Four locally owned car dealerships combine for more than 200 years of history in Southwest Florida, and four of the leaders behind them have held about 40 various jobs among them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a long way to the top if you want to sell some cars.<\/p>\n
Robert Galloway at Galloway Ford in Fort Myers; Richard DeVoe at DeVoe Cadillac, Subaru and GMC in North Naples; Trey Ward at Val Ward Cadillac; and Tim Zellers at Tamiami Ford and Hyundai in Naples are carrying on family legacies.<\/p>\n
They have continued and thrived, while many other family-owned stalwarts across the region have sold to corporate behemoths or out-of-town companies over the past five years.<\/p>\n
Not every family has the desire, strategy or financial ability to pass the torch, said Alan Haig, president of Haig Partners, a brokerage firm that facilitates the buying and selling of car dealerships. These are often multimillion-dollar, nine-figure deals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a dying breed, if you will,\u201d says Haig, who brokered the recent Galeana transaction \u2014 a $33.74 million real estate deal for the land off U.S. 41 in south Fort Myers, where Frank Galeana\u2019s family had been selling cars for 32 years.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a dying breed, Haig said, because another family bought the Galeana dealerships.<\/p>\n
Bill Nero owns Universal Nissan, Universal Hyundai and Universal Genesis in Orlando, with assistance from his son, Austin Nero. They bought the two adjacent Galeana dealerships in September, doubling their company\u2019s dealerships from two to four.<\/p>\n
Nero said the private business transaction and land acquisition combined for about $145 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustin was very much a part of the transaction,\u201d Haig says. \u201cHe was there prior to closing. He pulled together the numbers behind the final closing statement. This is a father-son combo that will continue to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies are in the car business. But what\u2019s been hard to do is transition a business from father to son, because the value has gone up so much. It\u2019s hard for the kid to buy out the dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Zellers family carries on a multigenerational auto legacy. Tim and Shelia Zellers, vice president of Tamiami Ford, pose with their son A.J., general manager at Tamiami Ford. Their daughter, Joy Rautenkranz, operations manager at Tamiami Hyundai, is not pictured.<\/p>\n
Brian Tietz<\/p>\n
THE BIGGER DEALS<\/p>\n
More common in Southwest Florida are families selling to large corporations with regional or national profiles.<\/p>\n
Scanlon Acura and Lexus sold its south Fort Myers dealerships for $37.3 million in May, property records show, to Group 1 Automotive. That Houston-based company owns 259 dealerships, according to Automotive News. The Scanlons had been in the market for 44 years.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien Auto Group, which owned the Fort Myers Hyundai, Subaru and Mazda dealerships off Colonial Boulevard, sold those for $26 million in 2020. Tampa-based Morgan Automotive Group, which owns more than 70 dealerships in Florida, still owns and manages them.<\/p>\n
The O\u2019Briens had been in the market for 22 years.<\/p>\n
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O\u2019Brien Auto Group sold its Fort Myers Hyundai, Subaru and Mazda dealerships for $26 million in 2020. The locations remain under the ownership and management of Tampa-based Morgan Automotive Group, one of Florida\u2019s largest dealership networks.<\/p>\n
Brian Tietz<\/p>\n
Haig got his start in this transactional arena in the mid-1990s. In 2011, he brokered a $31.5 million deal when the Templeton family, which had owned Fort Myers Toyota for 23 years, sold to AutoNation Inc.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrote the original business plan for AutoNation\u2019s new superstore concept,\u201d Haig says of his role back in 1996. \u201cWayne Huizenga was the majority owner at the time. He hired me to write a business plan on the new-car side. At the time, I had no experience in the car business.\u201d<\/p>\n
AutoNation went from zero to a peak of 454 dealerships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has shrunk since then,\u201d Haig says, noting the number is now 267, per Automotive News. But along with Group 1 Automotive and CarMax, AutoNation remains among the nation\u2019s top 10 car-selling companies with presences in Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n
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General Manager Mike Spinazze has steered Nissan of Fort Myers for nearly three decades, helping Krause Auto Group expand its Southwest Florida footprint while preserving a family-first approach.<\/p>\n
Brian Tietz<\/p>\n
KRAUSE BECOMES NEW\u00a0FAMILY IN TOWN<\/p>\n
Krause Auto Group is family-owned by Vernon Krause and headquartered in Georgia, where it owns 10 dealerships. It has grown to have a large Southwest Florida presence, having acquired Volvo and Nissan of Fort Myers, Nissan of Cape Coral and Fort Myers Genesis in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m basically the operator-owner, and Vernon Krause is the silent partner who helps me pay for all the things I can\u2019t pay for myself,\u201d says Mike Spinazze, general manager at Nissan of Fort Myers, with a laugh.<\/p>\n
He has worked there for 27 years, having previously worked for the Sutherlin family. When repeat customers visit, Spinazze said, he knows them on a first-name basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a family dealership versus a corporate dealership means I don\u2019t have to go through suits to make decisions and budgets. You can do what you want to do. It\u2019s a lot easier for the employer, and it\u2019s a lot easier for the customer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf one day corporate pushes all the private dealers out of the market, it\u2019s going to be horrible for the consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n
WHEN A FAMILY BECOMES\u00a0CORPORATE<\/p>\n
Larry Morgan\u2019s auto empire isn\u2019t the typical family-owned car business. Unlike Galloway, DeVoe, Ward and Zellers, Morgan can\u2019t appear in each of his 77 dealerships every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStatistically, we\u2019re a family business,\u201d Morgan says, although Redwood Group, a private equity company, owns a large stake. \u201cOperationally, even though my son and I are it, we\u2019re a family business. But we\u2019re a big corporation. Our sales will be $11 billion this year. In the Tampa Bay market, we\u2019re the second-largest company next to Publix.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Morgan Auto Group started, as family businesses usually do, with just one store: Toyota Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gradually grows,\u201d says Morgan, whose attempt to retire after selling the 630 Tire and Auto Centers he owned two decades ago failed because he began buying car dealerships. \u201cFour or five stores, it\u2019s probably not that much different from one store. It all came about kind of slowly. I\u2019ll give you an example: In the banking world, we had one bank that we did our business with, that we borrowed money from. We did that for, say, five years, maybe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we kind of outgrew one bank. Then we found another bank, so we dealt with two banks. That went on for another five years. Then we got what\u2019s called a bank syndication.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bank syndication was a tipping point for Morgan Automotive Group, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all take a piece of our business,\u201d Morgan says of the banks. \u201cAnd they kind of compete for it, if you will. I think today our bank syndication might have 20 banks in it. And then we went from bank syndication to just selling bonds. We\u2019re in the bond market. That\u2019s just kind of an example of how we\u2019ve matriculated from a small, one-store business to a 77-store business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan\u2019s mother used to ask him, \u201cWhy do you need so many stores?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Carrying on his grandfather\u2019s 1968 legacy, Richard DeVoe has worked nearly every job at the family dealership, gaining hands-on experience from the sales floor to the service bay.<\/p>\n
Brian Tietz<\/p>\n
\u201cI could never answer her question,\u201d Morgan says, although he added that he loves the thrill of the hunt. \u201cMost people don\u2019t understand. They think I\u2019m a workaholic and I\u2019m crazy. But my son, Brett, and I enjoy what we do. We like to be good. We like to have customers who are happy. You do all those good things, you take care of your employees, you\u2019ll make some money along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan Auto Group now owns eight Southwest Florida dealerships: Honda, Hyundai, Mazda and Subaru of Fort Myers; Naples Mazda; Naples Chrysler Dodge Jeep; and Kia of Cape Coral and Port Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Morgan\u2019s Kia dealerships were once owned by the late Billy Fuccillo, who died in 2021 after owning about 25 dealerships in New York and Florida and becoming one of Southwest Florida\u2019s most visible personalities, with his catchphrase \u201cHuuuge!\u201d reverberating across numerous television ads.<\/p>\n
Growing bigger means Morgan can create corporate efficiencies and support for the dealerships.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of businesses and industries have consolidated over the years,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cThe same\u2019s true for the car dealer world. The public companies came in, and they made a very aggressive move and bought up a lot of mom-and-pop businesses. And they\u2019re still doing it. There\u2019s benefits to that. If they\u2019re running their stores well, the more stores they have, the more money they\u2019re going to make. And the stockholders get a return. So that\u2019s kind of the motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like those public companies, Morgan has created internal efficiencies, but he doesn\u2019t answer to shareholders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccounting is a big area,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cWe\u2019ve consolidated all our accounting work. Information technology is another area that\u2019s consolidated. Human resources is consolidated. We have our own in-house lawyers. That\u2019s consolidated. And we have a support team that works with our stores to improve their performance. Health care \u2014 we buy our health care for all of our stores. Our benefits are consolidated. There\u2019s just a lot of things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
LAST OF THE HOMEGROWNS<\/p>\n
As Morgan attested, DeVoe, Galloway, Ward and Zellers can do some things he cannot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good single-store operators,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cGalloway\u2019s a good example. They\u2019re happy with the number of stores they have. They\u2019re outstanding citizens in their community. My son and I can\u2019t belong to every Rotary Club in Florida. We can\u2019t be on the board of every community bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that\u2019s an equalizer is we pay the same price for cars that they do. A one-store outlet in Cape Coral will pay the same for a Nissan that one of the public companies with maybe 25 Nissan dealerships will pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means the family-owned business, without a corporate apparatus or support system, might have to work a little harder \u2014 or not.<\/p>\n
At third-generation, family-owned Val Ward Cadillac in south Fort Myers, General Manager Pete Weidner said the staff includes salespeople who commute from more than an hour away just to work there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a wonderful place to work,\u201d Weidner says.<\/p>\n
But unlike almost all its counterparts, Val Ward Cadillac is closed on Sundays. That\u2019s about 52 days a year \u2014 almost two full months compared to its competitors \u2014 of not selling cars. On New Year\u2019s Eve, the last day of the last month of the year, the sales crew often goes home early to be with their families. That\u2019s the Val Ward way, Weidner said.<\/p>\n
President Trey Ward is the third generation running that dealership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something you can\u2019t get in a corporate-owned store,\u201d Weidner says of the atmosphere. \u201cAnd we feed off that; the hours, the culture. The way I look at it, he\u2019s here every day. It\u2019s that personal. Our theory is simple. All you have to do is be nice to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Ward, Rich DeVoe, Robert Galloway and Tim Zellers never wavered from wanting to carry on the traditions started by their fathers and grandfathers.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why when their fathers paid them, for example, to wash cars during their teenage years, they did it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was cleaning the floor as a kid,\u201d says Zellers, 67, whose father bought Tamiami Ford in 1973. Zellers took over for his father in 1992, and his father died in 1998. \u201cI\u2019ve been in just about every department. I painted in the body shop. I worked in the shop. I worked in the parts department. I was in the accounting office for a while. And in the sales department, as well, obviously.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve got now \u2014 it was (President Harry) Truman who said that the buck stops here \u2014 that\u2019s the downside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Galloway and DeVoe told similar tales.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started washing cars,\u201d Galloway says. \u201cLiterally. I\u2019ve worked in every department in the store: detail, service, parts, sales departments. And that\u2019s all of us \u2014 my brother and sister and I.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert Galloway runs the Fort Myers dealership opened by his grandfather in 1928, when Thomas Edison lived in Fort Myers and Henry Ford himself was a next-door neighbor.<\/p>\n
Robert\u2019s brother, Sam Galloway III, manages the Estero Coconut Point Ford dealership. Their sister, Katherine Dougherty, is the vice president of operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother, sister and I, it was almost a foregone conclusion that we were going to get involved,\u201d Galloway says. \u201cDad was always very sensitive to the fact that he didn\u2019t want us to do something we didn\u2019t want to do. But I know he was very excited when we chose to stay. I got a degree in marketing \u2014 automotive marketing, of all things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard DeVoe has held 15 roles at his dealership and worked each one for at least a couple of years. His grandfather, Dick DeVoe, founded the dealership in 1968 and died at age 94 in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalesman, service adviser, marketing, accounting, internet manager,\u201d DeVoe says, listing from memory. \u201cI was a cashier and the line attendant. Washing the cars. Keeping the cars organized. Just doing miscellaneous tasks for the sales manager. I believe I was making like $9 an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE NEXT GENERATION<\/p>\n
Brett Morgan and Austin Nero are beyond the apprenticeship phases of their auto dealership days. They are well on their way to someday supplanting Larry Morgan and Bill Nero.<\/p>\n
Ward, the Galloways and the Zellers family are at earlier stages of preparing their next generations for success. DeVoe, 38, doesn\u2019t have children, but his company is one of 280,000 using the Entrepreneurial Operating System, or EOS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have created, with the help of EOS, a long-term vision for DeVoe Automotive,\u201d DeVoe says. \u201cWe plan on being an integral part of the Naples business community for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Galloway Ford, several family members already work behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next generation is involved as we speak,\u201d Robert Galloway says. His nephew, Evan Dougherty, is a service manager at Sam Galloway Ford. His son, William Galloway, recently started in the service department. His daughter, Olivia, works in the accounting office.<\/p>\n
Zellers has two grown children in prominent management roles in his company. His son, A.J. Zellers, is general manager at Tamiami Ford, and his daughter, Joy Rautenkranz, is operations manager at Tamiami Hyundai.<\/p>\n
Zellers is also in the process of building Genesis of Naples, a 30,000-square-foot store at the northwest quadrant of Interstate 75 and Pine Ridge Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be the biggest Genesis store in the world,\u201d Zellers says. It should be open by early 2027.<\/p>\n
LOOKING BACK<\/p>\n
Joe O\u2019Brien, 75, a part-time Captiva Island resident, sold his family\u2019s Fort Myers auto businesses to Morgan Auto Group in 2020. He\u2019s out of the business in the area, having signed a noncompete agreement, but he still follows the market.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Morgans gave us an offer we couldn\u2019t refuse,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cIt was timing. We\u2019ve bought and sold many stores over the years. We\u2019re in the process of building Genesis dealerships in San Diego, California, because we have the opportunity to be the Genesis partner there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The industry has been kind to O\u2019Brien and his family. He and his wife own a 240-acre horse farm in Kentucky, where his wife trains and breeds horses.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get her off the farm is sort of an act of God,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cBut one of her favorite places to go is Captiva.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurricane Ian ruined their Captiva home, but they are finally nearing the end of refurbishing it. One of his companies, Parkway Properties, paid $1.2 million in July for a Captiva property called Nani Li that has been razed and will be rebuilt from scratch into three units.<\/p>\n
None of that would have been possible without building an auto empire that once had 17 locations and 39 brands and now includes eight, with two more in development.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy business model has always been having operating partners \u2014 general managers who could earn equity,\u201d O\u2019Brien says of the same approach now being used by Nero. \u201cThat\u2019s sort of been the business model. Back then, I had an operating partner. And I was a friend of John Scanlon\u2019s prior to this. John contacted me that he was going to sell Mitsubishi, and that\u2019s really how I got into business in Fort Myers. We had a number of dealerships in other parts of the country, but not Florida \u2014 even though I\u2019ve been going to Captiva since \u201974 and owned a home there since 1990.<\/p>\n
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An aerial view shows the former Galeana Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram and Galeana Kia dealerships in Fort Myers. The properties changed ownership in a major 2025 transaction involving Orlando-based Universal dealerships.<\/p>\n
Brian Tietz<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Southwest Florida. I ended up dealing with the Germains in Naples and buying Mitsubishi from them, and later acquiring Hyundai, which had an open point.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien sold the Naples Hyundai in 2008 to Zellers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTim and his wife are just great people,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cThe Hyundai brand has continued to grow, and the Mitsubishi brand has sort of died. It\u2019s not what it was. And the Genesis brand is the new up-and-comer.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien\u2019s son died 18 years ago, and his three daughters weren\u2019t interested in the car business. But he has 14 grandchildren \u2014 and one of them is learning the ropes. O\u2019Brien\u2019s legacy just might skip a generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first grandchild is in the car business,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cHe\u2019s working in Illinois for one of my operating partners, who is quite a star and quite a trainer. My partner has held off promoting him, just so he can go slow and learn. He\u2019s got a lot of talent. And I have other grandsons and granddaughters behind him. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Success means leaving a footprint and opportunities for others, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in business over the years in Illinois, Wisconsin, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, California and the state of Washington,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cI\u2019d love to tell you it\u2019s been a strategic business plan \u2014 but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s just been a lot of fun. It\u2019s a wonderful business. It\u2019s a great way to develop people.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, entrepreneurship in the automobile business is really sort of declining, because of the public companies, as well as these very large dealer groups. The young, talented individual in the car business never really has an opportunity at ownership. Our business model is one where we instill support for the young entrepreneur who truly wants to be their own boss and own their own company someday. I hope that never goes away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Costs create challenge,\u00a0drive creativity<\/p>\n
Inflation, tariffs, supply-chain woes \u2026 all have combined to drive up the average price of a new automobile over the past five years. Now, that price has for the first time eclipsed $50,000.<\/p>\n
The milestone means new car dealerships will have to come up with incentives to move more vehicles, said Mike Spinazze, general manager of Nissan of Fort Myers at 13985 S. Cleveland Ave.<\/p>\n
It also means used car dealerships will face challenges in acquiring used vehicles, as competition to buy and sell them rises among competitors, said Kyle Lee, owner of Lee Auto Group in south Fort Myers, off Alico Road at 8181 Mainline Parkway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing it for two and a half to three years,\u201d says Lee, a lifer in the car business. His father sold his Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership in south Fort Myers to Frank Galeana in 1983, which in turn changed hands earlier this year to Bill Nero\u2019s group, based in Orlando.<\/p>\n
Southwest Florida is a unique market for dealing cars because of the seasonality of a large portion of its residents. This created some car-buying trends that persist to this day, Lee said.<\/p>\n
The biggest such trend is the rise in new car sales across the region in the weeks leading to Easter.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople from Iowa, people from Ohio, people from Michigan, they didn\u2019t have a dealer in their small little town in the Midwest,\u201d Lee says of seasonal residents. \u201cSo, they would drive their car down. Get the season out of it in Florida, and then they would go and trade it in. Most of that was because they didn\u2019t have the selection back home that they wanted. Down here in Florida, we had more inventory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a thing, and it still is.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, used dealerships have found it more challenging to gather inventory, Lee said. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen since COVID-19, and even more so in the last 18 months, is there\u2019s less and less used cars at the auction,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause these new car dealers, they\u2019re keeping them and reselling them. They kind of had to do that. They learned how to take a used car and recondition it. They learned that through COVID-19, during inventory shortages. It\u2019s really trickled down. It\u2019s made inventory scarce.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be able to buy as many cars as I needed at an auction. Now I\u2019ve got to go to four or five auctions just to get my needed inventory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee said there are two buyers in the market, a new car buyer and a used car buyer. They typically cross over \u2014 and become one and the same \u2014 about 20% of the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose numbers are up to over 50% now,\u201d Lee says. \u201cWhen somebody comes in to buy a new car, they get sticker shock. And then they come to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cars once slated for the scrap heap are now being reconditioned and sold \u2014 and not just by Lee Auto Group. \u201cBack in the day, a 100,000-mile car was a throwaway,\u201d Lee says. \u201cNow, it\u2019s a good price point for the mass of customers. When I go and buy a car that has 90,000 miles on it, it\u2019s costing me more money to recondition it. Brakes, suspension work, etc. It\u2019s going to cost more for the buyer.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
An aerial view shows Nissan of Cape Coral and surrounding dealerships. Family-owned and corporate-owned groups continue to compete in a consolidating Southwest Florida market.<\/p>\n
Brian Tietz<\/p>\n
Of about 500 cars on Lee Auto Group\u2019s lot near Alico Road, about 100 of them have reached the 100,000-mile threshold. \u201cI try not to buy cars at 100,000 miles,\u201d Lee says. \u201cBut it\u2019s such a good price point for the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another factor in the $50,000 average price of a new car: creative financing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the manufacturers are going to have to come up with special incentives to move those cars,\u201d Spinazze says. \u201cLike, interest rates. Zero percent or 0.99%. If they\u2019re not selling, that\u2019s what they\u2019ll have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The length of loans also has been rising as the prices have. \u201cIt went to 60 months, then it went to 72,\u201d he says. \u201cThen the past three years, they\u2019ve come up with 84 months of financing. Some banks are even doing 96-month loans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luxury car makers, such as Mercedes, are coming out with entry-level prices, $58,000 for a C-class sedan, for example, that\u2019s not far from that average new car price. \u201cThey\u2019re making more entry-point cars for luxury,\u201d Spinazze says, which is one of the reasons why that average price keeps rising.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also why a brand such as Nissan can still thrive. \u201cYour starting Nissan is in the $22,000 range,\u201d he says. \u201cYour starting luxury car is in the $52,000 range. It\u2019s good for us, because we\u2019re one of the few manufacturers that are going to be lucky, because we still make SUVs that are still in the $30,000 range. I think we appeal to a wider spectrum of people. I\u2019ve got luxury offerings for Nissan, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family-owned dealerships still dealing<\/p>\n
Lines can be blurred regarding \u201cfamily-owned\u201d car dealerships, in that a family can own a dealership but not be present for day-to-day operations. Gulfshore Business is highlighting Southwest Florida dealerships where family members preside over business decisions on-site and in person.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the top 25 dealerships for new-car sales in Southwest Florida. The local, family-owned dealerships are bolded. Ten of the area\u2019s top 25 new-car dealerships, in terms of volume sold, still have family members working at them.<\/p>\n
New-car sales were calculated from January through August 2025, with data sourced from the AutoCount Trend Report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AutoNation Toyota Fort Myers 2,768<\/p>\n
Germain Toyota of Naples 2,439<\/p>\n
Tesla Florida 2,077<\/p>\n
Honda of Fort Myers 1,747<\/p>\n
Sam Galloway Ford 1,589<\/p>\n
Hyundai of Fort Myers 1,484<\/p>\n
Airport Kia of Naples \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1,277<\/p>\n
Estero Bay Chevrolet 1,264<\/p>\n
Kia of Cape Coral 1,190<\/p>\n
Galeana Kia* 1,169<\/p>\n
Dixie Buick GMC Truck 1,039<\/p>\n
Gettel Toyota of Charlotte County 1,036<\/p>\n
Rick Hendrick Chevrolet Naples** 924<\/p>\n
Germain Honda of Naples 921<\/p>\n
Tamiami Ford 903<\/p>\n
Victory Layne Chevrolet 821<\/p>\n
Cape Coral Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram 790<\/p>\n
Galeana Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Fort Myers\u00a0 773<\/p>\n
Naples Nissan 760<\/p>\n
Kia of Port Charlotte 735<\/p>\n
Germain BMW of Naples 732<\/p>\n
Nissan of Cape Coral 727<\/p>\n
Tamiami Hyundai 695<\/p>\n
Nissan of Fort Myers 683<\/p>\n
Mercedes-Benz of Bonita Springs 654<\/p>\n
* Galeana Kia was sold from one family-owned company to another in September, with Orlando-based Bill Nero purchasing it.<\/p>\n
** Rick Hendrick Chevrolet Naples is part of Hendrick Automotive Group, founded and led by Rick Hendrick. While not locally rooted, the group remains family-owned and separate from private equity-based organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four locally owned car dealerships combine for more than 200 years of history in Southwest Florida, and four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,38926,38928,38927,38929,1521],"class_list":["post-66242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-car-dealerships","tag-family-legacy","tag-family-owned-business","tag-industry-consolidation","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}