Sonic Automotive sells Alabama, North Carolina car dealerships

Sonic Automotive Inc. sold two Alabama dealerships and a North Carolina store in two separate transactions in the second quarter.

Mullinax Automotive of Apopka, Fla., on June 14 bought Capitol Hyundai Montgomery and Classic Buick-GMC-Cadillac in Montgomery, Ala., from Sonic, according to Jerry Mullinax, the group's president.

The dealerships were renamed Hyundai Montgomery and Mullinax Buick-GMC-Cadillac. It marks the second Hyundai store for the group and first Buick-GMC-Cadillac dealership, Mullinax noted.

Montgomery, Alabama's capital, is south of Birmingham.

Jerry Mullinax said the group's most recent acquisition was in 2019, but the group had been actively looking.

He said the strategy for the group, which mostly consists of Ford dealerships, has been to focus on that brand, as well as Hyundai.

"But then I saw the Buick, GMC and Cadillac store and I thought that looked like an opportunity," Mullinax told Automotive News. "In most of those franchises, you've got to drive 50 minutes to get to the closest competitor."

In addition, Hyundai Motor Co. has a vehicle production plant in Montgomery, which was attractive for Mullinax.

"You've got a lot of people that work for the factory that would have a higher tendency to buy the product," he said.

Mullinax Automotive was founded by the late Ed Mullinax, Jerry Mullinax's father. In 1996, the Mullinax group sold its dealerships to Republic Industries Inc., which later became AutoNation Inc.

Mullinax Automotive ranks No. 81 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 11,110 new vehicles in 2022. Sonic, of Charlotte, N.C., ranks No. 6 on that list with sales of 101,168 new vehicles in 2022.

North Carolina sale

In the spring, Sonic sold an Infiniti dealership to growing Mills Automotive Group.

Mills Automotive acquired Infiniti of Charlotte in Matthews, N.C., according to a May LinkedIn post from Kelly Alston, Mills Automotive's variable operations director. A closing date for the transaction was not immediately available. Sonic did not respond to questions about the transaction.

It marks the third dealership Mills Automotive has purchased from a publicly traded auto retailer this year. It also purchased a Virginia Toyota store from Lithia Motors Inc. and a Louisiana Ford dealership from Group 1 Automotive Inc.

Sonic does not appear to have any remaining Infiniti dealerships.

During its second-quarter earnings, Sonic said the three franchised dealerships in Alabama and North Carolina that it sold in the second quarter generated annual revenue of $170 million. It had a $20.9 million net gain on the dealerships' dispositions.

Sonic also sold a Maserati-Alfa Romeo store in Texas in April.