Group 1 Automotive (AKA Group 1 Auto) was formed in 1995 by Earl Hesterberg, a former executive at the Ford Motor Company. They are the 3rd largest motor dealer in the United States and are progressing well in Brazil and the UK. Their local progression picked up recently. They did have 17 dealerships, but this has now jumped to 29 through the acquisition of the Spire Automotive Group. Over the 2014 year they had the 16th largest turnover with around £600 million. They should soon be getting closer to £1 billion. They have the single website at www.group1auto.com. This is really built for their own market with only a list of links being shown for their UK dealerships.

Those that they have acquired have maintained their original branding and so there is a mixture of the likes of Barons, Elms, Spire etc. Otherwise they just use location + automaker. Most of their franchise points are taken on with Audi and BMW. Analysing the Group 1 Automotive finance is pretty tricky. We did check through several of their sites, but when it came to finance they only referred to financing on new cars that was provided by whoever had been franchised. As an example, BMW Financial Services was only discussed at Chandlers Worthing BMW. It is not made clear here or on any other sites which third party lenders are used for used car stock.

It may be the case that you’d need to source your own. It is not even disclosed how many collective used cars are available across the wider network. There is just a list of their UK dealerships at www.group1auto.com with attached links. On the search function they only show their American stock that allows you to search a pool of 10,800 motors. It isn’t likely that the Group 1 Automotive branding will ever be rolled out. They prefer to attract custom through the lure of Audi and the small yet established brands that they take on. Over the coming years they are certainly expected to hit the top 10 for turnover with further expansion on the horizon.