What Stephen Wade Auto Center does

Stephen Wade Auto Center is a privately held, multi-brand franchised automotive dealership group headquartered in St. George, Utah, operating seven physical dealership locations concentrated along Auto Mall Drive and Black Ridge Drive in Southern Utah. The company holds 13 manufacturer franchise relationships spanning mass-market, premium, and luxury brands — Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Jeep, Fiat, RAM, Chrysler, and Dodge — and operates dedicated brand-specific microsites that feed into a single aggregated inventory search platform at stephenwade.com. The company's history dates to approximately 1996, giving it roughly 29 years of continuous presence in the Southern Utah market, and it claims the region's largest selection of pre-owned vehicles.

The business operates a traditional franchised auto-retail go-to-market, selling new vehicles at manufacturer MSRP and used vehicles at dealer asking price, while capturing additional revenue through in-house financing facilitation, trade-in appraisals, and on-site service and parts operations. The trade-in appraisal process integrates third-party data from Kelley Blue Book, CARFAX, the National Automotive Dealer Association, and Manheim Motors Retail to produce market-based offers. Each dealership runs separate sales and service operations with extended weekday and Saturday hours, supported by an out-of-town customer program that extends the addressable buyer base beyond the immediate Southern Utah catchment.

Revenue is generated through five primary streams: new vehicle sales, used and certified pre-owned vehicle sales, transaction-based trade-in purchases, financing facilitation with partnered lenders, and service-center maintenance and repair work. Customers are segmented into in-region individual consumers and out-of-town buyers, with marketing distributed across the company website, Google Reviews, Instagram, Facebook, blog content, and community engagement. The company is independently owned with no disclosed parent, institutional investor, or external funding, and employs between 51 and 100 people according to firmographic data — a figure that likely reflects corporate or reporting headcount rather than total workforce across seven full-service dealerships. No AI/ML capabilities, proprietary technology platform, patents, or technology partnerships beyond standard third-party valuation integrations are disclosed.

Name

Stephen Wade Auto Center

Legal name

Stephen Wade Auto Center

Website

https://stephenwade.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Stephen Wade Auto Center is a privately held, multi-brand franchised auto dealership group operating seven dealerships in St. George, Utah, selling 13 brands of new and used vehicles to Southern Utah consumers and out-of-town buyers, with integrated financing, trade-in appraisal, and service operations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Saint George

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. New Vehicle Sales: Sales of new vehicles from 13 leading automotive brands including Nissan, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, Cadillac, Jeep, Fiat, RAM, Chrysler, and Dodge.
2. Used Vehicle Sales: Sales of pre-owned vehicles with a focus on being the region's largest selection of pre-owned vehicles. Offers certified pre-owned vehicles with limited warranty.
3. Vehicle Trade-In Services: Professional KBB appraisals and vehicle purchasing from customers. Uses nationally recognized vehicle appraisal tools analyzing data from NADA, Manheim Motors Retail (MMR), and Kelley Blue Book (KBB) to determine fair market values.
4. Service Center: Vehicle maintenance and repair services including scheduled appointments with expert technicians.
5. Financing Services: Provides financing options through partnerships with lenders to help customers purchase vehicles.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Stephen Wade Auto Center is a multi-brand automotive dealership group operating seven physical retail locations in St. George, Utah, selling new vehicles from 13 manufacturers (Nissan, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mazda, Cadillac, Jeep, Fiat, RAM, Chrysler, Dodge) along with used and certified pre-owned vehicles. The group also operates a service center for maintenance and repair, a trade-in appraisal service using KBB/NADA/Manheim/CARFAX data, and a financing desk that works with partnered lenders.

Product overview

Stephen Wade Auto Center is a multi-brand automotive dealership group operating as a unified platform across 13 leading vehicle brands (Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Jeep, Fiat, RAM, Chrysler, Dodge). The company offers new vehicles, used vehicles, and certified pre-owned vehicles through separate branded dealership sub-sites, complemented by finance services, trade-in appraisal services, and vehicle maintenance/repair service centers. The core offering is the aggregated inventory platform at stephenwade.com that searches across all dealerships, with each brand operating its own dedicated sales and service location.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Stephen Wade Auto Center: Primary dealership group brand encompassing multiple vehicle brands including Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Toyota, and Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram/Fiat.

Products and services

• Stephen Wade Toyota
• Stephen Wade Honda / Mazda
• Stephen Wade Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat
• Stephen Wade Nissan
• Stephen Wade Chevrolet / Cadillac
• Mercedes-Benz of St. George
• Vehicle Finance Services
• Vehicle Trade-In Appraisal
• Vehicle Service Center

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Kelley Blue Book (KBB)coreTechnology or IntegrationTrusted partner for vehicle valuation and trade-in appraisal services. Provides instant vehicle value estimates based on make, model, year, mileage, and condition. Used in the appraisal process to calculate fair market values.
• CARFAXcoreTechnology or IntegrationVehicle history reporting partner used in the appraisal process to provide comprehensive vehicle condition and history information.
• National Automotive Dealer Association (NADA)coreTechnology or IntegrationIndustry association providing vehicle valuation data and market analysis tools used in the professional appraisal process.
• Manheim Motors Retail (MMR)coreTechnology or IntegrationAuction and valuation data provider contributing to the nationally recognized vehicle appraisal tool that calculates fair market values.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Ken Garff Automotive Group: Privately held, Utah-headquartered multi-brand automotive dealer group operating multiple franchises across the Mountain West. Most directly comparable peer in terms of scale, regional footprint, brand mix, and independent/family-owned governance model.

Broad incumbents

• Asbury Automotive Group: Public multi-brand US automotive retailer with significant presence in the Sun Belt and Mountain West following its acquisition of Larry H. Miller Dealerships (Utah-based). Comparable multi-brand new-and-used retail model at much larger scale.
• AutoNation: Largest US automotive retailer with ~300 franchises across 19 states operating under a similar multi-brand retail-and-service model. Comparable business mix (new, used, F&I, service) at vastly greater scale.
• Sonic Automotive: Public US automotive retailer with both franchised dealerships (EchoPark used-car stores and franchise stores). Comparable new/used/service mix with a parallel digital used-car initiative.
• Lithia Motors: Public multi-brand US dealer group with national footprint and aggressive consolidation strategy (Driveway digital channel). Operates the same new/used/service/finance model Stephen Wade runs, but at enterprise scale.
• CarMax: Largest US used-vehicle retailer, operating no-haggle stores with reconditioning and finance. Competes directly with Stephen Wade's used-vehicle and trade-in value proposition at national scale.
• Penske Automotive Group: Public global automotive retailer with significant premium-brand exposure (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi) — directly comparable to Stephen Wade's Mercedes-Benz of St. George franchise — plus mass-market brands and commercial truck operations.
• Group 1 Automotive: Public US multi-brand automotive retailer operating new-vehicle franchises, used vehicles (EchoPark), and F&I across Sun Belt markets. Comparable multi-brand retail model with both luxury and mass-market franchises.

Emerging players

• Vroom: Online used-car retailer focused on home-delivery transactions. Another digital alternative competing for the same Southern Utah used-vehicle demand that Stephen Wade captures through its brick-and-mortar stores.
• Carvana: Pure-play online used-vehicle retailer with vending-machine delivery model. Represents the structural digital-disruption threat to Stephen Wade's traditional dealership-and-lot used-car model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/stephenwadeauto
• Instagraminstagram.com/stephenwadeauto/?hl=en
• Xx.com/stephenwadeauto

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Stephen Wade Auto Center