Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 11, 2025
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy" or "Policy") describes how Sonic Automotive, Inc., EchoPark Automotive, Inc., Sonic Powersports, and any affiliates or subsidiary dealership entities and vehicle buying centers (collectively "Sonic," "Sonic Automotive," "we," "us," and "our ") collect, use, maintain, disclose, and protect certain information when you visit www.sonicautomotive.com, www.echopark.com, www.sonicpowersports.com, our respective dealerships' websites, all related websites owned or operated by us that link to this Privacy Policy, any mobile app, and any physical location (collectively "Website" or "Site").
Please read this entire Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. By accessing or using this Website for any purpose and by submitting any of your personal information to us, you are consenting to the terms and conditions of this Policy and to our Terms of Use posted at ("Terms of Use"). If you disagree with any part of this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Use, please do not use this Website or any of our other services and do not share any personal information with us.
This Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks, or applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third party to collect or share data about you. If you follow a link to a third-party website or engage a third-party plugin, please note that these third parties have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We do not control these third-party websites, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
We may periodically make changes to this Policy. We encourage you to visit this page often, as it is your responsibility to review this Policy and remain informed about any changes.
2. Definitions
As used in this Privacy Policy, the following terms will have the following meanings:
"Consent" is the voluntary, written or verbal affirmative approval of, or agreement to, a right, authority, or permission requested by us regarding our collection, use, or processing of information in any form. Consent includes for example, a Customer's electronic execution of a document, affirmative action signifying agreement (such as a Customer's clicking on an electronic button or asking us to take his or her picture on vehicle delivery), or physical signature of a document.
"Customers" are former, current, or prospective purchasers of one or more vehicles or Dealership Services from us and any other person or business that visits our Website or our Dealerships or otherwise undertakes to do business with us in any manner, including business partners, vendors, suppliers, and service providers.
"Customer Data" means a Customer's personal information that a Customer submits, emails, transmits, or otherwise makes available to us through the use of this Website or otherwise from communications or transactions with us, or that we collect from a Customer through the Customer's interaction with our Website; provided that Customer Data does not include any Dealership Data.
"Dealership Data" means all data and information that is created, developed, licensed, stored, or used in or by us or our Dealerships or in any of our products, services, or activities, including information about a Customer we obtain from third party sources.
"Dealership Services" or "Services" mean all products and services other than vehicles that we may offer, sell, lease, or provide at any time, including parts, repair services, maintenance services, customer support services, finance services, leasing services, and other tangible and intangible materials and benefits.
"Vehicle Data" means the digital information collected, stored, or used in a vehicle's on-board diagnostics or other electronic systems that may include vehicle user names, contact information, phone numbers, emails, texts, GPS location data, vehicle service history, and other information.
"You," "your," or "user" means any and all of our Website visitors and Customers regardless of how such persons may interact, communicate, or do business with us.
3. Our Website
Our Website describes a wide range of vehicles and Services that we offer, sell, lease, and provide to a broad range of Customers. Our Website is for general commercial and informational purposes and is designed to facilitate and enhance communications and transactions with Customers for the purchase of our vehicles and Services. While any person may review the information on our Website, it is not intended for communications or transactions with persons under the age of 18.
4. How we collect personal information
4.1 Overview. This section explains generally the sources from which, and the means by which, we collect and process personal information and the purposes for which we do so.
4.2 Customer registration. A Customer who subscribes to or accesses any of our newsletters, email reminder services, or other product or Service or who desires to purchase or lease a vehicle from us will need to create an account, complete an online registration form, and indicate the matters of interest to him or her. Your account data may include your name, physical address, phone number, email address, and other information that will enable us to respond efficiently to your request or interest. If you desire more information about our vehicles and Services, or desire to schedule a call with one of our representatives, you may do so online as well.
4.3 Consent to transactional activities. If you take steps to do business with us, we will request that you affirmatively Consent to our processing of certain transactions like credit checks, processing vehicle loans, and warranty applications. We will also ask for your Consent to our ability to communicate with you by phone calls, text messages, and emails, which will require you to provide us with your phone number and email address. If you transfer a picture to us or permit us to take your picture upon vehicle delivery, you are deemed to impliedly Consent to our use of your picture for marketing purposes (unless and until you advise us otherwise in writing). Any form by which we request your Consent will include your agreement to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. You agree that we can rely upon your Consent for all purposes referenced in the applicable Consent document you approve and this Policy.
4.4 Other means of collection. We collect personal information by a variety of means and methods, including the following:
- When you submit personal information to us voluntarily, including when you register an account, communicate with us, or search for or order, purchase, lease, or acquire any of our vehicles or Services;
- When you visit our Website, we may collect location and other information from the internet browser you are using;
- When you engage in purchase, lease, financing, or other vehicle-related transactions with us or with any of our business partners, including completion of credit, insurance, warranty, or vehicle protection applications or submission of information for vehicle registrations, licenses, or calculation and processing of vehicle taxes, permits, or services;
- When we purchase or accept a vehicle from you as a trade-in, your vehicle may include digital systems that may store Vehicle Data and other personal data. You agree to delete that information from your vehicle before delivering it to us;
- When you submit information to us in pursuit of third-party products and services, including insurance, maintenance services, and vehicle security services;
- When your communications with us provide us with certain technical formation, such as internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, time zone setting and location, device operating system, and other technologies you may use to access our Website or otherwise communicate with us;
- Through Cookies and navigational data like Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that we, third-party vehicle listing sites, or other digital advertisers may use to gather information about the date and time online visits or other uses of our Website or the websites of third parties, including business partners on whose sites we post vehicle information;
- Through third party services we use to track and analyze certain information from users of our Website, the websites of business partners, or the websites of digital advertising networks with which we work that involve the exchange of statistical or demographic data on each site's visitors and users;
- From third parties and public sources, including from data analytics providers for our own social media pages, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn;
- From vehicle displays, shows, or marketing presentations we may make to you or to any group or gathering at which you are present; and
- From receiving or responding to any vehicle warranty, service, delivery, support, or other Customer inquiry or support request.
5. Description of personal information we collect
5.1 Personal information collected. The personal information we collect varies by user, transaction, and purpose, but our primary purpose is the efficient and satisfactory conduct of our business and for related legal purposes. The types of personal information that we collect do not apply at all times or to all Customers, and most types are based on a Customer's voluntary submission of data or other voluntary interaction with us or our business partners.
Listed below are the categories of personal information that we may collect and use in our business for commercial purposes.
|
Category |
Examples |
|
A. Identifiers |
A real name, alias, postal address, telephone number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, username/password, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, social security number, driver's license number, insurance policy number, passport number or other similar identifiers. |
|
B. Commercial information |
Records of vehicles or Services purchased, obtained or considered, contractual relationships entered into with vendors, suppliers, Service Providers, or distributors or other purchasing or consumption histories, preferences, or tendencies. |
|
C. Internet or other network activity |
Online browsing history, search history or other information relating to a Consumer's interaction with websites, applications, or advertisements. |
|
D. Geolocation data |
Information relating to physical location or movements. |
|
E. Employment-related information. |
Current job and salary or other income information for credit and vehicle financing purposes, excluding information about our own employees in their roles as such. |
|
F. Inferences drawn from other personal information |
Consumer profile data reflecting a person's preferences, characteristics or predispositions toward the purchase, sale, lease, or servicing of a vehicle. |
5.2 Exclusions from coverage. The term personal information does not include:
- Publicly available information, which is information that is lawfully made available from Federal, State, or local government records and information that we or a business partner reasonably believes the Customer has publicly released or made available without restriction;
- De-identified, pseudonymized, or aggregated data;
- Personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws that is protected in accordance with those laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. §1681 et seq.) ("FCRA"), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. §6801 et seq.) ("GLBA"), and the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994 (18 U.S. Code §2721 et. seq.) ("DPPA"). We separately comply with those requirements by means other than through application of this Policy; and
- Vehicle Data, which we do not voluntarily collect, do not desire to receive, and which we request that our Customers purge or delete from any vehicle sold to us or traded in for one of our vehicles, before delivery of the vehicle to us.
5.3 Sources of collection. We may obtain personal information from the following sources:
- Directly from Customers from forms or applications the Customers complete or with respect to vehicles or Services our Customers purchase or request from us;
- Directly from our Customers who visit our social media pages through links from our Website (though such social media platforms are subject to their own privacy policies and not this Policy);
- Directly from a Customers when they pick up a vehicle and request or permit one of our sales representatives to take their picture with the new vehicle and authorize us to post the picture in our dealership or on our Website or use it in marketing materials;
- Indirectly from our Customers from observing their actions on our Website or from communications with our Customers in any form (i.e., text messages, phone calls, or emails), including from in-person visits to our Dealerships;
- From our business partners for Services associated with Customers' transactions with us (e.g., vehicle searches, credit applications, vehicle protection services, Service requests, etc.).
5.4 Personal information
- Customer data. You hereby grant us an irrevocable, non-exclusive and perpetual license to use all Customer Data that you convey, disclose, or make available to us to receive, hold, and use such Customer Data in connection with our business and for other purposes allowed by law.
- Dealership data. We own and retain all right, title and interest in and to all Dealership Data.
- Vehicle data. We disclaim any interest in, and any duty or obligation with respect to, any Vehicle Data in any form that is present or stored in (in computer memory or otherwise) any vehicle that a Customer sells to us or delivers to us for trade-in.
5.5 Children. It is our policy that we do not intend to collect, and we will not knowingly collect, personal information from children under the age of 18. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us using the methods described below under "Our Contact Information."
6. How we use your personal information
6.1 Purposes. We use the personal information that we collect or receive from our Customers for the purposes described in this Policy and for other business purposes allowed by law, including the development, delivery, and performance of our products and services, sharing with our affiliates for related business purposes, and as follows:
- To fulfill or meet the reason a Customer provided us with the information. For example, if you share your contact information to request a price quote or ask a question about our vehicles or Services, we will use that information to respond to your inquiry. If you provide your personal information to purchase a vehicle or a Service, we will use that information to process your payment and facilitate delivery;
- To facilitate new orders or to process returns or requests for Customer support, including through administering your account;
- To market our vehicles to you, including through your subscriptions to any of our email notifications or newsletters. You may opt out of receiving communication by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of each email, by following the unsubscribe options in the communication (e.g. texting "stop"), or by emailing us separately at privacy@sonicautomotive.com;
- To respond to your requests and questions, resolve disputes, investigate and address your concerns, and monitor and improve our responses;
- To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Website, databases, and technology assets and to detect and prevent transactional fraud;
- For testing, research, analysis, and new product and service development, including to improve our Website, products, and services;
- For facilitating and processing your transactions with us and with our third party affiliates and business partners, including for vehicle purchase, leasing, financing, registration, and tax payments and for the performance of strategic partnerships;
- To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable laws, court orders, or governmental regulations;
- To process information so as to create de-identified, pseudonymized, or aggregated information by removing data that can readily identify or lead to the identification of a data subject; and
- To evaluate or consummate a sale, merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other transfer of some or all of our assets in which personal information held by us is among the assets so transferred.
6.2 Exercise of legal rights. We may also process your personal information where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of tax, audit, or other legal rights or to exercise our rights, duties or obligations under applicable laws.
6.3 Activities with customer consent. When you do business with us, whether online or in person, and Consent to certain actions or activities by us, we will undertake, perform, and process such activities as you authorize. This may include credit checks, loan processing, vehicle warranty applications, license and title registration, and other actions. If you Consent to communications with us by phone calls, text messages and emails, we will communicate with you at the phone number or email address you provide, unless and until you withdraw your Consent in writing. You agree that we may rely upon your Consent for all purposes referenced in the applicable Consent document and this Policy.
6.4 Participation in advertising networks. We do participate in digital advertising activities through third party data analytics providers such as Google Analytics, which provides us with information collected on third-party websites on which we advertise our vehicles, including the identity of users of those websites. Our use of digital advertisers and participants helps us identify persons who are shopping for vehicles and enables us (i) to measure whether and how our ads were delivered to and interacted with by Consumers; (ii) provides us reporting about the effectiveness and performance of our ads; (iii) provides us reporting about users who interacted with our ads; and (iv) informs us about the percentage of our ads that had the opportunity to be seen.
7. Disclosing personal information
7.1 We disclose certain personal information to affiliates, including Sonic Automotive, Inc., EchoPark Automotive, Inc., Sonic Powersports, and to third parties for purposes related to the conduct of our business. We also disclose user data with certain data analytics firms who assist in our analysis and improvement of our Website and in the generation of Customer leads for our business (e.g., Google Analytics; Twilio Sendgrid, CDK eLead, etc.).
7.2 We disclose your personal information to Dealership and call center personnel and business partners as necessary to process your requests for vehicles and Services. All authorized personnel are subject to duties of confidentiality with regard to such information.
7.3 We may disclose your personal information to our authorized subcontractors, vendors, service providers, and processors we use to support our business and who are subject to confidentiality obligations with regard to the processing of such personal information pursuant to a written contract. The categories of service providers to whom we may disclose your personal information include:
- Business partners who assist us in conducting transactions with our Consumers like submitting credit applications, financing, vehicle warranties, trade-ins, and scheduling vehicle service or delivery;
- Customer relationship management ("CRM") software providers with which we have entered into licensing agreements for marketing and communications activities with current and prospective Customers;
- Data analytics and cloud data providers other than Google Analytics with which we have entered into licensing agreements for data collection, use, analysis, transfer, and storage in support of our business;
- Payment processing and human resource information system ("HRIS") providers for vendor, supplier, contractor, employee and Service Provider payment processing activities; and
- Other Service Providers directly involved in our business transactions with Customers.
7.4 Financial transactions relating to our vehicles and Services are generally paid by check, ACH transaction, wire transfer, or through payment services providers (e.g., banks, credit card companies, etc.). We disclose transaction data to our vehicle lenders, lessors, and payment services providers to process payments and refunds and to resolve issues relating to Customer transactions.
7.5 We may also disclose your personal information when necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, in response to law enforcement requests, in order to secure our networks, to avoid fraud or malicious network behavior, to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person, to establish or defend legal claims, or to comply with applicable laws.
7.6 We may also disclose your personal information to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets.
7.7 We may also disclose your personal information as allowed by applicable law or with your consent.
- All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
7.8 Sale or Sharing of Personal Information. Our disclosure of certain information (including Customer Data, Vehicle Data, and Internet or other Network Activity Data) to the categories of parties described above (including certain advertisers and marketing partners, data analytics providers, and social media networks), and in other circumstances as described in this Privacy Policy, may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of your information as those terms are defined under applicable U.S. privacy laws. You may exercise your right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your personal information by clicking here.
8. Cookies that we use
8.1 We use a browser feature known as a "Cookie," web beacons (also known as pixels), and other technologies primarily to collect information from users of our Website. A Cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
8.2 Cookies may be either "persistent" Cookies or "session" Cookies. A persistent Cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date. A session Cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session when the web browser is closed.
8.3 Personal information we hold may be linked to the information obtained from Cookies.
8.4 We primarily use Cookies for the following purposes:
- Authentication: To identify you when you visit our Website and as you navigate our Website;
- Status: To help us to determine if you are logged into our Website;
- Personalization: To store information about your preferences and to personalize the Website for you;
- Security: As an element of the security measures used to protect Customer accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials and to protect our Website and online transactions generally; and
- Analytics: To help us analyze the use and performance of our Website and to process transactions.
8.5 Our third party vendors may use Cookies that are stored on your computer when you visit our Website. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept Cookies and to delete Cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser and from version to version. Blocking all Cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of many websites. If you block Cookies associated with our Website, you will not be able to use all of the features on our website.
8.6 We use Google Analytics, MetaPixel, AUTOID, Google Tag Manager, Content Square, and Optimizely to analyze the use of our Website. These providers gather information about website use by means of Cookies. The information gathered relating to our Website is used to create reports about the use of our Website. Visit our Website to manage your Cookie preferences.
8.7 Most web browsers include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. We currently do response to DNT browser signals that automatically communicate your choice not to be tracked online.
9. Security of personal information
We implement and maintain reasonable administrative, technical, physical, and organizational measures designed to help safeguard your personal information against unlawful or unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we follow reasonable measures to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted online. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We urge you to be careful when accessing and sharing information online.
If you are visiting our Website from a location outside of the United States, please be aware that your connection will be through and to servers located in the United States. Any information you provide during your visit will be processed, stored, and transferred in and to the United States or other jurisdictions, which may have different privacy laws that may or may not be as protective as your local law. By engaging with our Website, you agree to such processing, storage, and transfer.
10. Data retention policies
10.1 Our data retention policies are designed to comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal information, whether held by us or by any of our data processors or vendors.
10.2 Personal information that we process will be kept for as long as necessary to fully perform the purpose for which it is collected and for such additional periods of time as we deem necessary or appropriate to the sound operation of our business. Our legal rights, obligations, and interests require that we retain personal information after the completion of specific transactions with our Customers.
10.3 We may retain your personal information for the longer of: (i) the period of your consent to our collection and use of such information; (ii) the period necessary for us to fulfill the purposes of our tax, audit, or other legal rights, duties, and interests with regard to Customer Data; (iii) the period necessary for us to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another person, and (iv) such longer period as permitted under applicable laws. Customer Data which has been de-identified, pseudonymized or aggregated is no longer personal information.
11. Changes to this policy
We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our Website. You should check this Website periodically to ensure that you agree with and approve any changes to this Policy. Your continued use of our Website or the continued conduct of business with us after an update of this Policy constitutes your consent to the then current version of this Privacy Policy.
12. Our contact information
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
- Email: privacy@sonicautomotive.com
- Toll Free Phone: (800) 810-1827
- Mail: Consumer Privacy Request, Sonic Automotive, Inc., 4401 Colwick Road, Charlotte, NC 28211.
13. Your Rights
Consistent with applicable U.S. state privacy law, you may exercise the rights described in this section. Please note that consumer rights vary from state-to-state and some states do not provide consumers all of the rights detailed below.
Right to Opt Out of Sale/Sharing/Targeted Advertising
As described in this Privacy Policy, certain use and disclosure of your personal information may be considered "selling" or "sharing" under applicable U.S. privacy laws. You may exercise your right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your personal information by clicking here.
Residents of certain states may opt out by broadcasting an Opt-Out Preference Signal, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC) (on the browsers and/or browser extensions that support such a signal). If you choose to use the GPC signal, you will need to turn it on for each supported browser or browser extension you use.
Further, you have the right to object, restrict, or limit the ways in which we use or process your personal information, including the right to opt-out of marketing communication, promotional offers, or advertising from us. Where we collect personal information based on your Consent, you can withdraw your Consent to our collecting, using, and sharing your personal information by contacting us in one of the ways described below.
Right to Access, Know, and Correct
You have the right to know what personal information was collected and the right to know the business and commercial purpose with which Sonic processed the personal information over the past 12 months. You also have the right to correct any personal information maintained by Sonic that may be incorrect. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will disclose to you:
- The categories of personal information collected about you.
- The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
- Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.
- The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
- If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:
- Sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and
- Disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.
- The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you.
You may request a full copy of the information maintained about you in a transferable format ("Right to Portability").
Right to Delete
You have the right to request that Sonic delete any of personal information collected and retained, subject to certain. Once we receive your request and confirm your identity, we will review your request to see if an exception applies such that the information should be retained. We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) and as permitted by applicable law. We will delete or deidentify personal information not subject to an exception from our records and will direct our service providers to take similar action.
"Shine the Light"
California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Website who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the past year, including the categories of personal information disclosed and the identity of such third parties. To make such a request, please send an email or write to us at the address set forth in Section 12 above.
To exercise your rights described above, please submit a request by either:
· ·Calling us at (800)810-1827
· ·Completing the data subject request form below:
We will respond to your request within a reasonable time and in accordance with any deadline imposed by law and assist anyone who needs assistance preparing a request for access.
We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights, including by (a) denying you goods or services, (b) charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts, benefits, or other penalties, (c) provide a different level or quality of goods or services, (d) suggest that you will receive a different price or quality of goods or services.