Pub. 12 2013-2014 Issue 2

N e w J e r s e y C o a l i t i o n O f A u t o m o t i v e R e t a i l e r s 7 new jersey auto retailer w w w . n j c a r . o r g NADA Director’s MESSAGE | BY Marcy H. Maguire Director’s Message  continued on page 9 New Orleans to Host 2014 NADA Convention & Expo The 97th annual NADA Convention & Expo will be held in New Orleans from Friday, January 24th thgouth Monday, January 27th. This will be the 10th time the Convention has been held in that city since 1973. With a renovated convention center, hotel, street and public transportation improvements and dozens of new restaurants, New Orleans will have something for everyone. The NADA Convention includes dealer-manufacturer franchise meetings, educational workshops, hundreds of exhibits on the Expo f loor and networking events. Online registration and housing is now open and several hotels have already sold out. For more information or to register, visit www.nadaconven- tion.org. Why the Dealer Franchise System Is Here to Stay Franchised auto dealers are on track to sell more than 15 mil- lion new cars and trucks this year, including a half million electric, natural gas, hybrid and other alternative technology vehicles. These businesses, the backbone of their communities, are leading the ongoing economic recovery. Franchised auto dealers employ nearly one million Americans, provide good jobs that can’t be shipped overseas and engage in robust market competition. For more than 100 years, automakers have contracted with fran- chised dealers to sell and service their vehicles for one simple reason – it’s the most efficient and cost ef- fective way of doing so. Franchised auto dealers’ cumula- tive investment in land, equipment and facilities ex- ceeds $200 bi l- lion – expenses that auto manu- facturers would otherwise have to incur. Some manufacturers have tried owning their own dealerships and failed. These experiments proved that factory stores did not deliver better customer service or reduce consumer costs. A question has been raised as to whether automakers should be licensed to sell vehicles directly to consumers. A better ques- tion is who should decide this licensing issue – and the answer is the states. States have the right to license lots of important retail industries and the states are best positioned to decide what level of accountability, regulation and competition is best for their citizens. Although all states regulate the auto retail marketplace, their approaches differ widely: many allow automakers to sell direct; others require a local licensee as an additional layer of accountability. This ref lects the fact that, when it comes to auto retailing, one size doesn’t fit all. It is easy to understand the rationale behind state laws that foster the presence of a well-capitalized, independent dealer net-