Reason for Optimism: NADA Leaner, but Dealers Ready for Action

Like so many of us in the industry, I didn’t attend the 2009 NADA Convention and Exposition in New Orleans. There was much gloom and doom in the industry for so many then. I did attend the NADA convention in Orlando, Fla., last month and was left feeling optimistic about the future of the car business in this country.

There was one notable absence. General Motors Corp. did not have a booth at the show. The now government-sponsored enterprise was apparently so disgruntled over NADA’s support of the move toward arbitration for its dealers who lost their GM franchises that it decided to back out of the show at the last minute. I believe this may have been the first time in NADA’s 100-year-plus history GM was not represented at the show. Are we living in bizarro world?

In any case, the show was notably smaller than in the heady days of 2007. There were fewer dealers, fewer vendors, fewer huge booths with gorgeous models. There was, however, more interest among the dealers looking for new ways to maintain and grow their business in what are still tumultuous times.

There was a tremendous amount of interest among dealers looking for information on how to get into the buy here-pay here business, training on how to grow their BHPH business and where to extract capital. Buy here-pay here was well-represented with several consultancies on hand, as well as the payment assurance firms and a few capital providers. One dealer I spoke with summed it up this way. “I have capital. I can’t get but a few percentage points from the banks, CDs or other investments. I don’t trust the guys on Wall Street anymore, and I understand the car business. Buy here-pay here seems to me the right move.”

There were two areas that were especially hot in my opinion. First, it was the inventory management firms such as FirstLook and vAuto. These two booths were busy the entire show. I know, because I tried to get into speak to the marketing people to try and get them to advertise in this magazine, but they were always busy. As a reporter, I did articles on both of these firms when they attended shows with tiny 10-by-10 booths just five or six years ago. At this show they had among the largest booths at the show except for the manufacturers and had a steady stream of dealer prospects.

Secondly, any vendor who had any product, software, CRM tool and anything associated with social networking. It seems the rush of consumers now on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter and smart phones has created a buzz all its own. Dealers wanted to learn and learn quickly how best to take advantage of this. I’m pretty sure social networking is here to stay, and dealers, judging by their interest, agree.

 Cars.com was on hand in a big way and held a press conference. The future of advertising on the interest is in video, according to their experts. Seems people really enjoy taking a walk around a vehicle and hearing its engine online before stopping by the dealership to kick the tires IRL. If you haven’t gotten the chance lately, stop by its dealer training Web site dealeradvantage.cars.com. (There’s no www in front of that by the way.) You’ll see they have tons of training videos there now. They’re short, sweet and to the point. Very useful.

Manheim, the nation’s largest auction chain, held a press conference where it announced the launch of Manheim Direct, a wholesale vehicle program that allows dealers and commercial consignors to sell inventory online without transporting vehicles to Manheim operating locations. Dean Eisner, Manheim CEO, said the move is in response to the needs of its customers. Eisner said there is no move by the firm to reduce the number of its brick and mortar auctions, but he did say the company is carefully watching industry trends. He said while he believes there will always be a need for physical sales, the company follow where the trends in the industry lead.

I was also able to attend a press conference with oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens. Pickens delivers an address to the assembled membership on his proposal to to convert the fleet of heavy-duty trucks over to liquified naural gas. He claims the move would dramatically reduce our dependance on imported foreign oil, while at the same time we can move to diversifying our energy infrasturcture to include wind, sold, nuclear and other alternative engergy sources. Pickens talk, in my opinion, was very well-received by the NADA members on hand.