Dealerships with strong used focus land on top

Those efforts helped Cavender Auto Family leap 23 spots up Automotive News‘ annual ranking of the top 100 dealership groups in used-vehicle sales based in the U.S. Cavender retailed 19,611 used vehicles last year, up 35 percent from 2021, to land at No. 38.

The top 100 groups sold a combined 3,115,933 used vehicles in 2022, up 0.5 percent from the comparable and adjusted figure of 3,099,800 for 2021, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center, which compiles the list. That adjustment in part omits 2021 figures from the collective tally for large used-only retailers CarMax Inc., Carvana Co., Vroom Inc. and Shift Technologies Inc., which were not considered for the 2022 list. For the first time, Automotive News is breaking those into a separate ranking of used-vehicle-only retailers to be published in May.

Ultimately, 2022 bore similarities to 2021: As new-vehicle supply remained tenuous, used-vehicle operations continued to sustain dealership groups. As consolidation kept up at a robust pace, many groups that acquired franchised stores reported selling more vehicles, used and new alike. But the market as a whole differed.

“2022 was pretty much a continuation of 2021, except for volume,” Jonathan Banks, vice president of vehicle valuations at J.D. Power, said of the used-vehicle market. “Volume dropped compared to 2021.”

High retail prices for used vehicles persisted, and though per-vehicle profit on used cars declined a bit, it was still “pretty high,” Banks told Automotive News.

Still, there were some marked differences as market conditions evolved in 2022. Inflation and higher interest rates took root, causing a big shift in the consumers shopping for used cars and raising longer-lasting concerns about affordability, Banks said. Volatility in wholesale used-vehicle prices led dealers to reexamine how long to keep used vehicles on their lots before they depreciated, he added.