March 2018 SDADA Column

South Dakota Automobile Dealers:

This is my final column as the South Dakota NADA Director so I want to start off by thanking you, my fellow dealers, for the opportunity to serve in that capacity for the past nearly 11 years. I appreciate the input, feedback and support you have given me as we worked together on the challenges facing the automotive industry both nationally and in our state.

I reflected upon the (over one hundred!) columns I have written during my tenure. What a long, strange trip it's been!

Among the challenges we faced together were: The Great Recession of 2008, CAFE Standards, Red Flags Rule, bridge loans for automakers, automaker bankruptcies, "Cash for Clunkers", facilities image programs, the Dodd-Frank bill and creation of the CFPB (and our exclusion from their oversight), navigating the barrage of Obama Administration regulations (Risk Based pricing, Privacy notices, etc.), the threat to repeal LIFO, stair step programs, electric cars, autonomous vehicles, disparate impact allegations, recalls and, most recently, tax reform.

June 2015 SDADA Column

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress. -Charles Kettering

The past 12 months have brought some of the most significant change in NADA’s history. For nearly a century, NADA has pioneered some of the most valuable services in the industry for its growing membership, right under its roof. These services include the NADA Used Car Guide, which has been part of NADA's heritage for more than 80 years, and NADART, founded in 1957.

No one ever imagined we would part with either one, and we would not have unless we firmly believed doing so would benefit our dealer members and advance NADA's core mission.

This was the case when J.D. Power made an unsolicited offer to purchase the Used Car Guide business. With a difficult decision at hand but unanimous consensus, the NADA board of directors, the Guide board of advisors and NADA's finance and executive committees, all agreed that the best course of action was to sell the Guide to J.D. Power.

This decision, which was not reached easily or without careful consideration, will benefit our dealer members and the Guide's current and future customers. The Guide business will continue to grow and become an even stronger industry resource under J.D. Power.  As part of its agreement with NADA, J.D. Power will continue to provide NADA members with a complimentary Guide subscription as a membership benefit.

In a move unrelated to Guide, after conducting an in-depth review of various retirement plan providers, NADA made a decision to enter into a relationship with Empower Retirement, a division of Great-West Life and Annuity Insurance Company, to offer retirement plans to NADA members.  Empower Retirement is the second-largest retirement plan provider in the United States with nearly 7 million participants. The new NADA Retirement Program from Empower will go live in October of 2015, as the long-standing NADART program is retired.

NADA Retirement Program participants can expect to see many enhanced benefits, including a nearly 50-percent reduction in program fees, a state-of-the-art website designed to make it easier for participants to track their progress in saving for retirement, and fiduciary support services at a level higher than those offered by other retirement service providers, which is a service already familiar to NADART plan sponsors. NADART has been working closely with Empower to ensure a streamlined transition process for plans transferring to Empower.

While it's difficult to see these long-time services, built over NADA's history, leave the NADA family, we look to the future with optimism and renewed vigor. And, as always, we will continue to guard the interests of the franchised dealers we are privileged to serve, while remaining steadfast to NADA's mission that began nearly 100 years ago.

Most importantly, these moves will allow NADA to become more mission-focused, centering on core member services, which include protecting and strengthening the dealer franchise system, advocating on behalf of new-car dealers with Congress, the regulatory agencies in Washington, manufacturers, the media and the public, providing education and training resources for dealers and their employees, and providing dealers with better tools to enhance profitability.

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It…)

Retiring General Motors director Neville Isdell says GM has come a long way since the bankruptcy and is in capable hands, but he sees the turnaround taking 10 years.

David Robertson, Executive Director of the Association of Finance & Insurance Professionals, calls out Senator Elizabeth Warren’s disdain for dealers.

While a former dealership employee says he doesn’t think auto dealers are half as bad as many consumers seem to think they are, the July/August issue of Popular Mechanics carries an article a bit more cynical about the dealership experience.

In a pilot program, Ford dealers’ will use beacons, which will broadcast key information to the customer’s smartphone that might help close a sale, on models featured in their showrooms.

GM dealers are concerned as EBE 2.0 looms ahead. GM’s Dealer-Succession Bulletin causes consternation as well.

And finally…


NADA responds to inaccurate and irresponsible New York Times editorial.

March Madness and My Road to the Final Four

As you may know, I am a regular attendee of college basketball's pinnacle, the Final Four. This year, my road to the Final Four at AT&T Stadium in Dallas may be a long and winding one.
I am a Creighton University alumnus and Bluejay basketball fan. I also represent South Dakota's new automobile dealers on our national association board of directors. These three interests converge over the next month to create a crazy, hectic road for me from Chamberlain, SD to Dallas, TX.
I have decided to blog daily about my road trip. It starts with a day at National Automobile Dealers Association committee meeting in Washington, DC. My family will then join me for the 4-day Big East Mens Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York.
From there I will trek across the county to Redondo Beach, CA for three days for a National Automobile Dealers Association Retirement Trust meeting. Following the NADART meeting, I plan to hit first and second round games wherever the Creighton Bluejays play. That will be 3+ days in one of eight cities - Buffalo, Orlando, Milwaukee, St. Louis, San Antonio, Spokane, Raleigh or San Diego. I won't know until Selection Sunday which is March 19. I currently have rooms booked in each of these cities.

So I will pack my bag for two weeks. It will be full of suits, dress shirts, ties and Creighton Bluejays apparel. Unfortunately, that is just a bit too long for me to travel by carry-on. I'll probably have to pack a little laundry soap as well!
I hope to update this blog at least daily and perhaps more often if events warrant it! So check back for updates.

GO JAYS!!!

Update: 10:30 AM EDT, 3/16/2014

So the trip to Washington, D.C. went fine and my meeting ended a bit early. I went to Union Station to see if I could get on a train for NYC earlier than the 5:00 PM train on which I was booked. I had read that Amtrak will allow you to move your time up and that's what happened to me.

I got on the 2:00 PM Acela Express and arrived at Penn Station in NYC shortly after 5:00 PM. After a rain soaked walk from Penn Station to my motel (about 4 blocks), I checked in, unpacked and checked on the arrival times of the rest of the family.

The South Dakota delegation was experiencing some delays but the DC group was set for an on time arrival. I call an old classmate that I knew was coming in for the games and we met up at on of the Bluejay bars.

Eventually we made our way to the Garden to watch the end of Seton Hall's victory over Butler and then saw DePaul upset Georgetown. After the games, we met up with daughter Rachel and son-in-law Andrew for a cocktail before calling it an evening.

The South Dakota delegation did not make it in on Wednesday evening and were scheduled to arrive late Thursday morning after another Delta disaster.

Thursday brought the late morning arrival of wife Judy, son Alex and daughter Sarah. After lunch at Greek Corner near our hotel, we decided to go the second afternoon game. We watch Seton Hall's upset of tournament top seed Villanova while at lunch. Providence out-battled St. John's in the second afternoon clash.

We grabbed some dinner between games and headed in to watch the Blujays' game with DePaul. The Jays took care of business and Xavier beat Marquette to set up a third Creighton/Xavier class of the year.

We did not get out of the basketball games until after midnight. Judy and Sarah we tired. Alex was ready to rally with a bunch of friends. We turned in for the evening while the night was just getting started for the rest of them.

On Friday, we played tourist. We walked up 7th Avenue to Times Square and then over to Rockefeller Center before making our way over to Brooklyn for our late afternoon dinner reservation at Peter Luger's steakhouse, which is one of my all-time favorite places.

Our group of 15 had a great meal and a wonderful time and unique dining experience. The steakhouse lived up to my very strong billing!!

It was off to the Creighton/Xavier game from there. The Jays had another strong performance and took care of the Musketeers before Providence ended the Seton Hall season. Again, Judy, Sarah and I were tired and the rest had to rally!

On Saturday morning we went to the 911 Memorial and Battery Park before making our way to Broadway to see an afternoon performance of The Book of Mormon. We all enjoyed the musical very much.

We hustled back to the Creighton team hotel (eventually taking 2 pedi-cabs) from the show to go to the Birds of Pray Creighton mass.

After mass, it was a quick dash through the pizza parlor on our way to the Garden for the championship game. Providence was in a "must win" situation to get into the NCAA tournament and they played like it. They executed a very shrewd game plan, slowed the game down and hit crucial shots.

Meanwhile, the Bluejays had tired legs and could not hit the crucial shots. The result was a disappointing 65-58 loss for the Jays.

The Creighton fans had nothing to hang their heads about though as their team played hard and in front of a staggering number of Bluejay faithful. Every other team in attendance was surprised and the number of fans who had made their way from Omaha and other points around the Midwest to follow their beloved Jays. It made it a lot of fun for all Bluejay fans.

We headed back to the motel to pack, knowing that the 6:00 AM wake up call would come too early. It did but we made it to Laguardia in plenty of time for Delta to delay our flights - mine to Minneapolis then Los Angeles and Judy, Alex and Sarah's to Minneapolis then Sioux Falls.

We all had a great time despite the championship game loss. It was great to spend time together as a family. It was fun to renew friendships with CU buddies for all of us. Especially enjoyed seeing my classmate Bryan Beam and his sister. Also had the son of another great Creighton friend join us for the weekend.

I am hoping to catch my connection to LA as I write this having sat at the LaGuardia gate for 45 minutes while mechanics were fixing the intercom.

Update 7:00 PM CDT, 3/25/2014

So I made my connection to Los Angeles in Minneapolis. I arrived in Los Angeles about 1:30 pm local time.

That gave me enough time to watch some basketball and time for a workout and before our dinner that evening.

We ate at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. Before dinner, we enjoyed quite a show. God was entertaining with a beautiful sunset, whales and dolphins. It was magnificent.

After a very nice dinner, we made our way back to our motel, The Portofino, in Redondo Beach. I was exhausted and ready to call it a night.

I had a golf game at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles the next morning. Trump National was a spectacular course in a breathtaking setting but it probably wasn't the place to play your first golf game of the season. Every teebox had a view of the ocean (and very little view of the fairway!).

We played on a perfect day, 72 degrees and a breeze blowing off the ocean. The huge American flag can be seen from every point on the golf course. I like that. The golf course is a true gem. It is everything you would expect in a championship course overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It did kick my ass!!!

That evening brought another nice dinner and an early bedtime - which was greatly appreciated as I was still somewhere between Eastern and Central Daylight time!

Wednesday was an all-day meeting followed by dinner at Jay Leno's The Comedy and Magic Club. It's a comedy club, so the tables are small and the food is mediocre. That seems to always be the case at these places. But the entertainment was great. I laughed for two hours straight.

The next day was a meeting until noon and then more golf. This time is was historic Palos Verdes Golf Club. Built in 1924, this course had beautiful ocean and mountain vistas throughout our round of golf. It was a much more forgiving course as well and I appreciated that so early in the golf season.

My golf partners for the two days were great. I enjoy golfing with someone who loves the game but does not take themselves too seriously. Jim, Jason and Jim were just that - great partners who loved golf and played quite well.

After an informal dinner with some NADART friends who were still in town, I moved to the Hampton Inn near the airport since I had a 6:00 am flight the next morning.

My flight to San Antonio was early but went well. I made my connection in Salt Lake City and arrived in San Antonio about 1:30 CDT. I rode to our downtown hotel with cabbie Martin who turned out to be our escort for the weekend.

I knew that rides to and from the AT&T Arena were going to be a challenge so I talked to Martin about taking care of us. He did just that for our entire stay in San Antonio including a ride to the airport for Alex and then me on Monday after the basketball games.

Since Rachel and Andrew and Alex did not arrive until later that evening, I had the day to myself. After doing some laundry (a must on a two-week trip), I headed for the Riverwalk. I found a sports bar and planted myself at the bar for the evening.

While patrons would come and go, I could strike up a conversation with anyone about college basketball as I sat there watching three televisions. The cocktails were good, the food was adequate and the view of the basketball games was tremendous. I was happy!

Both of the flights made it in on time and we all met up at the Doubletree Hotel bar where we were staying. Everyone was tired but ready for some Bluejay basketball.

We got going late the next morning and took off for the arena at about 10:30 am. Nebraska and Baylor tipped at 11:45 and we wanted to watch it all.

Baylor beat Nebraska in a very ugly basketball game. Creighton took care of business against Louisiana-Lafayette to set up a matchup on Sunday against Baylor which scared me right after seeing Baylor play. They were long and athletic, just the combo to cause a matchup problem for the Bluejays.

After a break at the only sports bar for miles between sessions, Alex and made our way back for the Providence/North Carolina game. That was a great game as UNC pulled it out at the end. Iowa State took care of business against North Carolina Central setting up a UNC/ISU matchup on Sunday.

We met up with Rachel and Andrew, who went out to dinner with some friends who drove down from Austin, for a nitecap at the hotel bar. We caught the last two games of the evening on TV.

Saturday was a fun day in San Antonio. We started at the Alamo, followed by lunch at a other sports bar on the Riverwalk with some Creighton friends. Next we went to the smoke shop to get some cigars (which we never smoked) and then to Pat O'Brien's piano bar for music and mint juleps.

Then it was back to the Riverwalk to the Creighton bar for a pep rally followed by a walk to Mi Tierra, a rather famous San Antonio Mexican restaurant. By then, we had all had enough to eat and drink and we turned in for the evening.

Sunday was game day - Bluejays and Baylor. We had lunch and watch games at a great bar called The Esquire. Excellent traditional cocktails and original cocktails were their specialty. The cocktail perfectionist would appreciate the big square ice cubes that started every drink. I enjoyed watching the mixologists who only mixed cocktails - they were not distracted by taking orders from the patrons. Other servers handled that task. I highly recommend The Esquire if you get to San Antonio.

From ther, we made our wat to the AT&T Arena - the site of the masacre. Unfortunately, the Baylor Bears mauled the Bluejays. It was a tough matchup for Creighton but they did not have their "A" game that night and the final 30-point margin reflected that.

I will save my reflections of the Bluejays magical season for another post but you can find Coach McDermott's post-game talk to the team here and a good analysis of how most Bluejays fans felt after the game here.

We had a post-game meal at Mi Tierra and then back to the motel. Alex had an early 6:00 AM flight and Rachel and Andrew had a 9:00 AM flight. I did not fly out until 2:40 PM and went home by way of Atlanta. I arrived back to Sioux Falls at 9:20 PM completing my 13-day junket.

Delta had totally destroyed my bag on the NYC-LAX leg of the trip but I felt more wiped out than my bag looked. It was great to sleep in my own bed!

October 2011 SDADA Column

Stephen Wade has spoken several times in the past two weeks about the NADA-commissioned independent study on factors that drive return on investment, specifically as it relates to facilities. Currently, there is considerable “buzz” in the automotive press about this study which is expected to be completed by year-end.

Manufacturers often justify image programs on the grounds that “the store image must support the brand” and “customers expect all our stores to offer a similar look and feel.” But there’s little hard evidence of the return on investment of such spending, to either the OEM or the dealer. As a result, we dealers make facility investment decisions based on subjective factors, such as opinions and personalities, which – as you know – is no way to run a business.

NADA expects the study’s findings to be of use to dealers and OEMs alike, by moving the facilities debate away from opinion and assertion and more toward facts and data. Hopefully, the results of this study will put dealers like you and me in a better position to make informed, rational decisions about our facilities.

NADART

I just returned from Washington, DC (for the second time in five weeks - lucky me!) where I attended my first NADART Board of Directors meeting. I was just elected to this board in September.

NADART provides full service, low cost retirement plans - including 401(k), pension and profit-sharing options with available features such as automatic enrollment, Roth contributions, new comparability consulting and a low cost, flexible fee structure. NADART has offered retirement plan solutions to NADA members since 1957.

Recently, the scope of NADART’s business has expanded beyond the auto industry and it now provides retirement plan services to a wide variety of small businesses and organizations, as well as many larger businesses. Employers choosing a NADART employee retirement plan receive exceptional value at a low cost.

As I see it, there are two questions any dealer who does not currently sponsor a NADART plan might have. First, why should I offer a qualified retirement plan to my employees? The right employee retirement plan can help you attract and keep qualified employees and it can help secure your own retirement by building some net worth outside of the automobile business.

Secondly, why sponsor a NADART plan? NADART retirement plans are offered at costs that are much lower than competitors with comparable services. NADART services include 24 hour a day account access, on-site consulting service, complete plan administration services, low-cost educational workshops and a toll-free information hotline.

I’m sure some of you are using a plan offered by a customer or someone you know in your community. That’s what I did for some time. But I can assure you that it is worth your time to take a look at NADART’s programs. I saved a lot of money and my employees are “completely satisfied”(!) with NADART.

Approximately 2,000 automobile dealers and 90,000 participants use NADART for their retirement plan needs. If you have questions, call NADART at (800) 462-3278. If you know other small businesspersons who may considering sponsoring a qualified retirement plan for their employees, do them a favor and have them call that number. Please feel free to call me if I can be a resource in any way.

NADA, ATD Using Technology to Enhance Convention Experience

The NADA-ATD Convention is fast approaching and this year it will feature several enhancements to dealers’ convention experience, including:

- A NADA Convention and Expo Smartphone App that will put the entire convention website at your fingertips

- Interactive displays throughout the convention center that will allow you to search for workshops, franchise meetings and exhibitors using a quick and easy touch screen

- A Social Connection Zone featuring a high-end lounge with a social media wall, comfy chairs, coffee, free wireless Internet and recharging stations

- MyNADAPlanner, the convention tool that allows you to select workshops, note times of franchise meetings, schedule meetings with exhibitors and create a road map to the convention before even leaving the dealership

Convention registration is brisk, with five hotels already sold out. Remember to secure your airline reservations early. The convention coincides with the Super Bowl and that may make flights difficult. Register today at www.nadaconventionandexpo.org.