Terry Taylor buys AutoFair Automotive Group

Terry Taylor, through his Automotive Management Services Inc. business, has purchased AutoFair Automotive Group, one of the largest dealership groups in the country based on new-vehicle sales.

AMSI on Monday bought AutoFair and its seven dealerships across New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Terms were not disclosed.

AutoFair Automotive, of Manchester, N.H., includes Ford, Honda and Hyundai-Genesis dealerships in Manchester; a Volkswagen dealership in Nashua, N.H.; a Nissan store in Stratham, N.H., and Ford and Subaru dealerships in Haverhill, Mass.

AutoFair was led by CEO Andy Crews, a member of the National Automobile Dealers Association board of directors and winner of the 2015 Time Dealer of the Year award. Crews began his automotive career as a technician in 1986, according to his biography on NADA's website.

AutoFair was founded in 1991, according to its LinkedIn page.

"I came to New Hampshire nearly 16 years ago to be part of the ownership team that bought AutoFair from the foundation Dan Prior had started," Andy Crews said in a statement on media company Manchester Ink Link's website. "I am proud of what our team has built and my years at the helm of AutoFair."

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported that Crews will leave AutoFair after a transition period and is going to spend the next 90 days to six months "winding down the investor group company that owns AutoFair."

Crews told the newspaper that AMSI also bought AutoFair's naming rights.

A representative with AMSI of West Palm Beach, Fla., did not respond to a request seeking comment.

AutoFair ranks No. 131 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 7,022 new vehicles in 2020.

AutoFair is now the fourth group on Automotive News' top 150 list to be acquired this year. Its transaction follows the sale of No. 21 Suburban Collection, the vast majority of No. 18 Prime Automotive Group and No. 42 RFJ Auto Partners Holdings Inc.

Asbury Automotive Group Inc.'s pending deal to buy Larry H. Miller Dealerships, No. 8 on the list, is set to close by year-end.

The AutoFair purchase is the latest known acquisition by Taylor.

Taylor bought a Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Cadillac dealership in Lowell, N.C., the Gaston Gazette reported last month. In March, Taylor bought a Toyota store in West Roxbury, Mass., from Prime Automotive Group.

Taylor's exact dealership ownership isn't known. In March 2018, Automotive News estimated Taylor owned about 120 U.S. dealerships, many in the Southeast.

Alan Haig, president of Haig Partners, a buy-sell firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., represented AutoFair in the transaction.