Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): March 7, 2002

(Former name or former address, if changed since last report) Not applicable

On March 7, 2002, Lithia Motors, Inc. issued a press release providing first quarter and year end 2002 earnings guidance and announcing that the underwriters exercised their over-allotment option and the company closed its public offering of 5.75 million shares of its Class A Common Stock at a price of $18.25 per share. All of the information in the press release, appearing in Exhibit 99, is not filed but is furnished pursuant to Regulation FD.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

EXHIBIT 99

LITHIA

AMERICA'S CAR & TRUCK STORE

MEDFORD, OREGON, March 7, 2002 (5:00 a.m. PDT) - Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE: LAD) today raised first quarter guidance by seven cents to $0.36 to $0.38 from $0.29 to $0.31 per share. The company cited a better than expected business environment in the first quarter. Lithia raised full-year earnings guidance to $1.73 to $1.83 per share. This guidance is higher than past guidance and includes 4.5 million newly issued shares from the recently completed secondary offering. The company expects that the dilution from the newly issued shares will be more than offset by improvements in operating income and interest expense savings.

Lithia is providing the following guidance for the first quarter and full-year 2002:

Expected annualized acquisition revenues for 2002: $500 to $800 million.

The quarterly breakout for 2002 is estimated as follows for Diluted EPS: Q1: $0.36 - $0.38;

Q2: $0.40 - $0.42; Q3: $0.55 - $0.58; and Q4: $0.42 - $0.45.

Management makes the above estimates based upon information available to it at this time. The company, in making these estimates, assumes no burden to update these estimates during the quarter or year even if it appears actual results will differ materially from these estimates.

Separately, on March 1^st the underwriters of Lithia's secondary offering exercised their over-allotment option and the company closed the public offering of a total of 5.75 million shares of its Class A Common Stock at a price of $18.25 per share. The offering was managed by Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Stephens Inc. The offering included 4.5 million newly issued shares sold by Lithia Motors, 1.0 million shares sold by W. Douglas Moreland, and 250,000 shares sold by other selling shareholders.

Lithia Motors, Inc. is a Fortune 1000 and Russell 2000 Company that operates 123 franchises in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, South Dakota, Alaska and Texas and sells 24 brands of new vehicles at 65 stores and over the internet through "Lithia.com-America's Car & Truck Store." Lithia also sells used vehicles; arranges finance, warranty, and credit insurance contracts; and provides vehicle parts, maintenance, and repair services at all of its locations.

This press release includes forward looking statements within the meaning of the "Safe-Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which management believes are a benefit to shareholders. These statements are necessarily subject to risk and uncertainty and actual results could differ materially due to certain risk factors, including without limitation economic conditions, acquisition risk factors and others set forth from time to time in the company's filings with the SEC. Specific risks in this press release include improvement in operating income, margin improvements, same-store sales levels, completion of assumed acquisitions and stated forward estimates.

For additional information on Lithia Motors, contact: Jeff DeBoer, Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer (541) 776-6868 (E-mail: invest@lithia.com) or Dan Retzlaff, Investor Relations at (541) 776-6819 or log-on to: www.lithia.com - go to About Lithia - Investor Relations.