There are some 23,000 auto dealerships in the United States selling vehicles with marques produced both here and elsewhere. She suggests a reasonable starting target is 20 percent of all dealerships, rather than the current ratio of less than one percent. The data gets even more specific. In 1997, African Americans On Wheels conducted its first survey of minority dealerships, using figures from 1996. It still has the highest number, with 258 of 4,122 dealers.
Progress is evidenced on other fronts.
At the time of our first survey, Lexus, Jaguar, and others had no African-American owned dealerships. Nowadays, all the top-selling brands have at least one Black dealer, and all have people of color selling cars for them. We are almost exclusively looking at the African-American market since it is already developed. For one thing, there are internal issues. But I truly believe that everybody needs to stick together.