America's Car-Mart, Inc. Completes Sale of Mortgage Subsidiary; Company Has Now Divested All Non-Core Businesses

    IRVING, Texas--July 18, 2002--America's Car-Mart, Inc. today announced that it has completed the sale of its 80% interest in Concorde Acceptance Corporation, a residential prime and sub-prime mortgage lender. In a transaction which took the form of a stock redemption, the senior management team of Concorde paid approximately $3.0 million to the Company for its 80% ownership interest in the Dallas-based lender. In addition, Concorde repaid approximately $2.1 million of borrowings from the Company, resulting in total cash proceeds to the Company of roughly $5.1 million.
    "We are very pleased to have closed the Concorde transaction, thereby completing the divestiture of our non-core subsidiaries," commented T.J. ("Skip") Falgout, the Company's Chief Executive Officer. "The bulk of the cash received from this transaction will be used to further reduce our outstanding indebtedness, bringing our debt-to-equity ratio to less than 0.7 to 1," continued Falgout. "With all of our non-core subsidiaries sold, we look forward to focusing exclusively on expanding our automotive operations in both new and existing markets."

    About America's Car-Mart

    America's Car-Mart operates 57 automotive dealerships in seven states and is the largest publicly held automotive retailer in the United States focused exclusively on the "Buy Here/Pay Here" segment of the used car market. The Company operates its dealerships primarily in small cities and rural locations throughout the South-Central United States selling quality used vehicles and providing financing for substantially all of its customers.

    Included herein are forward-looking statements. There are many factors that affect management's view about future growth. These factors involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's present view. These factors include, without limitation, assumptions relating to available sites, unit sales, operating profits and economic conditions, and other risk factors described under "Forward-looking Information" of Item 2 of Part I of the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 31, 2002. All forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.