Press Calls for Dealers, Makers To Unite

Press Calls for Dealers, Makers To Unite

If dealers take care of their customers and automakers take care of their dealers, everyone will succeed, said Toyota chief operating officer Jim Press in his keynote speech at the general session Saturday. We realized early that our expertise in engineering and manufacturing does not translate into the retail world. We donêt have retail experience thatês why we have dealers.

Press credited GM with taking the lead in promoting the industry after the September 11 terrorist attacks and praised dealers as freedom fighters not only for our industry but for the nationês economy.

The real problems we face do not come from within our industry, Press said. Instead, we are under attack from a number of outside influences that are challenging our very existence. To Press, who got his start at his uncleês dealership, three issues now challenge the industry: empowered customers; overcapacity and rising business costs; and activist groups and government agencies concerned about safety and environmental issues.

We have turned on ourselves, he said. The real road to prosperity is paved by all of us uniting and working together to combat these assaults and stop fussing with each other.

For customers, manufacturers must make quality products with high resale value. Without them, all a dealer can do is try to make a bad situation better, he said.

Automakers should work harder to keep dealer profits from being squeezed, said Press. Youêre fighting every day to make some money, how much time and effort can you spend assuring employee and customer satisfaction?

Manufacturers could help dealers by cutting expenses, said Press. Such steps include improving order-to-delivery times, creating flexible factories to cut inventories, building vehicles people actually want, and shooting for an average 20-day supply.

Dealers, manufacturers, and their associations also need to work together to counter onerous, anti-industry public policy and embrace advances in safety and cleaner vehicles, added Press, who just completed a year as chairman of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.