Sonic Automotive is a Fortune 500 company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the fifth largest automotive retailer in the United States. The company's founder and Executive Chairman O. Bruton Smith is also the Executive Chairman and a director of Speedway Motorsports. Sonic Automotive operates in 14 states with more than 100 dealerships representing 25 different brands of automobiles. The dealerships market new and used cars, replacement parts and vehicle maintenance, as well as collision repair services.
History
Sonic Automotive was launched as a public company in November 1997 by O Bruton Smith. At the time, the company had 20 stores, representing 15 brands and several hundred employees. The company's founder and CEO is also the Executive Chairman and a director of Speedway Motorsports. Sonic ranked 298th on the 2018 Fortune 500 list. The company also is a member of the Russell 2000 Index.
EchoPark Automotive
Sonic Automotive owns EchoPark Automotive, a used car dealership chain also based in Charlotte. EchoPark allows customers to look up competitors' prices on mobile devices located throughout the stores. The first EchoPark location opened in the Thornton area of Denver, Colorado in 2014. A location in Centennial was later opened along with a store in Colorado Springs. EchoPark Automotive also operates in the San Antonio, New Braunfels, Houston, and Charlotte markets as of 2018. EchoPark has also purchased driversselect, a Dallas area dealership, which will become an Echopark store. EchoPark facilities are LEED certified and constructed with sustainable building technologies.
Sales and acquisitions
In 2001, Sonic made its entrance into the Oklahoma City market with the purchase of Boyd Chevrolet and Steve BaileyHonda. In 2002, Sonic acquired the sixteen-location Michigan-based Don Massey Dealerships. This brought the company to 134 total locations, making it the second-largest automotive retailer at the time. The acquisition also brought Sonic to 23 total Cadillac dealerships, representing between 5-7% of the brand's total revenue. In July 2003, Sonic agreed to purchase eighteen dealerships, including the Momentum Automotive Group in Houston, Texas. Sonic's presence in the Houston area had traditionally been with domestic brands, but the acquisition of Momentum added BMW, Jaguar and Audi brands to the companies portfolio. This sale also represented the first direct acquisition of a Saturn franchise by a retail automotive group, with the purchase of two Bay Area Saturn stores. Sonic purchased two dealerships from PPE Houston in January 2007. The acquisition of the Land Rover and Jaguar stores brought Sonic to 173 franchises and 37 collision repair centers. Sonic halted its acquisition strategy during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, but returned to acquiring new locations in order to drive growth in 2013. In November 2014, Sonic traded one of its Don Massey Cadillac locations in Lone Tree, CO, to the Denver-based John Elway Automotive Group in exchange for the John Elway Chevrolet location and the associated real estate. The trade came about as a way for the brand to acquire a strong-performing Chevrolet franchise, as well as a plot of land beside the dealership on which the new Murray Imports BMW location could be built. Sonic purchased the four AutoMatch USA used car locations in Florida and Georgia in 2016. These locations were re-branded under Sonic's EchoPark brand. In October 2017, Sonic sold its Capitol Chevrolet & Hyundai franchise in Columbia, SC to the Stivers Automotive Group. In May 2018, Sonic sold its Lone StarFord franchise in Houston, TX to the Doggett Auto Group. The store was renamed Doggett Ford and moved into a new facility alongside Doggett's John Deere equipment dealership. Sonic sold two dealerships to Graham Holdings in February 2019. The Lexus of Rockville store was renamed Ourisman Lexus of Rockville, as Graham has partnered with Chris Ourisman, president of the Ourisman Auto Group, to manage the locations. The Honda location in Vienna, Virginia, has been renamed Ourisman Honda of Tysons Corner.
