The numbers from Automotive News were more like $100 million last year, and in a recent article, the spend is closer to $200 million. Regardless, Michael Jackson CEO of Autonation se

Eighteen months ago, AutoNation was on course to derive 20 percent of its vehicle sales from TrueCar, Costco and other third parties, Jackson said during a sit-down in his office here. Its own website, autonation.com, was generating just 10 percent of sales.

But with major improvements to the website, including allowing a customer to do the bulk of a transaction online, that's reversed. Today, the website and its AutoNation Express transactional tools account for more than 20 percent of AutoNation sales, with third parties down to about 9 percent.

Moreover, AutoNation has cut altogether two of the lowest-profit lead generators, TrueCar and Costco, the ouster of the former coming in July through a loud and public exchange with TrueCar ex-CEO Scott Painter.

The team size to develop the site has grown 27x larger in two years.

From two dozen people two years ago, AutoNation has built an IT department of 250 people, with half writing software code, as well as an 80-person digital marketing staff at the company's 17-story headquarters in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The fruits can be seen at autonation.com, where 100,000 vehicles at the 253 stores are listed in inventory at any given time.