BMW dealers were the big movers in Orange County in the past year. But Fletcher Jones Motorcars’ Mer-cedes-Benz dealership in Newport Beach easily kept its grip on the top spot in a ranking of auto dealers.
Overall, OC’s 20 biggest auto dealers reported an 8% increase in sales to $3.7 billion in 2004. The Business Journal’s list ranks dealers by revenue from auto and service sales, and includes estimates for two Lexus dealers who declined to report 2004 results.
The number of new cars sold by the top dealers grew 5% to 66,555. Used car sales in OC were up 2% to 27,079.
Local dealers outperformed their U.S. counterparts, which posted a 0.5% rise in new car sales last year, according to the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association in Costa Mesa.
|
||
No. 3 Crevier BMW: moved up a spot with 21% sales gain |
OC’s top dealers sold cars with 1% fewer salespeople. They boosted their crop of auto technicians and other service staff by 6%. Collectively, the dealers employed 794 salespeople and 1,401 mechanics.
The county’s auto story is, as usual, all about luxury and “near-luxury.”
“People are more brand conscious,” said Tom Cregg, director of marketing for No. 7 Caliber Motors Mercedes-Benz in Anaheim Hills. “It makes us feel more successful, good about ourselves.”
The near-luxury category includes Mercedes C-Class and the BMW 3-Series. They are autos that come with fairly sizeable sticker prices,about $35,000,but still are half of their luxury counterparts, which can cost $70,000 and more.
In OC, near-luxury cars make up about 9% of auto sales, compared to about 5% nationally, according to the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association. Near-luxury is the fastest-growing category of 16 U.S. auto segments.
Next year, Mercedes plans to launch its B-Class, its low-priced luxury model set to carry a price tag in the mid-$20,000s, Cregg said.
The top selling near-luxury models in OC: BMW 3-Series, Infiniti G3, Mercedes C, Lexus ES300 and Acura TL, according to the dealer’s association.
Top gun Fletcher Jones posted dealership revenue of $533 million, up 7% from a year earlier. Its sales from autos rose 7%, to $457 million.
Fletcher easily beat the No. 2 dealer, Mercedes-Benz of Laguna Niguel, which saw overall revenue rise 5% to $303 million.
Breaking up Mercedes’ ownership of the top three spots was No. 3 Crevier BMW in Santa Ana.
The BMW dealer’s sales jumped 21% to $282 million.
BMW outsells Mercedes nationally and is looking to close the gap here on its strong quality marks. BMW dealers also are getting a big bang out of their popular Mini Cooper autos.
To keep up with BMW sales, Crevier is quadrupling its dealership to 200,000 square feet. It’s already added standard luxury customer amenities such as a coffee bar and wireless Internet access at its dealership.
Another big BMW gainer was No. 5 Irvine BMW. It jumped three spots on the list with a 36% rise in sales to $224 million. And No. 14 Shelly BMW in Buena Park reported a 13% revenue rise to $129 million.
Dropping a spot to No. 4 was House of Imports in Buena Park. The Mercedes dealership posted a 1% rise in sales to $272 million.
No. 15 Newport Auto Center debuted on the list with a 25% jump in sales to $118 million. The seller of Bentleys, Porsches and Audis recently built a 4,500-square-foot showroom on Pacific Coast Highway for its Bentleys alone.
The Business Journal estimated sales for two automakers that shared the No. 11 spot: Lexus of Mission Viejo and Lexus of Westminster.
Robert Longpre, Lexus of Westminster’s owner, plans to invest about $20 million to expand his dealership.
As a group, Lexus dealers are on the rise in OC. Lexus has scored big marks on quality tests by researchers such as J.D. Power and Associates.
Tustin Lexus, up one spot to No. 8, is the biggest Lexus dealer on the list with $165 million in sales, up 13% from a year earlier. Tustin Lexus sold 2,901 new cars, 11% more than the previous year, and 1,330 used cars, a 24% increase.
The luxury market in OC will get even hotter when David Wilson, owner of Tustin Lexus and three other local dealerships on the list,No. 6 Toyota of Orange, No. 19 Toyota of Huntington Beach and No. 20 South Coast Toyota,opens a planned $60 million Lexus dealership in Newport Beach.
The dealership, which is set for eight acres just down the road from Fletcher Jones, is expected to open in 2006.
Just three dealerships reported sales declines. Two of them sell U.S.-made autos.
No. 17 Villa Ford in Orange had a 5% dip in sales to $111 million, while No. 18 Connell Chevrolet in Costa Mesa posted a 3% decrease in sales to $110 million.
The other decliner was No. 9 Power Toyota Irvine, part of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based AutoNation Inc. It had an 8% drop in sales to $160 million. A dealership official didn’t attribute the decline to anything specific.
In all, 17 of the 20 dealerships on the list sold vehicles made by foreign automakers.