AutoNation, Inc.

What does AutoNation own?
AutoNation owns and operates 323 new-vehicle franchises at 245 stores, 26 AutoNation USA used-vehicle stores, 52 collision centers, four wholesale auction operations, three parts distribution centers, a mobile repair business, and the AutoNation Finance captive lender. Its stores sell vehicles from 30 manufacturer brands, led by Toyota, Honda, Ford, and General Motors.

Is AutoNation publicly traded?
Yes. AutoNation trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker AN and is a component of the S&P 400 index. The company has been publicly held since the Republic Industries era of the late 1990s.

Who founded AutoNation?
H. Wayne Huizenga founded AutoNation in 1996 as the automotive division of Republic Industries. Huizenga, who previously built Waste Management and Blockbuster, rolled up hundreds of dealerships into the first national car retail brand.

Where is AutoNation headquartered?
AutoNation is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Its stores are concentrated in the Sunbelt, with major presence in Florida, Texas, and California.

How many brands does AutoNation own?
AutoNation operates three principal brands: AutoNation for new-vehicle dealerships and collision centers, AutoNation USA for used-vehicle superstores, and AutoNation Finance for captive lending. It sells vehicles from 30 manufacturer brands but does not own them.

Who owns AutoNation?
AutoNation is owned by its public shareholders, with no controlling owner. ESL Investments, the fund associated with Edward Lampert, has historically been the largest shareholder, alongside major institutional investors.

What happened with the FTC case against AutoNation?
In January 2025, the FTC and the Illinois Attorney General announced a roughly $20 million settlement with Leader Automotive Group, an AutoNation subsidiary, over allegations of deceptive advertising and unwanted add-on charges at Illinois dealerships. The settlement included consumer redress and compliance requirements.

AutoNation grew out of Republic Industries, a vehicle assembled by H. Wayne Huizenga, the entrepreneur who built Waste Management into a national company and Blockbuster into the dominant video rental chain. The corporate shell had been incorporated in Oklahoma in 1980 as Republic Waste Industries; Huizenga became chairman in 1995, renamed it Republic Industries, and began using its stock to roll up fragmented industries.

The automotive play moved fast. In January 1997 Republic acquired AutoNation Incorporated, a startup building used-car megastores under the AutoNation USA name, then spent the next several years buying new-car dealerships at a pace the industry had never seen. By the end of the 1990s, Republic owned hundreds of franchise dealerships, Alamo Rent A Car, and National Car Rental, plus its original waste and security businesses. It spun off most of the non-auto assets, renamed itself AutoNation, Inc. in 1999, and became the first national brand in US car retailing.

The first version of the strategy stumbled. AutoNation closed its AutoNation USA used-car superstores between 1999 and 2001 after they failed to produce expected returns, and it divested its rental car operations in 2000. Under CEO Mike Jackson, who ran the company from 1999 to 2019, AutoNation consolidated stores under a single brand, centralized pricing and inventory systems, and focused on service, parts, and finance income, the higher-margin businesses that cushion the thin economics of new-car sales.

After Jackson's retirement, the CEO seat turned over twice in quick succession: Carl Liebert held the role briefly in 2019, followed by Cheryl Miller through 2021. The board recruited Mike Manley in 2021, months after he had merged Fiat Chrysler into Stellantis. Manley pushed the company deeper into used vehicles and captive finance.

The modern expansion phase began around 2017 when AutoNation relaunched AutoNation USA as a chain of standalone used-vehicle stores, reaching 26 locations by the end of 2025. AutoNation Finance launched in 2022 as a captive lender and grew its receivables portfolio to $2.2 billion by the end of 2025. The company also scaled its collision business to 52 centers and built out mobile repair service.

FY2025 delivered the first year of earnings growth since 2022. Revenue rose 3 percent to $27.63 billion, after-sales gross profit reached a record, and adjusted free cash flow topped $1 billion, up roughly 39 percent year over year. The company continued buying dealerships in markets where it already had scale, spending about $460 million on acquisitions during the year.

FTC and Illinois Action on Dealer Pricing (2025): In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois Attorney General announced a settlement of approximately $20 million with Leader Automotive Group, an AutoNation subsidiary operating dealerships in Illinois. The agencies alleged bait-and-switch advertising, undisclosed add-on charges, and sales of unwanted products. The settlement resolved the claims and required compliance measures at the affected stores.

Sales Practice Litigation: Like other large dealer groups, AutoNation has faced consumer litigation over add-on products and pricing disclosures at individual stores. These matters are typically resolved through settlement or arbitration and have not produced findings of systemic misconduct beyond the Leader Automotive resolution.