{"id":37206,"date":"2025-11-05T23:40:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37206\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T23:40:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:40:22","slug":"autobahn-fort-worths-luxury-franchises-add-cadillac-dealerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37206\/","title":{"rendered":"Autobahn Fort Worth\u2019s luxury franchises add Cadillac dealerships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story was originally published on WardsAuto<\/a>. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily WardsAuto newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Autobahn Fort Worth recently acquired two Cadillac dealerships<\/a> in Texas from Frank Kent Motor Co.<\/p>\n

The acquisition expands the options for its customers and allows Autobahn to offer a vehicle for every stage in its customers\u2019 lives, Autobahn president Brendan Harrington<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we can really follow that family through their journey and give them lots of options,\u201d he said in a Zoom interview with WardsAuto.<\/p>\n

Autobahn Fort Worth<\/a> in Texas includes Porsche, Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Mini, Volvo, Volkswagen and now Cadillac franchises.<\/p>\n

Volkswagen can be the \u201cstarter car,\u201d Harrington said, then \u201cmaybe a Mini because it\u2019s fun as a tuck-in.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the customer\u2019s family grows, they can buy a Cadillac Escalade SUV, then as they get older, a Porsche 911.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s dealerships.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Hey, this has been in our family for 90 years. It\u2019s very important to us. I think you\u2019re a good fit. Would you be interested in buying our two stores?\u2019\u201d Harrington said.<\/p>\n

The transaction was quickly closed. Rather than work with a broker, it was a \u201chandshake deal\u201d between himself and Churchill, Harrington said.<\/p>\n

They had lawyers review the paperwork \u201cto make sure we weren\u2019t making some dumb mistake on either side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The dealerships\u00a0will keep the Frank Kent name. Autobahn will keep the sales staff but will raise their sales minimum and hold them \u201caccountable,\u201d Harrington said. \u201cThey are excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will bring the Autobahn process, which includes laying out very clear goals, frequent team communication and constant training.<\/p>\n

Autobahn tracks everything, Harrington said. For example, if a customer calls to complain that someone at Autobahn has not followed up with them, \u201cI get pinged immediately,\u201d Harrington said.<\/p>\n

Autobahn is also bringing its \u201cmarketing muscle\u201d 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\u2019s consideration.<\/p>\n

Its call centers can compare multiple brand options for a customer, send payment information for each vehicle and set up appointments with different brands\u2019 salespeople, Harrington said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, to me, feels like what modern shopping, modern retail, and what luxury shopping should be about,\u201d he said. \u201cGiving customers lots of options. And we can do that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cadillac brand has seen significant sales growth in the United States over the last five years on General Motors\u2019 expansion strategy for the brand that began in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cis a home run here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Escalade and Cadillac\u2019s Lyriq all-electric SUV<\/a> are the main drivers of its growing popularity, Karl Brauer<\/a>, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, told WardsAuto in an email.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecific 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Autobahn Fort Worth is already considering additional acquisitions, Harrington said.<\/p>\n

Like every dealer, he\u2019d like to own Toyota and Lexus stores but Harrington also likes Mazda and Buick GMC. Subaru and Kia are also appealing brands.<\/p>\n

What they have in common is a long-term outlook, Harrington said. \u201cYou 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\u2019re swerving from side to side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on WardsAuto. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23334,23330,13570,23332,116,118,117,23331,23333,23335,23336],"class_list":{"0":"post-37206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-autobahn","9":"tag-brendan-harrington","10":"tag-cadillac","11":"tag-cadillac-escalade","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","14":"tag-fort-worth-news","15":"tag-frank-kent","16":"tag-harrington","17":"tag-the-cadillac","18":"tag-will-churchill"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}