Fletcher Jones Automotive Group recently acquired BMW of Santa Monica in Southern California. It is the first BMW franchise for the dealership group, but likely not the last.
“We’re really excited,” Keith May, president of Fletcher Jones Automotive Group, told WardsAuto on a Zoom call. “And, you know, for us to add a BMW to our mix, and hopefully it’s the first of a few, because we would like to grow with BMW.”
The deal was closed on Jan. 16. The dealership was acquired from Del Montell, who bought the store, located on Santa Monica Boulevard in the heart of the beachside city’s “auto row,” in 1983.
Montell, 82, was ready to retire, Jayson Crouch, managing director of Haig Partners, told WardsAuto on a Zoom call. Haig Partners, a sell-side advisory firm, represented Montell in the transaction.
As a single-point, family-owned luxury franchise in a “very affluent luxury market,” the BMW store is a rare asset, Crouch said. Many of the BMW franchises in the Los Angeles metroplex have already been acquired by the larger, privately owned or publicly owned dealership groups. In addition, a BMW franchise is often part of a package of multiple stores where the seller “wants you to take everything” — even if the buyer doesn’t love the entire package.
“This represented a very rare opportunity, in our opinion,” Crouch said.
The right fit
When Haig Partners began to make a list of potential buyers, Fletcher Jones “from the beginning was a fantastic buyer,” Crouch said. The group was “extremely decisive,” he said, saying, “This is something that fits us.”
The Fletcher Jones name is well-known in Southern California. Besides its flagship Fletcher Jones Motorcars Mercedes-Benz store in Newport Beach, the group owns a Mercedes-Benz store in Ontario; Audi stores in Beverly Hills, Costa Mesa and Long Beach; a Porsche store in Long Beach; and a Toyota store in Carson.
It also owns a Mercedes-Benz and an Audi store as well as two Porsche stores in Northern California. In Nevada, Fletcher Jones owns two Mercedes-Benz stores as well as a used car and truck store.
On the commercial side, Fletcher Jones owns four Sprinter franchises.
The group has its own management company, who were in the Santa Monica store immediately to help with the transition, including transitioning to the CDK dealer management system and learning to use Fletcher Jones’ proprietary customer relations management system called FJ360, May said.
“So, there’s a big learning curve for everybody at the store,” he said.
Fletcher Jones kept most of the existing staff and added some key managers, he said.
“We will bring the Fletcher Jones experience,” May said.
Brandon Hale transferred from Audi Fletcher Jones in Costa Mesa to become general manager of the BMW store, Crouch said.
A logistics jigsaw puzzle
The facility is a bit old and “BMW did flag they would like some improvements,” Crouch said.
Fletcher Jones is going to talk to BMW about facility upgrades, May said.
The bigger challenge is logistics: The dealership is in the midst of a heavily populated area that it shares with a number of other dealerships, so although the BMW dealership will need more facilities, there isn’t a great deal of room to expand.
Much of the customer experience today is driven by appointments, May said, whether it be service or sales. On the service side, the dealership has 36 service bays, and it can put 50 or 60 cars on a lot across the road. Fletcher Jones also has additional space in Beverly Hills, where it has an Audi store.
But it needs to have the right car for the right consumer at the right place at the right time.
“You have to work heavily on the logistics because you need that customer experience,” he said.
May called it “a jigsaw puzzle” that has to be put together.
Learning and growing with a new brand
Acquiring the Southern California BMW dealership is in line with Fletcher Jones Auto Group’s strategy to focus on its core markets. Those are mainly in California but also in Nevada, May said in September 2025 when his group sold an Audi and Mercedes-Benz dealership in Chicago to AutoNation.
Fletcher Jones understands the California market, May said. It is “a little idiosyncratic,” he said, “but if you understand the code, there is a lot of opportunity. The company understands how to do business here.”
That is evident from its sales, which are around 40,000 units a year, according to May.
The BMW brand has room to grow in California. While the BMW 5-Series was the best-selling luxury and high-end sports car in California in 2025, according to the California New Car Dealers Association’s California Auto Outlook for Q4 2025, overall BMW registrations in 2025 increased only 1% compared to 2024 to 65,000 units. Its market share declined slightly to 3.6%.
May described BMW as “a very dynamic brand in a very dynamic marketplace,” adding it is a “good extension” for the group, one which will allow Fletcher Jones to understand how BMW operates.
“Each brand has its own idiosyncrasies, and it’s great for our management team to continue to learn different things,” he said.
When Fletcher Jones bought a Toyota store in 2023, it allowed his people to understand the car market a little bit better, May said.
Now, he said, the BMW acquisition “allows our people to gain a lot more experience and to have a different opinion on an existing geographical platform.”
