Sonic Automotive is planning to sacrifice some margin on car sales in the second half of 2026 and make it up on volume — especially in the highly competitive used-car segment, as customers seek affordable cars and trucks.
Sonic’s plans also include a previously announced relaunch of the EchoPark used-only channel, and a goal to boost used-car unit sales at Sonic’s franchised new-car dealerships by an average of about 25%, or an additional 20 cars per month each.
“We’re going to see nice growth. And we are seeing it in July,” said Jeff Dyke, president of Sonic Automotive, in an earnings conference call on July 30.
In particular, Dyke said, “you’re going to see used really, really grow.” He noted used-car prices are approaching a sweet spot where, on average, used vehicles are half the price of new ones. “That’s when the used business really fires,” he said.
EchoPark is achieving lower-price points relative to new cars in part by sourcing more used cars outside of expensive wholesale auctions, said Danny Wieland, Sonic’s vice president of investor relations.
“In the first quarter, we were 32% non-auction sourced. We were up 10 full points, to 42% of our sales, that were non-auction sourced during the [second] quarter,” he said in the call.
Used-car inventory in Q2 at EchoPark included some sought-after higher-mileage, more affordable vehicles and some used electric vehicles, the company said. Earlier this year, Sonic also started making some dealer trades from the franchised, new-car side available to EchoPark locations for the first time.
The EchoPark segment accounted for 19,601 retail used units in the quarter, up 17% versus a year ago. Retail used-vehicle gross profit was down 9% for EchoPark to $6.4 million. Including F&I and wholesale vehicle sales, total gross profit for EchoPark was up 3% to $64.5 million.
EchoPark uses what it calls “same market” as a reporting basis for comparing year-over-year results instead of “same store.”
The background on this is that Sonic cut the number of EchoPark locations in 2023 and 2024, to 18 locations at the end of 2025 from 52 locations at the end of 2022. The cutbacks were in response to the shortage of late-model used cars at the time.
Essentially, the locations EchoPark closed were smaller satellite locations for bigger “hubs,” but the hubs stayed open. Dyke has said in earlier earnings calls and interviews that the hub locations saw their business take off when EchoPark didn’t have to keep so many locations stocked. All that made same-store comparisons less meaningful than comparing how the markets performed over time, Dyke said.
EchoPark expects this year to add at least one more location to the current 18 in the fourth quarter of 2026. Dyke said it would be relatively easy and economical to add more EchoPark locations, but the company is staying conservative for now.
“It is just turn a little lever here and there, or pull a lever here and there, and we can push our volume up drastically. So that is going to happen,” Dyke said.
In addition to EchoPark, which is the company’s used-only sales channel, Sonic is also pushing for more used-car sales at its franchised dealerships.
Sonic, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, in its quarterly presentation reported it has 107 franchised dealerships, 18 EchoPark locations and 20 powersports locations.
David Smith, chairman and CEO, said in the call Sonic has a goal of selling an average of at least 100 used cars per month at its franchised new-car dealerships. That would be an increase of about 25% from the current level, he said.
In the second quarter, Sonic’s average used-vehicle gross profit per vehicle sold at franchised dealerships was $1,401. That was down 13% compared with a year ago, Smith said. Numbers in this story are on a same-store basis unless stated otherwise.
On the plus side, used-vehicle unit sales were up 7% versus a year ago, to 25,990, according to Sonic’s earnings press release. However, used-vehicle gross profit at franchised dealerships, not counting F&I or Parts & Service, was down 8%, to $36.4 million for the quarter.
