AUTOS

Foreign Report: Also reported by Auto Age:

* There was one less dealer from Orange County on the latest list than in 1992, when there were 14, but total sales volume rose by 1% to $883.6 million. The increase came largely from increasing Japanese car prices. At David Wilson’s Toyota of Orange, for example, the average new car went for $15,977 in 1993--up 6.7% from $14,979 the previous year. Despite the higher average prices, Wilson’s crew sold 290 more new cars last year than in 1992, keeping the franchise as the county’s new-car volume leader, with 4,162 sales.

* Local dealerships that made the most recent Auto Age list were led by House of Imports in Buena Park. The Mercedes-Benz dealership sold 1,257 new cars for revenue of $65.4 million--an average of $52,028 per car. Used cars, parts and other services brought the dealership’s 1993 revenue to $120.7 million.

* Though House of Imports was the largest Mercedes-Benz dealership in the nation by sales, its total was down almost 5% from $126.8 million. And its 15th place overall ranking in the Auto Age list was down from 5th place for 1992.

* Three of the top five local dealers--House of Imports, Toyota of Orange and Fletcher Jones Motor Cars--sell foreign makes.

* Ford dealers led the nation in total sales, and that held true in Orange County, which put four Ford dealers on the Auto Age 500. Together, Villa Ford in Orange, Ted Jones Ford, Buena Park, Tuttle-Click Ford, Irvine, and Campbell Ford, Garden Grove, sold 11,138 new cars, or almost half the 24,005 total for all 14 local dealers on the Auto Age list.

* The only other domestic franchise on the list was Connell Chevrolet-Geo in Costa Mesa, with 1,883 new-car sales.

* Crevier BMW in Santa Ana is a perennial fixture on the Auto Age list, and this year it also is the only BMW dealership in the nation to make the grade with revenue of $46.3 million.