for the Brecksville, Ohio, group, Ganley said. The auto retailer bought a Kia dealership in Medina, south of Cleveland, a little over two years ago, Ganley said.

"I love Kia," Ganley told Automotive News. "And so to be able to add another one within a decent amount of drive time — the two stores are maybe 45 minutes apart — it just fit in for us very well."

The dealership, renamed Ken Ganley Kia Mentor, is the latest acquisition for the group.

In October, Ken Ganley Automotive bought a Toyota store in Ohio. In January 2021, the group bought a Buick-GMC store, also in Ohio.

Ken Ganley Automotive ranked No. 14 on Automotive News' most recent list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S. with sales of 35,430 new vehicles in 2020.

Ourisman Automotive Group on March 4 purchased Fairfax Kia in Virginia, which it renamed Ourisman Kia of Fairfax.

Ourisman Automotive of Marlow Heights, Md., bought the dealership from dealer Sam Mansouri, who still owns Fairfax Hyundai.

The Ourisman group has dealerships in Maryland and Virginia. The Kia store in Fairfax is operated by Robert Ourisman Jr., a fourth generation in the family business. He is CEO of Ourisman Automotive, a title he's held since January 2021.

Ourisman has two other Kia dealerships, according to its website. It's the first Kia outlet for Ourisman Jr. and also his first acquisition outside of Maryland, said Woody Woodward, managing director of the eastern region for New York-based DCG Acquisitions, which facilitated the sale. Woodward and John Hyland were brokers in the transaction.

Sam Toliver and Shelton Toliver in February purchased the former BF White Motor Co., a longtime Ford dealership in small Stanton, Texas.

The dealership was renamed Bailey Toliver Ford. Sam Toliver is dealer principal and his son, Shelton, is general manager.

The seller in the Feb. 16 transaction was Ronda Ireton, majority shareholder of the selling corporate entity, said Tom Choate, a lawyer in Abilene, Texas, who advised the buyers in the acquisition.

Ronda Ireton's late husband, Danny Ireton, owned the Ford dealership, where he had worked his way up from service technician. Danny Ireton also was a volunteer firefighter. He was killed in a traffic accident on Aug. 4, 2021, while responding to an emergency call, according to the local CBS affiliate. He was 61, according to his obituary.

The buy-sell agreement was underway at the time of Ireton's death and had to be rewritten after ownership passed to his widow, Toliver said.

The Toliver family also owns three Bailey Toliver RV dealerships: in Stanton, Brownfield and Victoria, Texas. The dealerships are named after Sam Toliver's late father.

Sam Toliver also owned the former Bailey Toliver Chevrolet in Haskell, Texas, from 1997 to July 2021, when he sold it. That store is now Mitch Hall Chevrolet.

Toliver said the Ford franchise in Stanton dates back to 1929. He said annual new-vehicle volume for the dealership has been about 550 vehicles, including fleet and retail, "in a good year."

Historically, fleet sales have accounted for most of its sales, he said. The town is surrounded by the energy industry and nearby Permian Basin, a large oil deposit, he said.

Toliver said he's planning to move the dealership to a new site a couple of miles away, closer to the I-20 highway bypass, and adjacent to this RV dealership in Stanton.

"It's old. I'm going to build a new one, new construction," he said. "The old one is downtown, in a small, rural town."

Dan Leroy with the Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson law firm, in Midland, Texas, advised the seller in the transaction.