The largest dealer groups,ranked on numbers you can check before you buy
Sort the 1,432 groups we track by rooftop count or by combined inventory - two different answers to the word largest, and both free to read. Names are free too, so you can search for a specific group before deciding whether its full rollup is worth 5 credits.
Who are the largest dealer groups in the US?
It depends on how you measure, and the two obvious measures do not produce the same order. member_count ranks groups by how many rooftops they own; dealer_group_inventory_count ranks them by how much vehicle inventory the portfolio carries. A group with fewer rooftops carrying heavy volume brands can sit above one with more stores. Both columns are free in Hermes Data, so the ranking across the 1,432 groups we track in the United States and Canada costs nothing to produce and nothing to audit. This is the page for corporate development, partnership leads, and the analysts who track auto-retail consolidation - people who need the current shape of the top of the market rather than a list published once a year. The names everyone already knows are free to search; what 5 credits buys is the structure underneath them, including average years in business across the member stores, the provider mix, the head-office headcounts, and the full roster of rooftops with join keys into the Dealers product.
Largest by stores, or largest by inventory
member_count and dealer_group_inventory_count are both free columns and they rank the market differently. Choose the measure that matches what you sell: per-store pricing follows the rooftop count, while anything priced on vehicles moving through the lot follows the combined inventory.
A ranking that moves, not a page that was printed
Kerrigan Advisors counted 478 buy-sell transactions in the twelve months to March 2026, a record and 114% above the pre-pandemic norm. At that pace the top of the table reorders between annual lists. Ours is rebuilt from a daily export, so the order you sort today reflects the portfolios as they stand.
Past the four names in every article
AutoNation, Lithia, Sonic and Group 1 are searchable by name for nothing, because dealer_group_name is both a free column and a filter. The harder value is the tier below them - the regional operators no public list ranks, which are the same size as a public group in the one state where you actually sell.
What blue sky does not tell you
Valuation coverage tells you what a portfolio is worth. It does not tell you which website provider the stores run on, how long the rooftops have been in business, or which dealerships are inside the group. Those are the paid columns here, and they are the ones that decide whether a group is a prospect or a headline.
Industry context
Independent research on this segment, from the primary sources. We don't publish these figures — we read them off the publisher's own page, and last checked every one on .
Kerrigan Advisors · Q1 2026
Blue Sky Report — buy/sell market data
The dealership buy/sell market completed 478 transactions in the twelve months ending March 2026 — a record, and 114% above the pre-pandemic norm — with Q1 franchise sales up 21% year over year.
Read it at Kerrigan AdvisorsHaig Partners · Q3 2025
The Haig Report
Publicly traded auto retail groups averaged $2,534 in F&I gross profit per vehicle retailed in Q3 2025, up 5.2% year over year and approaching record highs.
Quarterly, free to read.
Read it at Haig Partners
Frequently asked questions
Who are the largest dealer groups in the United States?
Hermes Data does not publish a fixed top-ten list. It publishes the columns the ranking is made from - member_count for rooftops owned and dealer_group_inventory_count for combined inventory carried - free across the 1,432 groups tracked in the United States and Canada, so the order is yours to sort and to verify. Group names are free to read and search, so you can look up a specific operator without spending a credit.
How is the largest dealer group measured?
By rooftop count, by combined inventory, or by people. The first two are free columns. The third - total employees and total decision-makers across the group, plus the same counts at the head office - unlocks with the record. Groups that lead on one measure often do not lead on the others, so state which measure you mean when you publish a number from this data.
How often does the ranking change?
The dataset is rebuilt from a daily export, so rooftop counts and inventory move as the portfolios do. The underlying market moves too: the buy-sell market has been running at record transaction volume, and every completed deal shifts rooftops from one group to another. A ranking taken from an annual publication is a snapshot of a market that has already reordered.
Can I get the individual dealerships inside a large group?
Yes, and that is the main reason to buy a large group. A purchased record carries member_dealers, member_website_ids and member_dealer_ids - pipe-delimited, index-aligned lists of every rooftop in the portfolio. Join member_dealer_ids to dealer_id in the Dealers product for the full per-store record, or filter Contacts by those dealership names to reach the people who work there.
More dealer groups
Try Hermes Data for $0.99
Self-serve access to the automotive data your business runs on. The $0.99 trial gives you 20 credits to spend across Contacts, Dealers, and Dealer Groups. Then auto-upgrade to Starter ($99/mo) — or cancel any time.
Contacts, Dealers, and Dealer Groups are all self-serve on one credit wallet — spend your trial credits on any of them. Vehicle Listings is live too, on its own API subscription (separate from the credit wallet). Explore Listings.