Auto­Na­tion sales increased 11 per­cent in July, as the largest retail automak­er in the U.S. reached a sell­ing mile­stone and lets deal­ers know auto sales are on the increase.

Find out what Auto­Na­tion did, how they fared in July and the sig­nif­i­cance for auto deal­ers.

Auto­Na­tion, Inc. sold its 9 mil­lionth vehi­cle, the only U.S. retail­er in his­to­ry to reach that mile­stone, and it was sold to a loy­al cus­tomer.

There were 25 sell­ing days in July 2013 ver­sus 24 sell­ing days in July 2012. Auto­Na­tion expects to report August 2013 retail new vehi­cle unit sales on Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 5, 2013.

The Com­pa­ny also announced that it is cel­e­brat­ing the sale of 9 mil­lion vehi­cles – a feat unsur­passed by any oth­er auto­mo­tive retail­er – by giv­ing a vehi­cle to a loy­al cus­tomer.

Nick Gor­don, 92 years old of Pal­met­to, Flori­da, recent­ly came into Auto­Na­tion Ford of Braden­ton, Flori­da to pur­chase a new Ford F-150 pick­up truck.  Mr. Gor­don, the own­er of a small auto repair busi­ness, “Gordon’s Ser­vice Garage,” has been a loy­al cus­tomer since the 1990’s.  In hon­or of the mile­stone, Auto­Na­tion will give him the Ford F-150 as a gift.

“What makes this accom­plish­ment even more remark­able is how quick­ly we’ve achieved it,” said Mike Jack­son, AutoNation’s Chair­man and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer.  “It’s a real tes­ta­ment to our busi­ness phi­los­o­phy and our coast-to-coast team of over 21,000 asso­ciates who have the tal­ent and tenac­i­ty to accom­plish amaz­ing things.”

Total retail new vehi­cle unit sales in July 2013, as report­ed to the applic­a­ble auto­mo­tive man­u­fac­tur­ers, were 25,403, an increase of 17% as com­pared to July 2012. Same-store retail new vehi­cle unit sales in July 2013 were 24,195, an increase of 12% as com­pared to July 2012.  Total retail new vehi­cle unit sales for AutoNation’s oper­at­ing seg­ments were as fol­lows:

• 7,950  for Domes­tic, up 23% ver­sus July 2012,
• 13,066 for Import, up 14% ver­sus July 2012, and
• 4,387 for Pre­mi­um Lux­u­ry, up 19% ver­sus July 2012.