Digital Dealer - May 2018 - 31

In the following interview, Lee, a
former television and ad agency executive, shares his unique perspectives on marketing in today's digital
world. He also talks about legal
issues important to the survival of
the dealers and why he is a strong
believer in the franchise system.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTOPHER APPOLDT

THANK YOU FOR AGREEING
TO TALK WITH US TODAY, LEE.
YOU CURRENTLY SERVE AS
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
FOR THE GREATER NEW YORK
AUTOMOBILE DEALERS ASSOCIATION (GNYADA). COULD
YOU START BY TELLING US
MORE ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION AND WHAT IT DOES FOR
CAR DEALERS?

The purpose of the association
is to represent franchised new car
and truck dealers and their interests
in the greater New York City area
advocating a pro-business agenda in
state and local legislature. Educating lawmakers and opinion formers
on the complexity of our business is
a large component of our advocacy
work.
I think it's important for organizations and dealers to support their
associations in order to maintain
strong dealer franchise laws. There
are thousands of individuals in this
country who have spent a lot of time
and invested a lot of capital in real
estate and buildings, people and
processes, and machinery and fixed
assets to set up dealerships to provide manufacturers with the ability
to market and sell their vehicles. It's
very important that dealers have a
strong franchise bill to protect their
investments because the market
changes all the time. It would be a
terrible thing if the manufacturers
bypass the dealer system and decide
to sell directly. I don't believe it
would serve the consumers very well
and I think it would be very harmful
to the market. I am completely
supportive of very strong dealer
franchise bills.
We are dealing with a number of
issues in our area that I'm sure res-

onate with dealers around the country. Sometimes New York presents
unique challenges, but most our
issues are the same as other dealers
around the country. In New York,
they are just magnified a little!
One issue we are dealing with
right now is an explosion of unregulated auto brokers. In some areas
there are more brokers than actual
dealers. The odd thing is people
buying cars from unregulated brokers, who are not part of the franchise system that dealers participate
in, often pay more than if they had
gone to a franchise dealer and that's
the crazy thing.
Another issue of importance for
our members is the used car recall
situation. Since 1968 the federal
government requires manufacturers to pay 1% per month on new
vehicles that have a stop-sell order
against them because of a recall,
but there is no such provision for
used cars. Without the provision,
manufacturers have no incentive to
assist the dealer to find a solution
to fix in a timely manner. This can
end up costing dealers and customers hundreds or even thousands of
dollars on each car, so in New York,
we're working hard to get a used car
recall bill passed. The cars are depreciating. We can't take them in as
trade-ins from consumers, because
we don't know what kind of number
to put on the car, or what it's going
to be worth. Those cars could sit
around for months, with dealers unable to sell them while tying up their
capital. So, it's important to keep
the manufacturers motivated on
getting fixes for used cars as quickly
as they do for new cars.
Most importantly for New York,
we need to get our documentation fees raised. We're the second
lowest in the country, at $75. It's
not a profit center for dealerships;
it's actually an expense. I think it's
important for dealerships in New
York state to be compensated for
the work they do, in providing DMV
paperwork and plates to custom-

ers. We have not had a fee raise in
almost a decade.

I'D LIKE TO BACK UP FOR
A MINUTE AND ASK ABOUT
YOUR BACKGROUND. WHERE
DID YOU GET YOUR START,
AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE
TO BECOME A DEALER?

I'm a third-generation auto
dealer. My grandfather owned a
Chrysler - Plymouth dealership in
Brooklyn in the early forties and
my father was a Pontiac dealer on
Long Island by the time he turned
25. He had Chrysler-Plymouth in
1954 and subsequently picked up
Pontiac in 1964. Through the 1970s
we had a bunch of imports including Triumph, MG and Jaguar and
even Subaru, at one point. Those
were crazy times and over the years
we either sold the franchise or they
stop selling cars in the U.S. We took
on Honda in 1971 and by 1999 we
became a single-line Honda dealer;
the oldest Honda dealership on
Long Island.
I came into the industry in 1995,
at the age of 34, after working
in the television and advertising
industries. After college, I joined
CBS and then ABC Television and
then to J. Walter Thompson to
work in advertising in New York. I
later returned to CBS where I was
the director of affiliate relations.
In 1994 CBS was in transition and
they were just starting to talk about
the "information highway." At that
point, there was no clear path about
the direction that television and the
internet would make and, recently
married and with a young baby, I
decided that the time might be right
to strike out on my own. My father,
after 40 years in the business, was
ready to slow down and I was ready
for a new challenge.

WHAT WAS THE
TRANSITION LIKE, MOVING
FROM WORKING IN TV TO
OWNING A DEALERSHIP?

Interestingly, there are similarities with the relationship between

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

Continued on pg. 32
M AY 2 0 1 8

http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - May 2018