In a team of dealer advocates, Jim Appleton has always stood out.

Not just for his record, his command of the issues, or even his presence — which is big and bold. In my mind, Jim has always stood out for his foresight and his straight talk.

One of the things I most like about Jim has been his unyielding directness. That is an admirable trait. I have witnessed first-hand how well it has served the dealers of New Jersey, dealers across the country, and NADA.

We have always known exactly where Jim stands, and we have always known where Jim thinks we should stand as an industry.

Two examples come to mind to illustrate these traits. About 10 years ago, at the peak of the first wave of incoming Teslas and the sudden universe of direct-sales advocates — Jim was one of the first to see clearly that one of our biggest assets in fighting the direct-sales fervor was hiding in plain sight: the traditional OEMs themselves.

Jim knew instinctively what value franchised dealers added to all automakers. And he flagged how important it was to get those automakers to say so publicly. Certainly, that has been no easy task for any of us, but Jim was 100% right to start us on that path.

Not too long after, Jim clearly saw how the regulatory landscape was going to incentivize automakers to make big, permanent investments in EVs — and how dealers were going to have to go along for the ride. Jim saw the importance of demonstrating that dealers were essential to anyone’s goal of selling more electric vehicles. His vision was instrumental in New Jersey and in helping NADA to start asserting our EV messaging.

Jim Appleton is one of a kind, and he will be missed. But the work Jim has done will serve New Jersey and America’s franchised dealers for a very, very long time. For that, we are extremely fortunate.

On behalf of everyone at NADA, I wish Jim a very well-earned and incredibly happy retirement.