Last updated: September 2026
Lithia & Driveway (NYSE: LAD) is the largest automotive retailer in the United States by revenue: $37.6 billion in FY2025, #124 on the Fortune 500 and #1 in the Automotive Retail category, running 459 stores across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. with roughly 30,000 employees. Its corporate Home Office sits in Medford, Oregon, a Rogue Valley city of about 90,000 where the DeBoer family founded the company in 1946. That combination is the whole story for a student: a Fortune 124 balance sheet, run out of a small Oregon city, with a corporate Home Office that is a fraction of the size of the retail network it controls. Lithia runs a summer intern cohort in Medford every year, confirmed on the company’s own corporate-responsibility site, but it publishes no internship program page, no cohort size, no application window and, as of September 2026, not a single internship requisition on either of its two live Workday job sites. Three independent pay sources converge on $20–21 per hour for Lithia interns, and the company’s DART Operations Development Program starts new grads at $60,000 during a three-month training period.
Quick Facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Where to apply | careers.lithiadriveway.com/opportunities or the ATS directly at lithia.wd504.myworkdayjobs.com. Do not use the dead iCIMS board at careers-lithia.icims.com |
| Application window (2027–28) | No published window. Prior-cycle intern req posted late May 2026 for that same summer. Watch the Workday board monthly from roughly February through June 2027 |
| Rolling? | Yes. Lithia fills intern and DART roles on a rolling basis; no published deadlines exist on any requisition |
| Eligibility | College students (per the careers page). The one recovered intern req (Legal Intern) required enrollment in an accredited law program; no GPA published |
| Duration | Summer cohort, exact weeks not published; the annual intern group photo and story land in late July |
| Compensation | ~$20–21/hr across three independent sources: employer req ($21/hr), Indeed ($20.43 avg, n=4), Glassdoor ($21, n=6). No housing or relocation published |
| Return offers | Not published. The DART Operations Development Program ($60K training salary) is a separate new-grad entry point, not a documented intern conversion path |
| Locations | Medford, OR (Home Office, primary intern site). At least one intern worked remotely (Indeed, April 2026). DART/ODP roles are at dealerships in TX, PA, MI |
Zero intern requisitions live as of September 2026. Lithia posts intern reqs late and rolling, not on a fall campus cycle. The one dated prior-cycle intern req was posted in late May for that same summer. Set a Workday alert and check monthly from February 2027.
Externships are short, remote professional experience programs where you finish a real project with a real company. The Amazon Fulfillment Center Operational Strategy Externship and the TikTok Social Media Content Brand Strategy Externship build the operations and digital marketing evidence a Lithia application needs. Explore all Externships.
What Is a Lithia Motors Internship?
A Lithia Motors internship is a summer placement at the Medford, Oregon Home Office of the largest US automotive retailer by revenue (NYSE: LAD, $37.6 billion). The company, founded in Ashland, Oregon in 1946 by the DeBoer family and now led by CEO Bryan DeBoer, operates 459 stores across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. under brands including Lithia, Driveway (e-commerce), GreenCars and Driveway Finance Corporation. Its careers site describes internships as giving “college students the chance to explore future career paths and learn from experts and mentors in a variety of disciplines,” and the corporate-responsibility site confirms an annual summer intern cohort at the Medford Home Office. Beyond internships, Lithia runs the DART Operations Development Program for new graduates and technician apprenticeships at dealerships nationwide. Indeed rates Lithia 2.9 out of 5 from 1,218 reviews, with the caveat that the vast majority of those reviews come from dealership service and sales staff, not from the corporate Home Office where the internships sit.
When Do Lithia Motors Internship Applications Open for 2027–2028?
Lithia does not run a published fall campus recruiting cycle. Its internships appear as one-off requisitions on the same rolling Workday board that carries its 1,000+ dealership jobs, and they are filled on a rolling basis. The one dated Lithia intern requisition we could source, a Legal Intern role in Medford, was posted on May 29, 2026 for that same summer. That makes Lithia a late-and-rolling employer, not a September-to-November one. For Summer 2027, the honest advice is to set a Workday saved search and check monthly from roughly February 2027 through June 2027. The DART Operations Development Program, by contrast, posts continuously and has an evergreen pipeline requisition open now.
Zero internship requisitions live on either of Lithia’s two Workday job sites, verified against all 1,073 postings. Set a job alert at lithia.wd504.myworkdayjobs.com/LithiaCareers now. If you are graduating, the DART/ODP program is open continuously and starts at $60,000.
Watch window opens. Corporate Medford requisitions in Analytics, Marketing and IT turn over in this period. Check the board weekly.
Highest-probability intern posting window. The one dated prior-cycle intern req was posted May 29, 2026 for that same summer. Apply immediately when postings appear.
Intern cohort on site at the Medford Home Office. The company’s late-July National Intern Day story is the reliable annual signal that a cohort exists.
How to read this page: our dates come from tracking previous recruiting cycles and daily posting data. Treat them as informed estimates based on historical patterns, not confirmed dates. The company's official careers page is always the most current source. If a role is posted there, go by that, even if this page suggests the window hasn't opened yet.
Why You Must Apply the Week Applications Open
Lithia is a Fortune 124 company whose corporate Home Office employs a tiny fraction of its 30,000-person workforce. Of roughly 1,073 live requisitions, only about 16 are corporate white-collar roles in Analytics, Marketing, IT and Real Estate. The intern cohort is small enough to fit in a single group photo on the company’s corporate-responsibility site. When an intern requisition does post, it posts late and fills fast on a rolling basis. The one dated prior-cycle req was posted May 29 for that same summer, and the old iCIMS board at careers-lithia.icims.com, which still ranks in Google, is completely dead and returns zero results. If you search that board and conclude Lithia has no jobs, you have been misled by a stale Google result. The live board is Workday. Set the alert, check monthly, and apply the day you see it.
Which Lithia Motors Internship Programs Should You Target?
Lithia offers several early-career pathways, from a small summer intern cohort to a full-time dealership rotational program. Which one to target depends on whether you are still in school or graduating.
| Program | Focus | Duration | Key details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer Internship (Home Office) | Corporate functions at the Medford, OR headquarters: legal, engineering, analytics, marketing and other disciplines | Summer (exact weeks not published) | Paid ~$20–21/hr; annual cohort; community service component (Boys & Girls Club “Fun in the Sun” day) |
| DART Operations Development Program | Cross-functional dealership rotation through Sales, Service, Parts, Back Office and F&I | Full-time, ongoing | $60,000 starting salary during 3-month training; associate’s degree preferred; Monday–Saturday 8–5 at one Texas store; evergreen pipeline req open now |
| Technician Apprenticeship | Service-bay dealership roles with community-college partnerships | Ongoing | Seven live Apprentice Technician reqs across FL, MI, WI and ON; dealership track, not corporate |
See all openings at careers.lithiadriveway.com/opportunities. The summer internship is the primary student entry point, while DART is the most reliably available early-career door for graduating seniors.
What Are the Eligibility Requirements?
Lithia publishes minimal formal eligibility criteria. What is known comes from the careers page’s one-sentence internship description and from the one recoverable intern requisition:
• Enrollment: “college students” (careers.lithiadriveway.com/life). The Legal Intern role specifically required enrollment “in an accredited law program, ideally 2–3 years in.”
• GPA: not published. No Lithia posting, across all 1,073 live requisitions, states a GPA floor.
• Work authorization: not published. No Lithia requisition contains a sponsorship clause. Ask the recruiter directly.
• DART eligibility: “an associate’s degree (or higher) and a strong desire to grow your career”; valid driver’s license and clean driving record required; 18+ and drug-free workplace.
Does Lithia Have a Hard GPA Cutoff?
No. Lithia publishes no GPA requirement anywhere. Across all 1,073 live requisition descriptions and the archived Legal Intern description, not one mentions GPA. Lithia’s early-career requisitions select on communication, stakeholder relationships, adaptability and coachability rather than academic metrics. If you have relevant operational or customer-facing experience, that evidence speaks louder than a transcript.
What Skills Does Lithia Motors Look For, and How Do You Build Them?
Lithia’s early-career hiring reflects an auto-retail company that values people skills and operational judgment over technical tooling. Across one intern JD and six DART/Operations Development Program requisitions, the pattern is consistent: communication, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder management and self-direction appear in nearly every posting. The single most striking finding is that Lithia names zero specific software packages across all seven early-career JDs. No Excel, no SQL, no Python, no Tableau. That distinguishes Lithia sharply from technology or medtech employers and tells you exactly what to lead with in an interview: a story about running something operational under time pressure, not a tech stack.
Note: Lithia had only one recoverable intern JD (Legal Intern, Medford OR) plus six DART/ODP requisitions. No software or technical tools were named across any of them. A frequency chart would misrepresent a corpus this small.
How Is Demand for Automotive Retail Interns Moving Right Now?
Automotive retail intern hiring right now: September 2026
Across US automotive retail and dealership-group intern postings tracked this month · aggregate market data, all employers
September 2026 is this tracker’s baseline month. The signal now is digital transformation: the largest dealership groups are investing in e-commerce platforms and need the same data-literate candidates technology companies want.
Method: aggregate analysis of US automotive retail and dealership-group intern postings, September 2026 baseline. Sample indexes under half of all US postings; figures show direction and relative level, not total market share.
Build These Skills Before You Apply
Lithia’s JDs name no software, so a finished project that shows operational judgment and communication is the strongest possible application evidence.
| Skill (from real JDs) | JD evidence | Externship that builds it |
|---|---|---|
| Operations & cross-functional collaboration | DART: “Dive into core dealership operations with hands-on experience in Sales, Service, Parts, Back Office, and F&I”; “Strengthen customer, business, and operational acumen” | Amazon Fulfillment Center Operational Strategy |
| Digital marketing & brand strategy | Home Office Marketing: live Medford reqs include Sr. Social Media & Reputation Specialist and CX & Technology Specialist | TikTok Social Media Content Brand Strategy |
| E-commerce data analysis | Driveway is Lithia’s e-commerce arm; Analytics function has 7 live Medford reqs including a Snowflake Data Engineer | Breaking Games E-Commerce Data Analysis |
How close is the overlap? The Amazon project builds the operational-acumen story every DART requisition asks for, the TikTok project maps directly to Lithia’s live social media and reputation roles at the Medford Home Office, and the Breaking Games deliverable is e-commerce data analysis for a company whose entire Driveway strategy depends on it.
What Is the Lithia Motors Application and Interview Process Like?
Lithia publishes no interview process description for interns. What is known comes from the application mechanics and from community reports:
1. Go to careers.lithiadriveway.com/opportunities or the Workday board at lithia.wd504.myworkdayjobs.com/LithiaCareers. Save a search and set a job alert.
2. Do NOT use the old iCIMS board. careers-lithia.icims.com still ranks in Google as the “Lithia Motors Talent Network” and it returns zero results for every query, including an empty one. It is dead.
3. Apply through Workday. Every requisition’s apply URL routes to lithia.wd504.myworkdayjobs.com. There is no second application system.
4. Filter for the Home Office. Of ~1,073 live requisitions, roughly 16 are corporate white-collar. Filter for City = Medford, Oregon and the employing entity “Lithia Motors Support Services, Inc.”
5. Interview stages: NOT FOUND. Lithia publishes nothing about interview format for interns. Expect behavioral questions focused on stakeholder relationships, communication and adaptability based on the DART requisition competencies.
Because Lithia posts intern requisitions late and fills them quickly, the most important step is setting the Workday alert now. If you are a graduating senior, the DART Operations Development Program is open continuously and does not require waiting for a posting window. Our HireVue question guide with a free AI mock tool covers the behavioral-question format you are likely to encounter.
What the Community Says
Reddit has no usable Lithia internship discussion, so the cards below draw on first-hand employee accounts from four subreddits plus the single dated intern review from Indeed.
Across four separate subreddits and both positive and negative reviewers, Lithia employees describe the same structure: corporate is hands-off and the general manager sets everything. A seven-year employee: “they really let you run your own store, as long as you are staying profitable.” A former service director: “Lithia is pretty hands off. Your GM and Service Manager will have a lot more to do with how the store works than corporate will.” Ask who you report to before you accept.
Lithia’s only dated first-hand intern review (Indeed, April 2026, Remote, 2/5 stars) praises the culture and the people but says the role was “more of an experimental role but without the freedom to tackle complex issues” and that the work was largely tasks “the senior engineers didn’t want to do.” If you get an offer, negotiate a defined project scope before you start.
Interns land at $20–21/hr on three independent sources, and the one first-hand corporate-office account on r/Medford makes the same point from the inside: “It was actually fun, though the pay wasn’t great.” Lithia is a Fortune 124 company that pays like a regional employer, which is exactly what a low cost-of-living Oregon headquarters allows.
How Do You Stand Out at a Company With No Published Program?
Three moves, all executable before the posting window. First, set the Workday alert and check monthly from February 2027. Lithia posts late and rolling, so the student who sees the requisition on day one has the best odds. Second, target the Home Office explicitly. Of ~1,073 live requisitions, only about 16 are corporate white-collar. Filter for Medford, Oregon and the entity “Lithia Motors Support Services, Inc.” Everything else on that board is a service bay or a showroom floor. Third, lead with an operational story, not a tech stack. Lithia’s seven early-career JDs name zero software packages and select on stakeholder relationships, communication and adaptability instead. A finished project that shows you made operational decisions under time pressure, not a list of programming languages, is what this employer is screening for. And if you are graduating and cannot wait for the intern window: the DART Operations Development Program starts at $60,000, is open continuously, and explicitly requires only an associate’s degree. It is the most reliably available early-career door at this company.
What Other Companies Should You Consider?
Lithia’s peer set spans public automotive dealership groups, all competing for the same early-career talent.
- AutoNationthe largest US dealership group by store count and Lithia’s closest direct competitor for corporate internshipsGuide →
- CarMaxused-vehicle retail and e-commerce; direct competitor to Driveway, Lithia’s online armGuide →
- Penske Automotive Grouppeer public dealership group (NYSE: PAG) with a premium and luxury vehicle portfolioCareers site
- Asbury Automotive Grouppeer public dealership group; named directly by a Lithia employee on Reddit as structurally similarCareers site
Our business internships summer 2027 guide maps the full landscape of operations and retail opportunities, timeline by timeline.
FAQ
Can I still apply for a summer 2026 Lithia Motors internship?
No. The summer 2026 intern cohort has already been at the Medford Home Office, and the one recovered 2026 intern requisition (Legal Intern, posted May 29) has expired. The next opportunity is summer 2027: set a job alert at lithia.wd504.myworkdayjobs.com/LithiaCareers and check monthly from February through June 2027.
How much do Lithia interns get paid?
About $20 to $21 per hour. Three independent sources converge on this range: Lithia’s own Legal Intern requisition listed $21/hr, Indeed reports $20.43 average from 4 salary submissions, and Glassdoor reports $21 from 6 submissions. Lithia publishes no housing stipend, relocation allowance or intern benefits.
Where are Lithia internships located?
The Medford, Oregon Home Office at 150 N. Bartlett is the primary and effectively only documented intern location. One Indeed reviewer worked an intern role remotely, so remote is not impossible, but Medford is the default. DART roles are at dealerships in Texas, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
What is the DART program at Lithia?
DART is Lithia’s rotational early-career program and it is a full-time job, not an internship. Confusingly, the careers site calls it “Data Analytics Rotational Training” while the actual requisitions call it the “DART Operations Program” and place participants inside dealerships across Sales, Service, Parts, Back Office and F&I. Pay starts at $60,000 during a three-month training period. Hours at one Texas store are Monday to Saturday, 8–5, on site.
Does Lithia require a minimum GPA?
No GPA requirement appears anywhere in Lithia’s public postings. We scanned all 1,073 live requisition descriptions plus the archived Legal Intern description and found no GPA floor.
Why can’t I find any Lithia jobs online?
You are probably on the wrong board. The old iCIMS site at careers-lithia.icims.com, which still ranks well in Google as the “Lithia Motors Talent Network,” is dead and returns zero results for every search. The live board is careers.lithiadriveway.com/opportunities, backed by Workday, with over 1,000 open requisitions.
Does Lithia sponsor visas for interns?
Not established. No Lithia requisition contains a work-authorization or sponsorship clause. Ask the recruiter directly rather than assuming.
Is Lithia a good place to intern?
The honest answer is mixed. Lithia is a Fortune 124 company with $37.6 billion in revenue, which is real resume weight. But its Indeed rating is 2.9 out of 5 across 1,218 reviews, and its only dated first-hand intern review rates the experience 2 out of 5, describing an under-scoped technical role. Employees across several subreddits report that the quality of a Lithia job is determined by the individual manager rather than by corporate. If you get an offer, pin down your project scope and reporting line before you accept.
Lithia’s small corporate intern class posts late and fills on a rolling basis. Spend the lead time building proof: a remote Externship turns “interested in auto retail operations” into a finished project a spring 2027 application can point at.
About the Author
Bifei Wang has spent 17 years focused on human flow and the growth of young professionals, spanning international education, career training and coaching, and recruitment process outsourcing. Over 7 years at Extern, he has had one-on-one sessions with thousands of students exploring careers in consulting, finance, tech, marketing, and data, giving him a firsthand view of how the job market has shifted for early-career professionals and what it actually takes to break in.
