---

Lithia Motors, Inc. Presents At U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Investor Conference

16 June 1999

Lithia Motors, Inc. Presents At U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Investor Conference

    MINNEAPOLIS--June 16, 1999--Lithia Motors, Inc. is presenting today at The 1999 U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
    The conference features over 300 companies whose senior managers are making presentations to an aggregate attendance of over 1,000 institutional investors. The attendees will represent equity portfolio managers and research analysts from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan. Among the companies presenting are Gateway, Ericsson, Dell Computer, Motorola, Yahoo!Inc. and E-Trade Group.

    The highlights of the Lithia Motors presentation are as follows:

1) The auto retailing industry is the largest retailing sector in
    the U.S. with over $670 billion in new and used vehicle sales
    ($1.3 trillion when auto finance and service businesses are
    included). This is more than 4x the size of the home improvement
    industry and 8x the consumer electronics industry;

2) The industry is still highly fragmented and in the very early
    stages of consolidation with around 22,000 dealerships operated
    by under 15,000 owners. There are no dominant national or
    regional players as the Top 10 dealers control only 5% of the
    market and the Top 100 dealers control only 11%;

3) Lithia Motors, Inc. has been in the automobile retailing industry
    since 1946 and became a public company in December of 1996. The
    senior management team has been together for more than 28 years
    and has been solely focused on auto retailing throughout that
    period of time;

4) Lithia has increased revenues by more than five times on an
    actual basis since 1996 when it went public while increasing its
    operating margin from 3.0% to 3.7% over the same period of time.
    The company stands out as one of the premier operators in the
    auto retailing sector and has exceeded Wall Street consensus
    estimates all ten quarters since becoming a public company; and

5) Regional and nation-wide auto retailers with strong brand
    identities, distribution infrastructure and access to capital are
    the best positioned to take advantage of the internet as a new
    marketing tool; Lithia is already doing this through its
    "Lithia.com" division.

    Lithia now operates 35 dealerships in 14 markets located in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. The company sells 24 brands of new vehicles through 77 franchises. Lithia also sells used vehicles, arranges finance, warranty, and credit insurance contracts, provides vehicle parts, maintenance, and repair services at all of its locations. Lithia retailed 31,353 new and used vehicles in 1998. Lithia's current annualized revenue run rate, including all closed acquisitions, is approximately $1.2 billion.

    This press release includes forward looking statements which management believes are a benefit to shareholders. These statements are necessarily subject to risk and uncertainty and actual results could differ materially due to certain risk factors, including without limitation, economic conditions, acquisition risk factors, manufacturer approval, and others set forth from time to time in the company's filing with the SEC.