AutoNation 2003 Annual Report Download - page 46

Table of Contents
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, 2001 and 2000, and the related consolidated statements of income, shareholders’ equity and comprehensive income (loss)
and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2001. 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, 2001 and 2000, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the
years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2001, 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,
February 7, 2002.
NOTE: The report of Arthur Andersen LLP presented above is a copy of a previously issued Arthur Andersen LLP report. This report has not
been reissued by Arthur Andersen LLP nor has Arthur Andersen LLP provided a consent to the inclusion of its report in this Form 10-K.
NOTE: The consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2001 have been revised to include: (i) the transitional
disclosures required by Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets (see Note 1 under the
heading “Intangible Assets”), (ii) the disclosures required by Emerging Issues Task Force Issue No. 02-16, “Accounting by a Customer
(Including a Reseller) for Certain Consideration Received from a Vendor” and (iii) disaggregations of certain financial statement amounts and
note disclosures (see Note 24). Additionally, as described in Note 24, the consolidated income statement for the year ended December 31,
2001 has been revised to reflect the reclassification of: (i) floorplan interest expense, (ii) certain finance and insurance revenue, and
(iii) wholesale revenue and cost of sales. The report of Arthur Andersen LLP presented above does not extend to these changes.
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