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Braman, a tall, lanky man with a shock of white hair, goes to his dealership office every day. Retirement is nowhere on his to-do list.

He starts his day about 6:30 a.m. with an hour of exercising and stretching, then arrives at the dealership about 9:30. Two afternoons a week he takes in a Pilates class.

"I've got two artificial knees and an artificial hip, so it's important for me to keep myself moving," Braman says.

He is bullish about the future. Although U.S. light-vehicle sales growth is expected to slow, Braman is making no contingency plans. "We have confidence in our business, we have confidence in the markets where we're located and I have confidence in the products we represent," he says.

By the end of 2018, he expects to have spent about $200 million to cover a round of dealership renovations and new constructions that started in 2014.

Braman recently completed construction of a new BMW dealership in Jupiter, Fla., and a new Audi dealership in West Palm Beach. He plans to break ground on a new Porsche dealership in West Palm Beach this month. Next year he will build new dealerships for his Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Mini franchises in West Palm Beach and for his Porsche franchise in Denver.

"We're constantly investing in our facilities and investing in technology," he says.

But the decision to build gleaming new stores should be the dealer's, he insists. That's just one area where he resents automaker interference.

Braman says automakers try to "micromanage" dealers by squeezing margins and then replacing them with bonuses that are tied to mandatory facility upgrades and sales quotas.

In January 2012, Braman filed a lawsuit against General Motors, saying the automaker wrongly cut off bonus payments to his Miami Cadillac store in 2011 after the parties reached an impasse on store renovations. He says GM's pulling his bonus payments, while continuing to make payments to other Cadillac dealerships, resulted in two-tier pricing, a violation of the federal Robinson-Patman Act.

The suit was seen by other dealers as a potentially precedent-setting test case on the legality of automakers' dealership renovation programs that pay volume-based bonuses to participating dealerships. But almost 18 months later, Braman and GM settled.

He declines to speak about the settlement's undisclosed terms but still contends that the practice, as outlined in the suit, is wrong.

Dealers have demonstrated their ability to market and sell vehicles profitably. When manufacturers intrude into dealers' businesses, is not good for consumers, dealers or manufacturers, he says. "It is a dangerous practice and I will do everything I possibly can to oppose it."

Braman's life story is the stuff of the American dream.

The son of immigrants from Poland and Romania, Braman graduated from public high school and Temple University. After working briefly at Seagram Distillers as a marketing analyst, he came to own a chain of health and beauty aid stores that he merged with a Philadelphia pharmaceutical company, becoming its president.

In 1969, Braman, then 36, sold his interest in the pharmaceuticals company and moved with his wife and two young daughters to Miami to retire.

He wound up investing in Braun Cadillac, in Orlando, and Sharpe Taylor Cadillac, in Tampa. In 1975, he purchased Nolan Brown Cadillac in Miami and renamed it Braman Cadillac. He sold his interests in the Orlando and Tampa stores.

The business was profitable, but Braman was not satisfied. So he turned to New York dealer Victor Potamkin for advice.

He visited Potamkin many times, studying his operations and implementing some of Potamkin's marketing techniques. Braman credits the lessons with boosting his sales at the Cadillac store to 200 units a month from 50.

The business continued to grow. In 2015, Braman Dealerships sold 24,085 new vehicles.

Not all of Braman's business forays succeeded.

From 1985-94, he owned the Philadelphia Eagles. Braman says purchasing the team "was an emotional decision" -- as a teen, he had been a water boy for the Eagles -- that "should have never happened."

The team consumed him. When it lost a game, he "didn't sleep for a week." When it won, he "was keyed up for three days." After experiencing health issues, he decided in 1991 he needed to sell the team to reduce his stress, "but it took me a couple of years to do it."

More satisfying has been his philanthropic endeavors and his art collection.

For example, Braman paid for the college educations of 70 students as a sponsor of Miami's "I Have a Dream" Foundation. He also donated money that established the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute, part of the University of Miami Health System.

The Braman art collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Alexander Calder.

Braman and his wife Irma, another art lover, are paying for the building of the Institute of Contemporary Art in downtown Miami, scheduled to open in 2017 under the auspices of a board of directors. Braman is also chairman of Art Basel, an annual weeklong series of art events in Miami Beach.