NADA Convention and Exposition

“One thing I would not do is fragment between EVs and ICE,” says AutoNation CEO Mike Manley, a former auto executive.

“We are going from a day when people said, ‘Oh, I don’t want you to have my data,’ to ‘OK, you can use it if it is to my benefit,’” says Ida McKinley of GM Financial.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “is where it is happening,” American Financial Services Assn.’s Celia Winslow says of Washington concerns.

“The mission at NADA stays the same,” Stanton says. “We work for the dealer. We’re here to strengthen the franchise system, to help educate and advocate for the dealer business.”

Incoming NADA Chairman Paul Walser talks with Wards about handling COVID, improving dealer diversity, recasting incentives, NADA’s virtual Conference & Expo Feb. 9-11 and the auto industry’s need to view the world through consumers’ eyes.

“No playbook was ever written for 2020,” says Rhett Ricart, outgoing NADA chairman. “No one could have envisioned the strongest disrupter ever: COVID.”

“You have to realize you are representing 17,000 dealers, and your view on a particular topic is not necessarily NADA’s,” says Wes Lutz, the trade group’s 2018 chairman.