Welcome to the NADA family reunion

NADA and its officials are fond of referring to the association's annual convention and exposition as "The Automotive Industry Event of the Year." Given the growing number of large auto shows and conferences, that might seem an exaggeration to some.

But there is little doubt that the yearly NADA conclave serves as a family reunion for the retail side of the auto business. At the NADA convention, you see people you don't see anywhere else.

Paul Ingrassia, Detroit bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal from 1985 to 1994, often would take his entire team of reporters to NADA, even though the Journal didn't regularly report on the association or car dealers.

"Why?" I once asked him.

"It's a good place to get sourced-up," he said.

Ingrassia, who won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting along with fellow Journal staffer Joseph B. White, knew the NADA convention attracts executives from all over the industry, including from segments Wall Street Journal reporters frequently cover.

That's because dealers are the heart of the retail family, and the NADA convention is all about them.

Sort of.

Dealers come to the NADA convention, and because they do, so do the people and companies that want to do business with them. Those include automobile manufacturers, vendors that sell dealership equipment, finance companies, marketing programs and entrepreneurs with alluring schemes. 

Some dealers come looking for new franchise opportunities, especially any deal that looks like it could turn into the next big thing. That especially motivates dealers who missed out on the last big thing. 

Entrepreneurs who need dealers know about that hunger, too. 

That's why former General Motors exec John DeLorean came back to the NADA convention when he wanted to sign dealer-investors to sell his stainless steel car built in Belfast in Northern Ireland. DeLorean famously stood just outside the door of a huge GM dealer reception shaking hands and greeting dealers as if he had paid for the party. Chevrolet and Pontiac dealers were receptive because they remembered the profits they made when DeLorean headed each of those GM divisions. 

Malcolm Bricklin also came to the convention when he was getting ready to launch Yugo in the United States and needed dealers. Dealers remembered him from his pioneering days at Subaru and Bricklin. Ever the entrepreneur, he was not deterred when the Yugo went the way of the Bricklin sports car and the DeLorean. He re-emerged with plans for a dealership closing booth featuring lights, music and holograms. Later came aspirations to distribute Chinese cars in the United States. 

Some dealers and managers come to NADA for the workshops and plug-and-play ideas they can use in their businesses. Some come to shop for equipment and services for their stores or delightful new marketing ideas that will give their dealerships a competitive advantage in their local markets. That's how early Internet companies got a toehold in the dealer market. 

Sold-out exhibition halls are a source of revenue for NADA. That's why when GM and NADA were squabbling about the automaker's bankruptcy plans to eliminate dealerships in 2009, it seemed GM might stay home from the 2010 NADA family reunion. The automakers are huge exhibitors, and losing GM would have put a big dent in the budget. GM stayed and the reunion was on, but like many other family reunions, it was a bit strained. 

That wasn't the only time NADA's family get-together had some heated discussions. When GM announced in December 2000 it was killing Oldsmobile, factory officials at NADA faced a brouhaha bigger than the one at last summer's family reunion softball game when Uncle Earl was out at the plate but claimed he was safe and half the family left in a huff.

No matter what, dealers want and depend on the face time they get with factory officials at make meetings and receptions during good times and bad.

In good times factory execs are treated like rock stars. Back at the convention in New Orleans in 1989, Bob Burger, then general manager of Chevrolet, rode into the division's massive dealer party in the Superdome on a Mardi Gras float. 

Some even thought they were rock stars. 

At one NADA Chrysler reception in the 1980s, Lee Iacocca was mobbed by Chrysler dealers who stood in a line that stretched halfway across the ballroom just to introduce their spouses to the man who had saved Chrysler Corp. -- and in so doing also saved their family dealership businesses. 

Iacocca didn't come to many NADA conventions, and I wanted to ask him a couple of questions, so I pulled out a pen and notebook. When I did, his nearby bodyguard politely told me, "Mr. Iacocca won't be signing any autographs tonight." 

Celebrities from outside the car business, some of whom sign autographs, can be found all over a typical NADA convention and exposition. Some auto companies even have circus acts at their receptions. 

Celebrities aren't the main reason dealers come to NADA just as the sweets on the dessert table aren't the reason you go to the family reunion. But they do add something. 

Even in a down year when budgets are strained, celebrities are paid pretty significant fees to come to the NADA conventon. For example, in 2008, which was a lousy year, celebrity fees flourished. Christine Smith, Playboy magazine's Miss December 2005, signed autographs at one of the booths on the exhibition floor. Across the hall, NFL great Jerry Rice spent time at the DealerTrack booth.

Meanwhile at the general sessions in the auditorium, dealers could see Jay Leno, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bob Woodruff and Tom Brokaw. AutoStar hosted a reception at which political and financial commentator Ben Stein spoke for half an hour and visited with dealers.

And, of course, NADA has a big budget for keynote speakers. Over the years the association has brought stars of stage, screen and contemporary events to talk to dealer members. At the top of the list are three former presidents: No. 41, George H.W. Bush; No. 42, Bill Clinton; and No. 43, George W. Bush.

In the several-year-long, never-ending runup to the election to be No. 45, NADA paid Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton to be convention speakers before they announced their candidacies, probably because as part of emerging political dynasties they seemed odds-on favorites to be the eventual nominees for their respective parties. Talk about a bummer family reunion, eh?

The NADA convention also provides a place for another kind of family reunion.

Even if they're not looking for a new franchise or shop equipment or chitchat with factory execs, some dealers come to the NADA convention with wives or husbands and maybe sons and daughters who are learning about the family dealership business.

NADA is the place to appreciate family.

Even the association has strong family ties that span decades. Dealer Warren McEleney of Iowa headed NADA in 1971 when the top elected dealer official was known as president. His son John McEleney was chairman of NADA in 2009. Ron Tonkin of Portland, Ore., was NADA president in 1989. His son Ed Tonkin was NADA chairman in 2010. And Marcy Maguire, NADA director from New Jersey, is the wife of Bob Maguire, a former NADA director who was chairman in 2001.

You guessed it. Their son, Michael Maguire, already is in the business. He is executive manager at Windsor Nissan in East Windsor, N.J., and likely to get his own store soon because the company is expanding.

Yes, it's definitely a family affair.