Capital Automotive Further Enhances Its Corporate Governance Initiatives

MCLEAN, Va., March 11 -- Capital Automotive REIT , the nation's leading specialty finance company for automotive retail real estate, today announced that, its Board of Trustees has recently created a Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and adopted a set of corporate governance guidelines, a code of business conduct applicable to all Capital Automotive trustees, officers and employees, and new committee charters for the Audit Committee, Executive Compensation Committee and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

The corporate governance guidelines, together with the committee charters, provide the framework for the Board's governance of Capital Automotive and are designed to ensure that the long-term interests of its shareholders and other stakeholders are protected.

During 2002, Institutional Shareholder Services released its Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ), which is a ranking system that scores companies on their corporate governance performance. Based on a CGQ report received during the fourth quarter of 2002, Capital Automotive outperformed 94.4% of the companies in the Russell 3000 and 94.5% of the companies in the real estate group. This CGQ ranking, coupled with the Company's enhancement of its corporate governance initiatives, furthers the Company's goal to operate its business with the highest ethical standards.

Thomas D. Eckert, President and Chief Executive Officer of Capital Automotive, said, "Our adoption of these initiatives well in advance of the SEC and Nasdaq mandates further demonstrates our commitment to adopting best practices in corporate governance. We have, and will continue to conduct our business with integrity and transparency and are committed to providing accurate and timely information to our shareholders and stakeholders."

Capital Automotive's corporate governance documents can be found on the Company's Website at http://www.capitalautomotive.com/ .

About Capital Automotive

Capital Automotive, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a self- administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that acquires real property and improvements used by operators of multi-site, multi-franchised automotive dealerships and related businesses. Additional information on Capital Automotive is available on the Company's Web site at http://www.capitalautomotive.com/ .

As of December 31, 2002, the Company had invested nearly $1.6 billion in 292 properties, consisting of 412 automotive franchises in 28 states. The properties are leased under long-term, triple-net leases with a weighted average initial lease term of 14.3 years.

  Contact Information:

  David S. Kay
  Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
  Capital Automotive REIT
  703-394-1302