The TADA Legislative Committee is preparing for the numerous challenges facing automotive dealers in the upcoming session, but we need your help to be successful in 2025. At the end of the day, all politics are local. Texas dealers have always enjoyed fantastic relationships with their local and statewide elected officials. With both the soon-to-be legislators and long-time elected officials, I want to encourage you to continue this effort. Reach out and be a resource for your local legislator. Host your legislators out at your dealership and show them the work that your employee family does to keep your business running and highlight your involvement in the community. Show legislators your service departments and talk to them about your employee training efforts and staff retention. It is so valuable to the elected officials and to our industry to have you host these meetings. If you need help making the contact, TADA is here to help. On the legal front, there is a lot of activity, one focused at the state level, the other involving the federal government. There is a direct challenge to the state’s franchise laws which currently prohibit direct sales by manufacturers. At the federal level, the FTC has proposed new rules to establish more requirements on the sale, financing and leasing of new and used vehicles by motor vehicle dealers. Both cases are slowly winding their way through the legal system and TADA will keep you up to date as more information becomes available. On the regulatory front, there are numerous activities taking place at the Texas DMV and the OCCC — too numerous to list here. I would like to reference a couple of the ones that have attracted recent attention. The first is the backlog in getting your dealer license renewed. Several bulletins have gone out highlighting the problem, and TADA would encourage you to submit your application early until the DMV is able to catch up on the backlog. The second is the elimination of the temporary tag and the requirement that dealers hard plate all vehicles in the future, which was passed by the Texas Legislature last session. The DMV is working hard on proposed rules which will be unveiled later this fall. Since the final rules aren’t scheduled to take effect until July 2025, there will be an opportunity next session to work on revisions to this new law. Finally, TADA’s efforts in all these areas would not be possible without the extraordinary work of our dealers. The franchise dealer system provides a robust network of vehicle sales and service outlets throughout our state that benefits Texas consumers and ensures the quality of life and safety on the highways for thirty million Texans. We know so many of you do so much good in your community every day. I want to thank you for your work and would ask that you share these endeavors and successes on your own social media and/or that you send them to TADA to share. I know you don’t do this for the credit, but it is important politically to be sure that our elected officials know just how deeply invested you are in your community. Each of you has done so much to make Texas a better place to be for future generations. Let’s continue to highlight these great achievements, both big and small! Continued from page 6 DEALERS’ CHOICE 8
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