July 2, 2021

You may have considered solar in the past, and for whatever reason – timing, costs, logistics, or even disinterest – it did not make sense for your dealership. It is time to look again. Solar is the future for car dealerships, and that is a fact we stand behind.

If you have been around the retail business for any time, you have experienced a sales slowdown. Such a slowdown can be from a normal economic cycle, possibly a market-specific catastrophe, or maybe specific to a manufacturer image problem, or even as we have seen recently, a pandemic.

With alarming frequency, we hear news of the latest data breach or privacy intrusion involving customer information. Indeed, as this article was going to print, reports surfaced of an OEM’s circulated memorandum to its franchised dealers advising them of a vendor data breach potentially affecting more than a reported 3.3 million customers and prospective car buyers1, causing the industry to once again take inventory of data security and privacy issues.

The purpose of the Legal Defense Fund is to provide legal and or financial assistance in proceedings before administrative agencies, federal and state courts, and any other proceedings that have a significant impact and importance to the dealer body or a broad cross-section of IADA members.

The FTC Safeguards Rule has been around since 2003 and sets forth standards for developing, implementing and maintaining reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of customer information. It, unfortunately, remains one of the biggest challenges in our day-to-day operations. With the new pandemic creation of the “virtual showroom” environment, the threat landscape has grown exponentially. And the new administration has already announced a renewed focus in this area.

On behalf of the IADA Board of Directors and staff, I would like to dedicate this edition of our Illinois Automobile Dealers Association News to the Association members sharing the success of our most recent legislative spring session. IADA enjoyed an extremely successful year at the State Capitol thanks to the joint effort of our members’ grassroots participation and the support of our state legislators.