NADA works closely with the halls of power at both the federal and state levels

In 1917, the year it was founded, NADA successfully pushed Congress to reduce a proposed excise tax on cars to 3 percent from 5 percent.

Lobbying has been in NADA's blood ever since.

The victories over those decades have been many, including a successful effort in Congress to limit the reach of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and a ruling from federal regulators that lets dealers get around strict provisions of the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry.

There also have been defeats, including unsuccessful efforts so far to roll back federal fuel economy standards.

Dave Regan, NADA's executive vice president for legislative affairs, says the group's mission in Washington is twofold: educating members of Congress on how the auto retailing industry functions and working the halls of power to check the power of government over the industry.

"We do substance, and then we do politics," Regan says. "Much of our educational efforts are really a function of helping members of Congress and staff look at potential issues and understand the unintended consequences of a legislative proposal.

"The highest and best use is to spot unintended consequences and bring them to the attention of members and staff so Congress gets it right from the start," he says.

Andy Koblenz, NADA's executive vice president for legal and regulatory affairs, says winning congressional support for NADA's position on, say, regulating indirect lending requires a "methodical, office-by-office educational effort to explain the indirect-lending model."

Indeed, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., himself an auto dealer, says many Capitol Hill colleagues don't understand the business model of auto retailing and thus make poor policy decisions. 

"I'm looking at members of Congress who wouldn't have an idea, not a clue about such issues as estate taxes or running a business," says Kelly, cofounder of the bipartisan House Automotive Caucus. "Everything we decide on is influenced by people who put information in. It's critical for our industry to make sure they're meeting with members of Congress, meeting with their staff. Did they really understand or just give you the bobblehead nod?" 

That's true at the agency level as well, Koblenz says. 

"Our function is to represent the interests of the franchised dealers, to make sure the agencies understand how the markets operate," he says. "Regulators, at least initially, don't understand how an industry operates. Regulators aren't elected" and thus are "a little less focused on politics and a little bit more focused on policy." 

In the aftermath of the 2003 law that created the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry, for example, NADA wanted to ensure that dealers would be allowed to phone customers to bring in their vehicles for recall work. 

In 2005, NADA successfully petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to clarify that such calls wouldn't be a violation. A decade later, awash in recalls for millions of vehicles, manufacturers initially denied dealers access to customers' phone numbers. But the dealers prevailed after showing the FCC ruling to the automakers, Regan says. 

He also cites a provision in the 2004 Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act that NADA found confusing on the question of whether the offer of credit at a higher interest rate, rather than denial of credit, constitutes an adverse action. 

While the congressional goal was a good idea, it couldn't be implemented as written, Regan says. "We were able to convince the [FTC] to provide a compliance mechanism that works in the marketplace," he says.

There's overlap between the two spheres: As Regan puts it: "We frequently are looking for a little congressional oversight to make sure the regulatory bodies are not outside the scope of what Congress authorized them to do.

"Effective congressional oversight is a very, very powerful tool but it's fact-driven grunt work. It's really difficult to do," he adds. "If there are instances where we think agencies are acting far afield from the statutes," NADA will ask Congress "to rein them in."

Jack Gillis, director of public affairs at the Consumer Federation of America, describes NADA as a lobbying "powerhouse." But he says the results of its efforts haven't always been victories for the buying public.

On the federal level, Gillis says, "they have successfully exempted themselves from many of the requirements for auto loans that are in place with other types of loans, which is terrible, because the majority of us need an auto loan when we go to buy a car."

NADA's biggest ongoing run-in with regulators involves the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

NADA helped secure an amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law to let the FTC continue regulating dealership lending, rather than putting it under the watch of the CFPB. But the CFPB has challenged auto dealers over what it sees as patterns of bias in setting interest rates on auto loans that dealers negotiate for customers.

"We came up against a new agency with an extraordinary, broad grant from Congress, but that grant of authority doesn't cover dealers," Regan says.

When NADA felt the CFPB was becoming "more aggressive in its enforcement-driven policy," he says, it asked members of Congress to send the agency letters of inquiry.

Koblenz says the agency -- "unfortunately" -- continues to pursue its policy. "We've been engaging with the agency and using some congressional oversight."

Lobbying is expensive. In 2015, NADA reported spending nearly $4 million on lobbying, up from $3.2 million a year earlier, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Other tools that give political clout to the association include the NADA PAC -- which contributed more than $2.7 million to federal candidates as of Dec. 9, after the 2016 election cycle, according to the center -- and the presence of dealers in Congress.

At the same time, the patchwork of state franchise laws limits NADA's ability to seek federal solutions to dealers' problems.

Consider the 1956 Automobile Dealers Day in Court Act. After it became law, dealers recognized that the federal remedy was inadequate to protect them in their battles with manufacturers. As a result, dealers successfully lobbied state lawmakers for stronger franchise laws.

"The network of state franchise laws is incredibly important because there is an inherent disparity" in power between dealers and manufacturers, even with the largest dealers, Regan says.

Gillis of the Consumer Federation of America calls NADA "probably one of the most effective lobbying groups in the country, both on the federal and the state level," but he adds that dealers "are likely more effective on the state level."

For example, on direct factory-to-consumer sales, he says, consumer advocates were "crushed by dealer groups" in a number of state legislatures that either affirmed or strengthened franchise laws.

Part of NADA's regulatory strategy is to avoid regulation.

"Sometimes the biggest challenge we have is not to get something done but to explain why there's no need for regulation," Koblenz says. "Often successes are found in things that don't happen."

To illustrate, he cites the motor vehicle roundtables and a "soup-to-nuts review of auto retailing and especially financing" that the FTC began in 2011 "to see if there were problems and whether they should use their regulatory authority.

"We participated extensively in these roundtables and had representation in virtually every panel," Koblenz says. "After 13 panels and hours and days of open hearings, the FTC did nothing. They were considering whether new regulations were warranted and they concluded that they were not."

NADA's Washington tactics also include issue-specific coalitions with other industry groups, Regan says.

"If we can present an industrywide coalition, which includes manufacturers of all makes, which includes the supplier network, captives" -- even the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association -- "if we can have a complete industry coalition, if we're on the same page, that can be very powerful," he says.

In addition, NADA often sits down with opponents on an issue, "whether on the Hill or [with] a member or staff or a specific consumer group, and [we] often have discussions to get the specific nature of their concern and to see if there's a true understanding of the dealers' business model," Regan says.

With a new president and Congress, NADA has its eye on this year's legislative and regulatory issues, including recalls, fuel economy standards and the CFPB's enforcement philosophy.

On NADA's longer-term horizon are laws and regulations for autonomous vehicles, Koblenz says, including "the ongoing evolution of regulations about personal information about consumers" and security for the data generated by such vehicles.

"We're in it for the long haul, regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in Congress and the White House," Regan says. "We start with our members telling our story at the local and state level, as well as engaging aggressively here in town."