AutoNation integrating mobile service with its used-vehicle stores

With an eye on continuing to grow its service and parts business, AutoNation Inc. is working steadily to integrate RepairSmith, a mobile service and vehicle repair operation it acquired last year.

AutoNation closed its acquisition of RepairSmith in January 2023 and plans to align it with the company's standalone used-vehicle-only AutoNation USA stores through much of 2024, CEO Mike Manley said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

There also was a name change; in November, RepairSmith became AutoNation Mobile Service.

"It is progressively being integrated alongside [AutoNation USA] because, as you know, many standalone used-car stores don't have an aftersales division," Manley said. "In the same way as we aligned AutoNation Finance with [AutoNation USA], we're aligning [AutoNation Mobile Service] to be the provider of refurbishment and service maintenance warranty leads for those customers."

In addition, AutoNation is expanding those mobile services with multiple fleet customers, Manley said.

AutoNation's mobile repair operations will aid the company's service and parts expansion into multiple areas, Manley said.

"We had already done some pilot work on glass [repair], which was successful for some of our Texas businesses, so that's going to be expanded throughout this year," Manley said. He said that similar efforts are underway with calibration and tires.

These efforts, in turn, inform the company's focus on growing its consumer financial services business, Manley said.

"There is quite an expansion in terms of products that we can offer … as we grow AutoNation USA and they are successful" in consumer financial services, Manley said. "Many of those CFS products are associated with extended warranties or maintenance contracts, and now we're able to completely fulfill them ourselves rather than [let] those customers migrate to a competitor to have that work done."

Overall, Manley said, he is "very excited" about mobile services because it will help expand the brand and "I think it will help us."

The company reported $4.5 billion in service and parts revenue in 2023, up 10.6 percent from $4.1 billion in 2022. For the fourth quarter, service and parts revenue surpassed $1.1 billion, 11 percent higher than the just over $1 billion in fourth-quarter 2022.