AUTOS

‘Megadealer’ in Irvine: When Auto Age/Dealer Business magazine listed the nation’s 100 largest “megadealers” earlier this month, it listed Webb Automotive Group as being in Cerritos.

But the 26th-largest group in the country, with eight dealerships and $379.2 million in 1993 sales, actually has considered Irvine its home for several years.

Owner Lewis Webb bought a trio of franchises in the Irvine Auto Center in October, 1989, and moved his favorite desk and chair from the Cerritos Auto Center to Irvine shortly thereafter.

But the company didn’t make much of the move--its corporate stationery still lists a Cerritos address.

In any event, Webb Automotive--omitted from a Times Orange County listing earlier this month--becomes the third of the nation’s 100 largest megadealers to call Orange County home.

A fourth major operation, Fletcher Jones Management Group, has a big presence here, with affiliates Fletcher Jones Motor Cars--the Newport Beach Mercedes Benz dealership--and Ted Jones Ford in Buena Park. But the corporate headquarters remains in Las Vegas.