When Bill Wolters retired, Whitehurst inherited a seasoned team with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the franchised dealer system. “And we have some of the most fantastic dealers in the country, here in Texas,” Whitehurst boasts. “The association had built a lot of goodwill, particularly at the local level regarding community involvement. That’s one of the reasons they are successful at the Capitol because all politics ultimately are local and so that really benefits dealers because they are so generous and involved with their communities.” When it comes to policy concerns of chief importance, dealers are most likely to start off with the direct sale issue, and what’s going on in the EV marketplace. Dealers appreciate the technology, but any desire to sell vehicles directly is not legal in Texas and would move the automobile industry toward monopolistic behavior, costing the consumer more money and limiting service and warranty protections. According to Whitehurst, “for the dealers, the relationship goes beyond just selling the initial sale of the vehicle — it extends to what happens after the customer takes the vehicle home and something goes wrong or there is a recall.” Another issue is the chip shortage, which is resulting in the lack of inventory and what dealers have available to sell. Beyond chips, parts are incredibly important to servicing these vehicles and there is a severe shortage of parts. Additionally, there are issues relating to warranty work that dealers perform on vehicles which are under a manufacturer warranty. “Often there are disagreements on what the manufacturer should be paying to the dealer as far as warranty,” says Whitehurst. “Our statute does spell out what Manufacturers are supposed to be paying but it doesn’t always happen. Ultimately the dealer serves as an advocate for the consumer in dealing with the manufacturers.” Texas automobile dealers are licensed to provide ‘temp tags’ for vehicles until they get their permanent plates. But there has recently been significant fraud and abuse that has occurred on the used car side. People who are not actually dealers are being licensed as used car dealers and then printing thousands of tags that are being used for criminal activity. TADA is working with the regulatory agency on solutions to curtail giving temporary tag access to these individuals while not burdening the legitimate dealers who are providing a service to the customer. According to Whitehurst, “The county Tax AssessorCollectors are responsible for titling and registering vehicles. During the pandemic, we ran into problems, especially with some of the larger counties, in getting them processed in a timely manner. They’ve tried to set up a system that allows the dealers to go outside of their county of origin to try to get those tags quicker from another county if they are willing to accept and process the transaction.” TADA also worked on legislation that would require insurance companies to pay for manufacturer parts, rather than aftermarket parts that may not be as effective. From a consumer perspective, if you put an aftermarket part that does not meet manufacturer specifications on a vehicle, you may be decreasing the value of that vehicle as well as making it less safe. The Texas legislature only meets every other year, so TADA’s legislative committee will continue talking about the priorities they see for the association and what they believe it should be focused on for the next legislative session in 2023. The actions TADA takes in the legislature are driven by the association’s legislative committee and board of directors. Whitehurst acknowledges, “We have a lot of multigenerational dealer families in the state that have ownership interest in dealerships. In all, there are about 1,400 dealerships in Texas ranging from large organizations like Group 1, Berkshire Hathaway, AutoNation, and Lithia that have multiple dealerships, to family-run dealerships. We support them all. We operate a Texas Dealer Academy that focuses on developing younger dealers and providing them with a forum to build relationships and obtain insights and tools they can use in their daily work. At the end of the day, we’re going to work on issues that are important to our dealers and we take input from all of our dealer groups. That’s how we’re trying to create a collaborative atmosphere for sharing information on best practices and what’s going on at the grassroots level.” The Texas legislature only meets every other year, so TADA’s legislative committee will continue talking about the priorities they see for the association and what they believe it should be focused on for the next legislative session in 2023. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE — CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 7 SUMMER 2022
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