This milestone is expected to improve efficiency and productivity for dealers and shoppers.
Tekion’s system allows for greater efficiency, faster transactions, and lower costs per transaction, including automating some functions. They expect this to benefit Asbury dealerships, particularly with the upcoming surge in lease returns in 2027.
Asbury Automotive Group is focusing on lease-end vehicles to boost sales of high-demand certified pre-owned cars, which typically sell for more than standard used models. By partnering with Tekion, the company aims to increase its share of the growing off-lease market while maintaining stronger profit levels than before.
Cox Automotive forecasts that lease expirations will climb to roughly 2.4 million units in 2026, up 6.2% from 2025. The following year, 2027, could see lease returns swell to about 3.1 million vehicles—a 29.3% jump compared to 2026.
The surge in lease returns is also driven by the growth of electric vehicles, with about 300,000 EV leases expected to reach maturity in 2026, representing 12.4% of all lease expirations. In 2027, this number is expected to almost double to around 589,000 units, or 18.7% of all lease maturities.
Asbury initially tested Tekion in a small-scale trial starting January 2024, but the rollout sped up after a significant outage disrupted its prior dealership management system, CDK Global, due to a cyberattack. The company noted that staff typically need around six months to fully adapt to Tekion’s workflows.
In Q3 of this year, implementation expenses for Tekion were $6 million in addition to paying for “duplicative systems.” Keeping some stores on CDK while the rest were on Tekion cost another $1 million in the quarter. Dan Clara noted that changing DMS platforms “has been a heavy lift.”
After years of preparation, Asbury now operates all its dealerships under Tekion’s unified cloud-based platform, streamlining operations as CEO Dan Clara explained in a Q3 earnings call on October 27. The final 47 of 158 stores were connected in Q3, aligning with rising lease returns, a trend linked to recovering lease activity since 2023 and the surge in electric vehicle leases, many of which qualified for a $7,500 tax incentive that expired after September 30, 2025.