October 28, 2026
| Q3, three months to Sept 30 | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| F&I gross profit per car, group | $1,987 | $2,061 |
| F&I gross profit per car, US | $2,416 | $2,488 |
| F&I gross profit per car, UK | $1,033 | $1,089 |
| Adjusted net income | $112.1 million | $135.1 million |
| Adjusted diluted EPS | $9.36 | $10.45 |
Source: Group 1 Automotive third-quarter 2026 release, October 28, 2026.
A second group, the same fall
Group 1 Automotive earned less in the business office on every car it retailed in the third quarter, according to its third-quarter release. That office sells the loans, service contracts and protection products after the price is agreed. A week earlier Lithia reported an $85 fall in the same figure, which left open whether the drop was Lithia’s or the market’s. With Group 1’s figure in, it is no longer Lithia’s alone.
Lithia’s figure was nearly level in the second quarter, 0.6% below a year earlier, then fell between July and September. Group 1’s followed the same path: over nine months, setting aside a one-time F&I adjustment booked earlier in the year, it was $2,018 a car, only $4 below 2025 with the third quarter’s fall included. The third-quarter fall showed in both of Group 1’s countries, the US and the UK, so it is not one market’s story.
Neither the release nor Group 1’s results presentation says why. Fewer sales made it worse in dollars: used retail units fell 10.5%, and total F&I revenue fell 10.4%, faster than the per-car figure. New-car gross profit per car fell 5.4% too, so the stores earned less on each new car and on the paperwork that comes with it.
No buybacks until the debt comes down
Adjusted net income fell 17% at Group 1. Its diluted share count was 7.2% smaller than a year earlier, the same arithmetic that turned Lithia’s lower adjusted profit into higher earnings per share, but here it only softened the fall in adjusted EPS. As reported, net income rose to $102.9 million from $13.1 million, because the year-earlier quarter carried $123.9 million of asset impairments.
Group 1 bought no stock in the quarter, while Lithia kept buying, and its cash is going to Atlanta. On October 19 it closed the Hennessy purchase, ten stores with about $1.7 billion in expected annual revenue, paid for with senior notes issued for the deal. The presentation puts leverage, on its lenders’ rent-adjusted measure, at about 4 times once Hennessy and the October store sales are counted, up from 3.3 times at the end of September. It names about 3 times as the range in which it would resume buybacks, and expects to get there in mid to late 2027.
Store sales completed since the quarter ended, or under signed agreements, should bring in about $360 million toward that gap. Daryl Kenningham, the chief executive, said the proceeds “will support our commitment to reduce our leverage.”
What to watch
AutoNation reports on October 30, according to its call announcement. Its F&I profit per car is the third read. A fall there would make three falls in three groups, a turn in the business office rather than one company’s problem; a flat or higher figure leaves it with Lithia and Group 1. For Group 1 itself, the number is leverage: buybacks wait until it is back near 3 times.
