Pub. 3 2022 Issue 2

VIRGINIA AUTO DEALER vada.com 2 A Message From President and CEO Don Hall In our latest issue of Virginia Auto Dealer magazine, we’re bringing some of the highlights of our work in recent months and perspectives around what’s to come in retail automotive. Amid the aftermath of COVID, supply chain woes, record inflation, and the evolving transformation of the very engines that have powered your business for over a century, this is one of the most interesting times in our history. “In my 20-plus years of doing this, this is the most dynamic time in the industry,” Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Automotive Analyst Kevin Tynan told us this summer. And he’s been analyzing auto retail since post-9/11 and through the Recession. “The changes that we’ve seen in the dynamics of the auto industry, specifically in the U.S., are metrics and data points reading in ways I never thought I would see.” And amid the inventory and economic challenges are proposed sales concepts that threaten the very foundations of the franchise system. Specifically, the “agency model” proposed by some manufacturers would centralize all sales and marketing, with vehicle shipment to the dealer only once it is sold to the end user (via an online sale) and In the End, Customer Service Wins

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