Hult said the Spokane Lexus store acquired in the Larry H. Miller deal had been Asbury’s smallest dealership representing Lexus based on vehicles sold and revenues. Asbury had owned the Lexus store in Missouri since the late 1990s, he said, but opted to sell it to put itself back within the cap allowed by Lexus.
On the Toyota side, Asbury ran into contiguous market issues within Toyota’s Denver region, Hult said.
He referred Automotive News to Toyota for specifics on its cap on dealerships in that market. A Toyota spokesman, in an email to Automotive News, said the brand limits how many dealerships a group or person can own in a region, but the allowed number of stores depends on multiple factors such as the owner’s share of regional sales.
Hult noted that the limits meant Asbury couldn’t keep both Toyota dealerships acquired in Colorado Springs, for instance. So Asbury sold both newly acquired Toyota stores there as the group had no other existing dealerships in that city, Hult said.
Asbury kept a newly acquired Toyota dealership in Albuquerque as it already had other stores in that market, Hult said. He also wanted to keep the Toyota store Asbury acquired in the Phoenix area.
Hult said Asbury worked with Toyota on the sales process and had some flexibility. The group didn’t have to sell the Spokane Toyota dealership in Washington state, part of Toyota’s Portland region, Hult said.
“We chose to sell that one because it was a small store,” he said.
“And if we had to sell the Lexus store [in Spokane], it just seemed to make sense. It was a better package, putting the two stores together than selling Lexus and keeping the Toyota store there.”
Asbury opted to keep five newly acquired Toyota dealerships in the Denver region: two stores that came with the Stevinson deal in the Denver area, the larger of two outlets acquired in Albuquerque from Larry H. Miller, a Larry H. Miller store in Peoria, Ariz., and a Larry H. Miller dealership in Murray, Utah.