---

Customers Respond Favorably as AutoNationDirect.com Debuts 'Dream Car'

20 March 2000

Customers Respond Favorably as AutoNationDirect.com Debuts 'Dream Car' and 'Find It' Features

              AutoNation Reiterates 2000 Target of $1.5 billion
             In Internet-Related Sales as Daily Sales Leads Grow


    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 20 AutoNation said
today that an overwhelmingly positive consumer reaction to "Dream Car" and
"Find It" features introduced last week on its AutoNationDirect.com retail web
site have reinforced the Company's belief that its Internet-related vehicle
sales will reach $1.5 billion this year.  AutoNationDirect.com is already
America's largest online dealership.
    "While these are brand new features, we're nonetheless impressed by the
positive, initial reception consumers have had to the recent enhancements to
AutoNationDirect.com," said Michael J. Jackson, AutoNation's Chief Executive
Officer.  "We had these and other future site enhancements in mind when we set
our 2000 target of $1.5 billion last year.  Now, with daily customer sales
leads growing, we should once again finish the year as the leading direct
retailer of automobiles on the Internet."
    AutoNation says consumers are responding favorably to AutoNationDirect's
new "Build Your Dream Car" and "Let Us Find It for You" services.  The
"Dream Car" feature, powered by Chrome Data Corp., records a customer's unique
product preferences -- trim levels, exterior and interior colors, optional
equipment -- and instantly e-mails this profile to one of AutoNation's more
than 900 in-store Internet Sales Guides (ISGs).
    Using this profile, the ISGs comb AutoNationDirect's online inventory of
more than 100,000 new and used vehicles for a match.  If a matching vehicle
isn't available from AutoNationDirect's existing inventory of "no-haggle"
priced cars and light trucks, an ISG at an AutoNation-owned dealership can
order the vehicle directly from the manufacturer, or through a secondary
source, again at a low, no-haggle price.
    AutoNationDirect's other new search feature, "Let Us Find It for You,"
offers customers a short form they can use to have ISGs conduct similar
searches, including searches of vehicles leaving manufacturers' plants for
AutoNation-owned dealerships.
    "Consumers can now use AutoNationDirect to go online and tap the deep
resources of our dealerships to buy the exact vehicle they're looking for,"
said Tom Eggleston, AutoNation's Senior Vice President, e-Commerce.  "Unlike
web sites that only sell sales leads to dealers, or act as brokers for
consumers, AutoNationDirect combines cutting-edge technology and experienced
in-store sales help with direct, online access to vehicles sold by America's
largest automotive retailer."
    Customers can still conduct their own vehicle searches, using
AutoNationDirect's original "Tour the Lot" feature, which combs through the
web site's priced inventory.  Last year, AutoNationDirect's "Tour the Lot"
feature and AutoNation's more than 200 other dealership web sites contributed
to the more than $1 billion worth of new and used vehicle sales AutoNation
generated via the Internet.
    AutoNationDirect uses Chrome Data's "WebCarbook" technology, which allows
the web site's customers to review product specifications for thousands of new
vehicles.  Product data provided through Chrome Data includes MSRP pricing,
vehicle photography and descriptions of standard and optional equipment.

    About Chrome Data Corp.
    Chrome Data, based in Portland, Ore., pioneered the technology behind
electronic vehicle configuration and for the past 14 years has collected,
analyzed and enhanced "raw" automotive data from all manufacturers.  Chrome's
flagship product, PC Carbook, is widely accepted as an industry standard.  For
more information visit http://www.chrome.com.

    About AutoNation, Inc.
    AutoNation, a Fortune 100 company, is America's largest automotive
retailer -- on and off the web -- with 412 new vehicle franchises in 19 states
and more than 200 web sites.  For more information about the Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.-based company, visit http://www.autonation.com .
    Certain statements and information included in this release constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Federal Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Such forward-looking statements
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may
cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be
materially different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements.  Additional
discussion of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from management's projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations is
contained in the Company's SEC filings.