For a family-owned dealership group, growth is rarely just about adding stores. It’s about knowing what works, building the right team and leaving a legacy. Vaden Automotive in Savannah, Georgia, is doing all three. On today’s episode of Inside Automotive, Jane Vaden Thacher, President of Vaden Automotive, and her son Jack Thacher, the group’s Director of F&I, join us to discuss the expansion, digital retailing, affordability pressures and the family legacy they are working together to grow. The Vaden Automotive story The Vaden Automotive story goes back more than 55 years. Dan Vaden opened his first Chevrolet dealership on what was then a rural road just outside of Savannah in 1968. The store grew to become the largest dealership in southeast coastal Georgia. What he started then has grown into a thriving family business. His daughter Jane worked her way up through the business, from the service department to president, and today leads a group of 14 dealerships and roughly 880 employees across coastal Georgia and South Carolina. Vaden Automotive’s most recent additions include a Chevrolet store in Hinesville, acquired last November, and a new Hyundai point in Brunswick. The group also operates a Hyundai dealership in Statesboro, next to the Hyundai Metaplant, which is set for a full remodel and expansion. Jane says they aren’t done expanding yet. "I think there'll be a tipping point. I think that we are built for probably one more round of acquisitions in the near term." - Jane Vaden Thacher Vaden doesn’t just buy stores and add them to their portfolio, Jane says, they “Vadenize” them. That’s their term for their onboarding process that starts before the deal is even closed. “We start on day one, or actually we start before day one, and we call it Vadenizing people, and we really bring