Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Friday, Sept. 26.
Carvana Co.'s experiment acquiring new-vehicle franchised dealerships is starting to look like it's more than an experiment.
The online retail giant bought Park Cities Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat in Dallas on Sept. 23 — its second franchised dealership acquisition this year. Carvana bought Jerry Seiner Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Casa Grande, Ariz., in February.
"We are in the very early days of testing as a franchise dealer — first at a CDJR dealership outside of Phoenix and now at one in Dallas — and we look forward to continuing to learn as we focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences," a Carvana spokesperson said in a statement to Automotive News.
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It's unclear whether Carvana has a particular interest in Stellantis stores or if it was merely a coincidence that these two deals were franchises of the same automaker.
Whether this is still an experiment or an emerging growth strategy, Carvana can do no wrong as far as Wall Street is concerned. Its shares started the year as low as $177. This morning, those shares traded for more than $370, giving the company a market capitalization of $43.4 billion.
CarMax once owned franchised dealerships but got out of the business in 2021 to stay focused on its used-vehicle retail operations. The decision seemed to work, although the company yesterday posted disappointing results for its second fiscal quarter.
For this week's complete Automotive News report on dealership buy-sells, click here.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's ongoing tariff campaign last night shifted its focus from light vehicles to heavy trucks. Domestic heavy truck makers such as Paccar Inc. embraced the move to impose 25 percent tariffs on imported heavy trucks starting Oct. 1.
About 245,000 medium- and heavy-duty trucks were imported to the U.S. last year, a trade flow worth more than $20 billion, according to Commerce Department data cited by Bloomberg.
Trump's planned tariffs on imported heavy trucks "are a huge win for American workers and great U.S. manufacturers," such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner and Mack Trucks, said Nick Iacovella of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. "This action will strengthen this vital sector and protect it from unfair foreign competition."
That's it for now. Have a great weekend. If you want to see this story in your browser, click here.
— Philip Nussel, online editor
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