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Autobahn Fort Worth recently acquired two Cadillac dealerships in Texas from Frank Kent Motor Co.

The acquisition expands the options for its customers and allows Autobahn to offer a vehicle for every stage in its customers’ lives, Autobahn president Brendan Harrington said.

“Now we can really follow that family through their journey and give them lots of options,” he said in a Zoom interview with WardsAuto.

Autobahn Fort Worth in Texas includes Porsche, Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Mini, Volvo, Volkswagen and now Cadillac franchises.

Volkswagen can be the “starter car,” Harrington said, then “maybe a Mini because it’s fun as a tuck-in.”

As the customer’s family grows, they can buy a Cadillac Escalade SUV, then as they get older, a Porsche 911.

The Cadillac dealerships are in Fort Worth and the adjacent city of Arlington. They had been owned by the same family for more than 90 years, Harrington said. The sellers were Will Churchill and Corrie Watson, great-grandchildren of the original owner.

Churchill invited Harrington to lunch some months ago where the two just chatted and two more lunch invitations followed. By the third, Churchill had decided Autobahn was the right buyer for his family’s dealerships.

“He said, ‘Hey, this has been in our family for 90 years. It’s very important to us. I think you’re a good fit. Would you be interested in buying our two stores?’” Harrington said.

The transaction was quickly closed. Rather than work with a broker, it was a “handshake deal” between himself and Churchill, Harrington said.

They had lawyers review the paperwork “to make sure we weren’t making some dumb mistake on either side,” he said.

The deal was so friendly, the two even announced it to the employees at Frank Kent some 90 days before Autobahn took over the Cadillac stores, Harrington said. Many employee meetings that included himself and Churchill followed, he said.

The dealerships will keep the Frank Kent name. Autobahn will keep the sales staff but will raise their sales minimum and hold them “accountable,” Harrington said. “They are excited.”

It will bring the Autobahn process, which includes laying out very clear goals, frequent team communication and constant training.

Autobahn tracks everything, Harrington said. For example, if a customer calls to complain that someone at Autobahn has not followed up with them, “I get pinged immediately,” Harrington said.

Autobahn is also bringing its “marketing muscle” to bear on the Cadillac dealerships, he said. Rather than focus on one brand, however, Autobahn will market all of its brands for a customer’s consideration.

Its call centers can compare multiple brand options for a customer, send payment information for each vehicle and set up appointments with different brands’ salespeople, Harrington said.

“That, to me, feels like what modern shopping, modern retail, and what luxury shopping should be about,” he said. “Giving customers lots of options. And we can do that now.”

The Cadillac brand has seen significant sales growth in the United States over the last five years on General Motors’ expansion strategy for the brand that began in 2015.

Cadillac is very popular in Texas, Harrington said, and the Frank Kent stores are among the top 20 brand dealerships in the country in terms of sales. The Cadillac Escalade SUV “is a home run here,” he said.

The Escalade and Cadillac’s Lyriq all-electric SUV are the main drivers of its growing popularity, Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, told WardsAuto in an email.

The Escalade appeals to the traditional affluent buyer while the electric SUV appeals to a buyer looking for an electric luxury car but who wants to buy from a traditional American brand, Brauer said.

“Specific regions of the country, including Texas, are more likely to have both of these buyer profiles, making Cadillac dealers an appealing retailer in that state,” he said.

Autobahn just broke ground on a new campus in Fort Worth. All the dealerships except the newly added Frank Kent stores will move to the nearly 75-acre new site.

Autobahn Fort Worth is already considering additional acquisitions, Harrington said.

Like every dealer, he’d like to own Toyota and Lexus stores but Harrington also likes Mazda and Buick GMC. Subaru and Kia are also appealing brands.

What they have in common is a long-term outlook, Harrington said. “You really have to have confidence that a brand can replicate and not be like one of those brands that are, like, every two years you get a new executive and you’re swerving from side to side,” he said.

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