Mom wins free Jeep from AutoNation ingle mom who saved for years to buy her daughter a car for graduation received an even bigger gift herself Wednesday from dealership group AutoNation.
On national TV broadcast live, Daisy Gomez learned that the 2015 Jeep Wrangler she'd purchased for her daughter at a Pembroke Pines store would be free and her check ripped up — as part of AutoNation's celebration of selling 10 million vehicles, more than any dealership group in history.
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"Can I hug you?," Gomez asked Mike Jackson, the chief executive of AutoNation, on hearing the unexpected news that the $44,000 Jeep would cost her nothing. She embraced Jackson warmly.
Her daughter Nicole, who graduates from high school Wednesday evening, stood mouth agape, beaming.
AutoNation, based in Fort Lauderdale, televised the giveaway on business channel CNBC around 7:30 a.m., as it announced its best May for retail sales of new vehicles since the year 2000.
The company said its new vehicle sales jumped 5 percent in May from a year earlier, more than double the growth for the industry nationwide.
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AutoNation executives linked the sales surge to the company's $20 million marketing campaign to publicize its 10 million vehicles sold, a push they say has the brand "top of mind" among consumers.
AutoNation surely is top of mind now for Jeep winner Gomez, 51, of Miami.
She left Cuba at age 4 and raised two daughters working in heath care, now employed at Baroma Health Partners as director of provider relations.
"I didn't know anything," Gomez said on TV after Jackson announced the white Jeep was free. She wasn't sure why AutoNation had flown her and her daughter to New York City and also asked her family to visit AutoNation Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Pembroke Pines early Wednesday (to watch TV).
Added her radiant daughter Nicole, 17:" She kept me in the dark the whole time."
In May, AutoNation said it sold 31,777 new vehicles, averaging more than 1,000 new vehicles per day.
Sales increased 18 percent to 6,602 in its premium luxury segment and rose 6 percent to 9,878 in its domestic segment. Sales fell 1 percent to 15,297 in its import segment, the company said.
Growth came largely from trucks, including sports utility vehicles; from luxury vehicles such as Merceds-Benz; and from strength in the Sunshine State, according to AutoNation.
"It's all about trucks. It's all about premium luxury products, and Florida is absolutely booming," Jackson said on CNBC. "It's going to take $4.50 to $5 a gallon gasoline to get the American consumer out of truck."
Jackson said he sees gas prices staying way below $5 nationwide for years — they're now averaging less than $3 — because of ample supply of crude oil. U.S. output now is at its highest levels in decades thanks to new technologies, including hydraulic fracturing or fracking.
"It's an amazing American success story," Jackson said of tech innovations that boost U.S. oil output.
AutoNation is giving away three vehicles — one each to customers in Florida, Texas and California — to celebrate its milestone of selling 10 million vehicles. It also is launching a sweepstakes that includes a trip to the 2015 GoPro Grand Prix race in California and the chance to win $10 million.
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