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| Honda, Toyota dealers all but sweep new-car sales top 20 - The Top 500: 13th Annual Maynard GordonThe Toyota Camry and Honda Accord are the two best-selling cars in the . So you'd expect Toyota and Honda dealers to place well in the Ward's Dealer Business 500 category of the 20 top stores for selling new cars. In fact, it's a near-sweep. Toyota and Honda dealers take 19 of the 20 slots - 11 for Honda, eight for Toyota. A dealer of mostly Pontiacs occupies the 20th spot. continued below... |
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Some industry observers say that if it weren't for Toyota and Honda's best-seller mid-size sedans, . truck sales would dominate car sales 4-1. Camry sales hit 429,500 units and Accord sales 401,000 last year. That's a lot of cars to put into the equation.
Longtime new-car leader, Norm Reeves Honda Superstore, Cerritos, CA, occupies the first spot in the Top 20 list for retail sales. It excludes fleet deliveries.
WARD'S DEALER 500 Retail New Car Leaders Top 20 - Retail New Car Units Norm Reeves Honda Superstore 6,581 Kendall Toyota 5,541 Gwinnett Place Honda 5,407 Toyota of Cerritos 4,425 Al Hendrickson Toyota 4,248 Hudson Toyota 4,092 Herb Chambers of Boston 4,032 Toyota of Orange 4,015 Showcase Honda 3,761 Gillman Honda 3,731 Anderson Honda 3,622 Libertyville Toyota 3,487 Rosenthal Honda 3,401 Delray Toyota Kia 3,357 Hollywood Honda 3,348 Braman Honda 3,315 Atlanta Toyota 3,311 Dan Young Chevrolet/Honda 3,170 Stevens Creek Honda 3,166 #1 Cochran of Monroeville 3,164 Top 20 - Retail New Car $ Fletcher Jones Motorcars $123,495,208 Norm Reeves Honda Superstore $122,144,058 House of Imports $116,959,206 Kendall Toyota $113,901,467 Smythe European $108,858,026 Gwinnett Place Honda $102,368,855 Don Massey Cadillac $102,158,408 Herb Chambers of Boston $98,161,247 Toyota of Cerritos $96,616,269 Braman Motorcars $93,958,400 Hudson Toyota $90,662,116 Al Hendrickson Toyota $89,890,924 Toyota of Orange $89,773,037 Lexus of Tampa Bay $83,447,776 Libertyville Toyota $81,692,168 Braman Motors $79,279,900 Midway Auto Team $78,737,808 EuroMotorcars, Inc. $77,062,055 Lexus of Kendall $77,032,584 Downtown . Motors Mercedes $76,693,500
With 6,581 new-car sales, Norm Reeves continues to run a "virtual seller's market" for Honda cars in the Cerritos Auto square in southern Los Angeles County, says owner David M. Conant.
"I was delighted to hear the news about the plans for a new Odyssey-SUV plant in Alabama and expansion of the car plant in Ontario," Mr. Conant says.
"But our first-place showing in new-car sales among all brands is great, too, because even with the manufacturer catching up to demand for its vans and in the early 2000s, our Accords and Civics should remain hot.
"I just wish we could do more with pre-owned Hondas, but our building is landlocked on five acres here in the Cerritos mall and there's no room to display more than new units."
The dealership stocks an inventory of l,000-1,800 new cars to insure spot delivery. It draws customers from all over Los Angeles and Orange counties, says Mr. Conant.
He's been busy other than just selling lots of cars.
Mr. Conant completed his buyout of the Cerritos Honda store from the late founder Norm Reeves' widow Donna in 1995. He expanded his Cerritos Auto square holdings in 1998 with purchases of Cerritos Ford, Cerritos Lincoln Mercury Isuzu and Infiniti of Cerritos.
He also has a Honda store in Huntington Beach, CA. He purchased 25 acres off-site in 1998 for construction of a new-vehicle prep center and a used-unit reconditioning garage.
Mr. Conant began his career at his father's Honda motorcycle and go cart store in Fond du Lac, WI, in the 1970s.
He later went to California as a technician for a Chevrolet dealership in Van Nuys, only to return to Fond du Lac in 1983. Mrs. Reeves asked him to join her dealership in 1984, 11 years after her husband's death. He began his buyout five years later.
"We're maintaining the employee and customer policies of Norm and Donna Reeves," says Mr. Conant. "Turnover is very low among our 310 employees, and we're keeping them highly motivated."
The dealership is in a high-volume auto mall. Lew Webb, who owned many of the stores there, sold them to AutoNation, Inc. Mr. Reeves has resisted overtures of consolidators.
"Lew was a great guy and a visionary about the best ways to sell cars, meaning creating the mall we're in," says Mr. Conant. "He sold his dealerships as an exit strategy and is fully retired. But I have no need or intention to sell our stores to anyone."
Second in the Top 20 for retail car sales is AutoNation Inc.'s Kendall Toyota, Miami, with 5,541 units.
Third place goes to Hendrick Automotive Group's Gwinnett Place Honda, Duluth, GA, with 5,407 units.