Folks often overlook the Inland Empire\u2019s surprisingly large economy.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what John Sackrison recently discovered about car dealerships in the region that comprises Riverside and San Bernardino counties..<\/p>\n
For the past 24 years, Sackrison has been the executive director of the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association<\/a>, a group perhaps best known for its annual car show in Anaheim<\/a>. Last year, the group embarked on a mission to create a clone: a similar organization for dealers in the Inland Empire.<\/p>\n Forget the logistics of starting a new trade group, something Sackrison had never done before. The size of the Inland Empire\u2019s dealership community \u2013 and how many vehicles they sold \u2013 was eye-opening.<\/p>\n Consider the heft of the Inland Empire car sales business: It had 161 franchised new-car dealers, compared with 122 in Orange County. That\u2019s 32% more.<\/p>\n And Inland dealers sold 339,710 vehicles last year<\/a> \u2013 new and used \u2013 compared with 275,476 in Orange County<\/a>. That\u2019s 23% more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were actually blown away,\u201d Sackrison says. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a recognition of the strength in that market. People knew it was growing, and it was big. Nobody, certainly myself, realized how much it has grown. I was astonished.\u201d<\/p>\n No matter the local horse race, these are two giant auto markets. Just ponder their sales on a national scale, according to Sackrison\u2019s groups.<\/p>\n Inland Empire 2025 sales topped the combined new car sales of dealerships in 29 states. By the way, Orange County sales topped 25 states.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s massive numbers; not even the dealers out there knew this,\u201d Sackrison says.<\/p>\n Big economies<\/p>\n You likely already knew that Orange County is a wealthy place. But the fast-growing Inland Empire also has nationally-ranked economic heft.<\/p>\n My trusty spreadsheet\u2019s review of county-level gross domestic product for 2024 found that all three local counties are among the nation\u2019s largest economies.<\/p>\n Orange County had $352 billion in this broad measure of business output. That\u2019s the nation\u2019s ninth-largest GDP.<\/p>\n Looking at the output another way, Orange County is roughly the size of the economies of South Carolina, domestically speaking, or the Czech Republic, on a global scale.<\/p>\n Among the nation\u2019s 100 largest county economies, Orange County\u2019s 171% jump in GDP since 2001 was the 49th-fastest pace of expansion.<\/p>\n Do not forget that the Inland Empire has been a key Southern California growth engine.<\/p>\n San Bernardino County\u2019s $138 billion GDP ranked No. 36 nationally. That\u2019s roughly the size of New Mexico or Slovakia. Its 230% expansion over 23 years was the 24th-fastest among the top 100.<\/p>\n Riverside County\u2019s $135 billion economy ranked No. 41 in size. It\u2019s on par with New Mexico or the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n But perhaps more noteworthy was its 269% expansion pace \u2013 10th-fastest among the top 100 counties.<\/p>\n Dueling dealerships<\/p>\n Selling cars is a tad more local.<\/p>\n The Inland Empire dealerships serve a population with 3.3 million licensed drivers in the two counties. That\u2019s a 38% larger customer base than the 2.4 million drivers in O.C.<\/p>\n One of the first actions of Sackrison\u2019s newly minted Inland Empire Automobile Dealers Association<\/a> was to replicate the annual study of dealership economics done for Orange County.<\/p>\n My spreadsheet\u2019s review of those results helps put these two auto markets into perspective.<\/p>\n The larger number of Inland Empire dealerships helped generate combined revenues of $19 billion in 2025, 22% higher than the $15.6 billion in Orange County.<\/p>\n Plus, the I.E. has more dealership workers: 14,329 inland \u2013 21% more than the 11,834 in O.C. So, it\u2019s understandable that total wages paid are also higher, $1.6 billion inland vs. $1.3 billion inland, a 23% gap.<\/p>\n At the same time, these sales stats suggest the typical Inland Empire dealership sells a tad less than its Orange County peer.<\/p>\n Contemplate the number of vehicles sold per dealership in 2025: 2,110 sales inland vs. 2,258 in O.C. That\u2019s 7% less inland.<\/p>\n Combined sales per dealership were $118 million inland vs. $128 million in O.C., an 8% difference.<\/p>\n From a car shopper\u2019s perspective, note that the average price of a vehicle sold inland was 3% less: $46,209 vs. $47,443 in O.C.<\/p>\n That gap speaks to everything from Orange County\u2019s love of luxury cars, the I.E.\u2019s smaller incomes, no less its reputation as a spot for Southern California car bargains.<\/p>\n Bottom line<\/p>\n The discovery of this hidden gem of car sales in the Inland Empire saddens the data nerd in Sackrison. He\u2019s bothered that there\u2019s no history to track the inland industry\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n \u201cI really had no sense of the size,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was no data.\u201d<\/p>\n But that\u2019s changing, moving forward. Glumly, Sackrison notes recent data for first-quarter new-car sales shows a sales slump \u2013 with a curious inland resilience.<\/p>\n Yes, Inland Empire sales dropped 6% compared with the start of 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n That looks good, however, considering that Orange County sales were down 12%, California fell 11%, and nationally they\u2019re off 8.5%.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about the uncertainty. Both for consumers and businesses,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n