Car dealers don't have to fight the future.
Outgoing NADA Chairman Wes Lutz has heard all about ride hailing and autonomous cars.
He remembers forecasts saying millennials don't buy cars, and he recalls claims from Silicon Valley about the end to vehicle ownership as we know it.
Lutz said some are trying to write the narrative for car dealers, who've been characterized as fearful of change.
But in his address to the general session Friday, Lutz said that he isn't buying it.
Dealers, he says, are the ultimate change agents.
"Eighty million vehicles were sold globally last year, the greatest number in history. The vast majority were sold by dealers. As I traveled around the world in 2018, my biggest takeaway was this: So many people want to write our narrative," Lutz said. "They say, 'Dealers are fighting the inevitable, change is coming and they don't like it.' The truth is, change isn't coming fast enough. We love change."
Lutz went further, saying, "Dealers aren't fighting the future, we're writing it."
Silicon Valley executives said people view their cars as wasted investments. But Lutz said consumers still love their cars because they value convenience and freedom above all else.
The public, he says, has little interest in giving up their keys.
Lutz, who owns Extreme Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram in Jackson, Mich., said Silicon Valley doesn't truly know what consumers are thinking.
"Pundits said dealers would have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the tech revolution," he said. "But dealers saw new technology as a way to improve their operations and trade customers out of their old vehicles."
