Lithia Motors buys Ford dealership, sells Toyota store

Growing Lithia Motors Inc., fresh off purchasing 10 dealerships in three June transactions across Southern Florida and Nevada, acquired a standalone Ford store in Northern California last week.

Lithia bought Elk Grove Ford, south of Sacramento, from Matt Wood, Cale Wood and Rachel Wood on July 13, according to James Mitchell of Cushman & Wakefield's Dealership Capital Services division. He and the firm's Erin Rice, along with Mike Luca of CBRE, represented the sellers in the transaction.

Cale Wood is Matt Wood's nephew and is married to Rachel Wood, Mitchell said.

Lithia will keep the dealership's name, Mitchell said.

The Elk Grove store marks the second Northern California acquisition for the auto retailer this year. In January, Lithia bought three dealerships in Roseville and Yuba City, both north of Sacramento.

Lithia, which also has sold several dealerships this year, also divested a Toyota dealership in North Dakota on July 12: Lithia Toyota of Grand Forks. It sold to Rydell Co.

That dealership was renamed Rydell Toyota of Grand Forks. Last fall, Rydell Co. bought CarMax Kenosha Toyota in Wisconsin, the used-vehicle giant's last new-vehicle dealership.

The Grand Forks sale was the first divestiture since Lithia sold a Subaru store in Montana in May, Tom Dobry, Lithia's vice president of marketing, confirmed to Automotive News in an email.

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

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.