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Dealers frustrated by the scarcity of willing lenders in the auto industry should head south this summer – to the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s convention in Orlando, Fla.
Mike Linn, NIADA executive vice president, said the convention will focus on helping dealers improve their business, as it always does.
“We’ve given dealers something they really need, which are lenders,” he said.
The NIADA has 25 creditors confirmed for the event, with another half dozen anticipated.
Linn said the effort follows an event in March at Columbus Fair Auto Auction in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by NIADA General Counsel Keith Whann. Whann unveiled a program called “The Car Counselor’s TARP (Together Automotive Retailing Prospers)” spotlighting lenders and promoting the strength of the used-car industry while throwing a jab at the government’s bailout program.
The idea will be revamped for the national convention on June 25 with a lenders-only program, followed by a lenders/dealers special session later that day.
Over the past year, the most frequent request from dealers has been about finding lenders in the full spectrum, from floor planners to consumer creditors.
Linn expects more than 1,000 attendees and more than 100 vendors, despite the upheaval in the auto industry,
Dealers will hear a lot of information on federal and regulatory changes going on, Linn said.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 21 years,” Linn said, “and I would say that the legislative activity coming out of this administration and Congress is probably the most I’ve ever seen.”
The NIADA has also been getting calls every day from former Chrysler dealers interested in joining the association as they transition to the used-car business, Linn said.
Surprisingly, the economic downturn hasn’t carved much into NIADA’s membership, Linn said. The NIADA is only a few hundred members short of its membership in 2006 of 19,711.
Overall, the total number of independent dealers has dropped steadily over the past decade, he said.
Linn believes that as dealers go out of business, the cream rises to the top so the dealers left form a stronger body. |
