The year 2016 has been a very eventful one for the buy sell world and for Automotive Buy Sell Report. Consolidation in the dealership world continued as smaller groups and single-point dealerships found the regulatory, human resource, and OEM demands of the business to be too onerous. That’s saying something because many of the deals that occurred this year involved families that had been in the business for generations, and who still loved selling cars.
The upcoming year will be very interesting. The new president is a believer in less regulation. That should be good news for dealerships, but is it far too soon to predict if the new administration’s policies will be a net positive for dealers.
New light vehicle sales ex-fleet have already plateaued, and they are not forecast to grow much in the coming year. Dealerships will look to fixed operations and F&I to boost earnings and profits. That is an area buyers will be looking at to see how they can improve the bottom line in possible acquisitions.
Valuations are likely to remain robust, though luxury franchises may have become too dear. Those valuations will likely stall. Meanwhile, valuations for many mass market brands, both domestic and imported, will stay strong.
We look forward to working with some of you and informing all of you in the year to come. We are always looking for new contributors. If you are interested, please contact me.
Judging by the volume of emails — and the light traffic on the road on my bicycle ride this morning — many people aren’t working this week. So, we are also taking a holiday.
We will be back with new columns on January 4, but you can still check out our Transaction News.
Also, if you plan on attending NADA in New Orleans on January 26 – 29th, please make sure to stop by booth #6310 to say hello.
Happy New Year!