In a half-billion-dollar ‘luck of a deal,’ Brandon Steven buys 12 new dealerships

Brandon Steven has been relatively quiet as of late, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy continuing to expand his automotive business nationally.

In what Steven called “kind of a luck of a deal,” he’s now acquired a portfolio of a dozen dealerships from Kody Holdings in Maryland.

The almost $500 million transaction is almost six times bigger than any that his Brandon Steven Motors previously has made.

“It will be one of the largest transactions this year in the auto industry,” Steven said.

The deal was finalized late Wednesday afternoon after a three-week closing process.

The stores are throughout southern Maryland and include domestic and imported brands such as Cadillac, Chrysler, Jeep, Honda, Toyota and several Ford dealerships among others.

These take Brandon Steven Motors from 21 dealerships to 33 in Kansas, Los Angeles and Maryland with 12,000 employees and a projected sale of almost 50,000 vehicles annually.

The company had $1.44 billion in sales in 2025.

With the new dealerships, Steven projects total annual revenue of more than $2.5 billion.

Even before the Maryland deal, Automotive News showed Brandon Steven Motors jumping from No. 89 to No. 68 in top-volume dealerships. It ranks No. 56 nationally in sales of used vehicles.

Through a California connection, Steven first heard that a large portfolio of dealerships would be coming available last June, but he didn’t have a name or place to go on.

“I kind of just dug, dug, dug,” he said.

It paid off.

“I got a hold of it before it was going to be for sale.”

Once he found the broker for the deal, Steven said, “I flew down there the next day.”

CBRE’s Auto Dealership Capital Markets team of James Mitchell, Erin Rice and Artin Sepanian handled the deal for Kody Holdings.

“This portfolio represents one of the most comprehensive auto retail networks in Southern Maryland,” Mitchell said in an e-mailed statement. “Its concentration of key brands and geographic coverage created a rare opportunity for a buyer seeking immediate scale in the greater Baltimore–Washington, D.C.–Richmond corridor.”

Part of Steven’s initial interest was curiosity about the dealerships, but he said once he saw them, he knew they were a fit with the ones he already has.

“There’s so many similarities,” he said.

The culture of the dealerships is reminiscent of his other ones, Steven said.

“I saw a lot of my dealerships . . . in these stores.”

Steven has been spending a lot of time in Maryland and will continue to as he converts the new dealerships to his platform and works on “getting everyone to speak the same language.”

Though it may seem daunting to take on so much at once, Steven said his philosophy always has been to take care of “one customer at a time.”

“If you start thinking about it, you get a little bit nervous,” he said.

When he began selling cars in 1995, Steven said, “My goal was to sell 21 cars a month.”

That’s what he knew he had to do to break even.

A few dozen dealerships later, Steven has the same philosophy, only he has to sell a heck of a lot more than 21 cars every month.

“At the end of the day, it’s the same thing as ’95. Take care of your customers, take care of your team and sell cars.”

This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 10:11 AM.