AutoNation
American automotive retailer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
AutoNation, Inc. is an American automotive retailer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which provides new and pre-owned vehicles and associated services in the United States. The company was founded by Wayne Huizenga in 1996, starting with twelve AutoNation locations, and now has more than 300 retail outlets.
AutoNation continued growing by acquiring other companies in the car rental business such as National Car Rental, Spirit Rent-A-Car, Value Rent-A-Car, Snappy Car Rental and more.
In 2011, AutoNation was the first auto retailer in the United States to sell a total of eight million vehicles.
History
1996–2008
Before its acquisition by Republic Industries in 1997, but under the early division brand name "AutoNation", the company was a growing network of used automobile superstores. In 1995, H. Wayne Huizenga of Republic Industries became chairman of the board of directors and through Republic's ownership of AutoNation, sought to expand its business into used auto sales throughout the United States. Republic's sales for 1995 were $5.2 billion.
In 1996, Republic Industries began purchasing new car dealerships and offering long-term contracts to owners who joined the newly created automotive division of Republic Industries, which led to the company operating twelve retail locations under the "AutoNation" brand. Later that year, Alamo Rent A Car was purchased by Republic Industries for $625 million, and a 2-for-1 stock split in Republic stock was also completed.
The public source identifies “AutoNation” as american automotive retailer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around AutoNation, American and automotive.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q784804. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 2011, 2008 and 1997.
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This entry incorporates text from “AutoNation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.