CARY, N.C. -

As it turns out, EchoPark isn’t the only piece of Sonic Automotive with expansion plans.

In addition to the growth in its line of standalone used-car stores, Sonic plans to increase its presence on the franchise new-car dealer side.

For the most part, the geographic footprint of Sonic’s 86 franchised dealerships includes the majority of the Southeast and the Washington, D.C. area, plus Texas, Colorado, Nevada and California.

But the retailer sees room for growth in regions of the country in which it doesn’t yet operate.

“We’ve got acquisitions working right now that are literally from coast to coast from the North to the South … we're just now diving back into the pool from an acquisition perspective,” Sonic and EchoPark president Jeff Dyke said in an interview with Auto Remarketing last week.

“And so, we're going to grow that side of the business. And we can now because we’ve got the capital to do it,” Dyke said.  “So, you’ll hear more about that as we move forward in the coming couple of months. But for sure, we’ll delve into markets that we don’t do business in today.”

Its growth on the franchised side got started late last month with the purchase of Grand Junction Subaru and Grand Junction Volkswagen in Colorado, a state in which Sonic already had a presence.

Sonic joins a bevy of dealer groups, both public and private, who have their eyes on expanding.

The Dave Cantin Group said in a news release Wednesday that the DCG Acquisitions line of its business has already secured a record 16 acquisitions through seven months of 2021. And DCG said it has 21 more on tap in the back part of the year.

“Automotive entrepreneurs are very resilient, and COVID hasn't prevented them from zeroing in on acquisition and merger opportunities,” DCG founder and chief executive officer Dave Cantin said in the release. “Combined with a record-number of dealership owners ready to sell DCG’s knowledge and expertise affords its clients the most favorable transactions.”

When asked by Auto Remarketing what he believes has driven the M&A activity, Dyke said there’s “a little bit of animosity out there in the mom-and-pop world,” as to what is going to happen with all this M&A growth industry-wide.

He sees an environment of consolidation, where there are still a lot of dealerships, but not as many owners.

“I think that there’s probably more M&A activity going on right now than at any other time in our history. And I'm not talking about Sonic Automotive, I’m talking about the industry in general,” Dyke said.

“You talk to the manufacturers, they’re (saying), ‘Gosh there's so many deals coming across my desk,’” he said. “And I think that this is a stepping off point or time in history when you've got a lot of the single-point or smaller multi-point family-owned business that are looking at this and saying, ‘This is going to end up being a fewer horse race than what we're in today.’

“And it’s a great time — people are flush with cash — to find a great opportunity to sell. And we're seeing that. That's why us, Lithia, AutoNation, everybody’s out buying,” Dyke said. “And there's good deals out there to go and get (stores) that will either support a market that we're already in, like we did in Colorado where were got Subaru and Volkswagen in Grand Junction. Or puts us in a new market.”

For example, the Northeast, Midwest or Northwest, Dyke said; areas “where we just don't have any stores, but are great car markets.”