Speaking at the NADA Convention and Expo in San Francisco, the executive said that dealers have regained confidence in the market. This comes in the context of a market prediction that issued a 2011 expected sales figure of 13 million vehicles.
“We are on the way back. Our challenge now is to do everything in our power to keep things moving forward,” said Ed Tonkin, a multi-franchise dealer from Portland, Ore., who will end his term as NADA chairman Monday (February 7), being replaced by Utah dealer Stephen Wade.
Last year, Tonkin, who has been handling new car sales since 1981, led the association through multiple legislative and regulatory modifications, including the dealer's battle to keep dealer-assisted financing affordable and available when dealership F&I practices were threatened by the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill.
He explained that dealer's victories in 2010 doesn't mean that they can sit back and relax. Instead he sees these as a motivation to invest in the industry's future.
“The industry’s recovery seems real, because it’s based on vehicles that fuel the imagination,” he said.
However, Tonkin warned that proposals such as he Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to increase the fleet-average fuel economy standard to as much as 62 mpg by 2025 could "throw a roadblock in front of this recovery.”
“Dealers have long supported improving fuel economy, but we also know it must be based on sound public policy and not just wishful thinking,” the executive explained.
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