Midwest mega-dealer Aaron Zeigler explains latest Ferrari acquisition

When news spread across the Ziegler organization, employees had one burning question: "Can I get a demo?" (4 min. read)

Author

Anna del Villar
May 19, 2025

Aaron Zeigler

CEO of Zeigler Auto Group, Aaron Zeigler, owns 41 dealership locations representing 88 franchises across Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. But he never imagined that someday, Ferrari would be added to the list.

Driving the news: Last Friday, Zeigler closed on the purchase of Ferrari Lake Forest from the Mancuso family. And just minutes after signing the paper work, he joined Yossi Levi and Sam D’Arc on Daily Dealer Live, to break the news.

“It’s been a dream of ours,” said Zeigler. “We’ve got four new brands that we didn’t previously have.”

The details: The Chicago-based dealership was founded by Rick Mancuso in 1981 as a small storefront in downtown Lake Forest, and since has grown into a state-of-the-art ultra luxury dealership. In addition to Ferrari, the 75,000 sqft. location is also equipped to sell other supercar brands including Pagani, Koenigsegg, and Automobili Pininfarina.

"An investment bank reached out to me last fall," Ziegler said. "As you can imagine, there's tremendous interest in this. A lot of people had reached out to the Mancuso family over the last couple of years wanting to buy it… Their culture and our culture was such a great fit. And the Mancusos are going to stay heavily involved in helping us to build the organization going forward. Both families bring a different dynamic to this.”

Why it matters: Only about 40 Ferrari dealerships exist nationwide, controlled by roughly 25 ownership groups. And the business model differs dramatically from traditional dealerships. 

  • These stores operate on lower volume but substantially higher margins, with current demand far exceeding supply. 

  • And those kinds of conditions push dealership valuations up. “It was by far the most amount of money we've ever paid for a single rooftop,” Aaron said.

Worth noting: The Lake Forest location currently retails approximately 265 new and used Ferraris annually, with 24 Koenigseggs on order and several Paganis in the pipeline.

"Pagani's got a four-year wait right now. Koenigsegg's got a three-year wait. Ferrari's got at least a two-year wait, sometimes three to four years," Ziegler explained. "It's pretty wild being sold out for years to come. And quite often [Ferraris] go up in value. Used ones will bring more than the new ones."

Basically, the timing couldn't have been better for Ziegler. The acquisition comes together just as the exotic car market continues its unprecedented boom. In 2024, Ferrari sold 3,452 units in the U.S. (the brand’s largest market), a 5.8% increase compared to 2023.

"It's really rare that one of these comes up at all, and then to come up in one of our home markets, it was just too good to be true," Ziegler said.

And while Ferrari is the headliner, Ziegler sees immediate synergy with his existing customer base.

"The great thing is every Ferrari buyer has other cars too. We're going to be able to now offer them all the other brands," Ziegler explained. "We've already had a bunch of customers that have bought from us in the past, that never bought Ferrari before, and we're bringing them into the brand."

Behind the scenes: Ziegler isn't wasting any time bringing Ferrari operations into the fold. By the time the contract signatures dried, the group’s tech partners had already staged a full-scale systems migration. CDK and Cox representatives were on-site with additional teams arriving this week to harmonize everything from inventory management to customer databases.

What’s next? Zeigler’s immediate plans include building up the pre-owned inventory and finding "nice efficiencies in service." And while Ferrari represents Ziegler's first step into the ultra-luxury segment, it won't be his last.

“I always tell our people: if you want to make a lot of money and you want to grow, don't worry about money. Do the right things with the right inputs If you have the right processes in place the right people everything takes care of itself,” Aaron remarked.

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