Another Great Story From A Dealer’s Journal

A Newbie’s day at the 62nd annual NADA Expo
By: M.J. Porter

WOW! AMAZING! MASSIVE! Those were just some of the words running through my mind as I entered the 62nd annual NADA expo in Orlando with my Publisher, Michelle Dones of “A Dealer’s Journal.” Our morning began with a band marching down Expo Main Street playing “When the Saints Go Marching In” to kick off the convention. The floor was lined with hundreds of booths representing more than 30 categories of related auto accoutrements- a dealer’s shopping paradise.
Our first stop was a lift – the unveiling of Rotary Lift’s new “Y” to increase dealer productivity and profitability. The company is celebrating 85 years by demonstrating its new Y and 15 years of global sales from Algeria to Russia of its Smart Lift, a popular green product to prevent ground contamination. The campaign includes a giveaway of its 50,000th Smart Lift and the company’s online educational programs for architects. This was the first of many new unveilings and new products on the market for dealers to choose and use. Next it was time to get an update on the auto marketplace at a press conference with Manheim executives. With a goal of helping dealers succeed, they offered pearls of wisdom for problem solving and competition. The good news is they see a trend for an improving market after franchise’s toughest years in 2008-9 with a return to the previous peak of 2007 in the year 2013. The speakers stressed the ideas of trust and safety for the marketplace.
Our next stop was a visit with Jim Irish of MobilTrak and the unveiling of his new InstaVIN, but more about that in another article. As we continued our walk around the floor, we noticed larger numbers of browsers than when we arrived. Then an amazing “Dodge Challenger” caught our attention and we stopped to talk with its creators at Hurst Performance Vehicles. With more than 50 years in the automotive performance arena, their focus is now on “Gentlemen’s Hot Rods” and some charitable works. Company chairman Nate Shelton said their sales of two vehicles last year netted more than 200k to charities and publicity with a Mustang, the Hurst Official Pace Car for Ford Racing Mustang Challenge. Hurst offers cars for me and everyone to dream about owning.
The blinking lights and bright colorful booths were replaced by the relaxing sounds of Caribbean music and food inviting time for a sit down break. Michelle, a veteran of numerous auction and other expos, said, “I wasn’t expecting it to be so big with so many attending.”
After resting, we decided to do a walkabout of all the booths and see some of the fun stuff for everyone. We found author Mark Ragsdale, one of “A Dealer’s Journal” more popular contributors, busily autographing copies of his new book, “Car Wreck: How You Got Rear-Ended, Run-Over & Crushed by the U.S. Auto Industry.”
By this time, the expo was in full swing and thousands of attendees were carrying bags full of goodies, stopping to chat over coffee, checking out the new products or having a seated chair massage or mechanical foot massage. Numerous booths caught our eyes and we stopped for chats. Of course the Talent+ was an interesting one where Mark W. Juron offered some insight into choosing talented employees via interview processes specific to profit center manager, sales, customer development and service to build top-performing dealerships.
With so much info on the net, dealers unable to attend this amazing event can visit NADAFrontPage.com for up to the minute auto news in detail and plan to attend the next event Feb. 2-5, 2011 in San Francisco. Can we go boss?