PART II

ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

To the Shareholders and Board of Directors of AutoNation, Inc.:

    We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of AutoNation, Inc. (a Delaware corporation) and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2000 and 1999, and the related consolidated statements of income, shareholders' equity and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2000. These consolidated financial statements and the schedule referred to below are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements and the schedule based on our audits.

    We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

    In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of AutoNation, Inc. and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2000 and 1999, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2000, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

    Our audits were made for the purpose of forming an opinion on the basic financial statements taken as a whole. The schedule listed in the index to consolidated financial statements is presented for the purpose of complying with the Securities and Exchange Commission's rules and is not part of the basic financial statements. This schedule has been subjected to the auditing procedures applied in the audits of the basic financial statements and, in our opinion, fairly states in all material respects the financial data required to be set forth therein in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole.



    ARTHUR ANDERSEN LLP

Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
March 26, 2001.