March 2017 | Business View Magazine

74 75 in the D-Day landing on the Normandy beach- head. Their mechanical skills were credited with keeping the wheels of war rolling, and NADA was honored for its part in recruitment. With dealership service departments expe- riencing a crippling personnel drain, dealers turned to women. One NADA dealer reported that 45 women responded to his newspaper ad for one service technician. The 1943 convention was canceled because of a government ban on assemblies larger than 50 people. A scaled-back convention was held in 1944, but because of wartime “congestion” in Detroit, dealers had to share hotel rooms. Hen- ry Ford II addressed conventioneers that year, the first Ford family member to do so. As the war continued, the next two conventions were canceled. But Roosevelt’s proposed $15 billion high- way project provided impetus for NADA, which actively supported the measure, along with numerous safety campaigns to combat rising highway deaths over the next two decades. NADA membership, which had taken a big hit during the war, also skyrocketed, thanks to a massive membership drive. By 1949, member- ship would be 35,000. After the war, automobile production re- sumed. But waiting lists of two years for a new car were not uncommon, and NADA expanded its public relations staff to help counter the public perception that dealers were getting rich off the shortage. The first postwar convention in 1947 was also NADA’s 30th, and a record 6,500 attendees trav- eled to Atlantic City, N.J. The resumption of local The NADA Story 1977 - Time awardwinners line up on stage at the convention in New Orleans. auto shows in 1949 signaled that life was back to normal. 1950s: Dealer-automaker relations After the war, the auto industry discovered television. NADA predict- ed that, based on initial experiments with dealer and factory TV ads, the medium would become “a per- manent sales tool of the automo- tive industry.” Radio also became increasingly important during this decade. NADA provided dealers with free five-minute public interest scripts for local radio broadcasts. As the nation remobilized for the Korean War, dealers braced for anoth- er halt in car production. Price con- trols were again slapped on the auto industry. Washington also restricted automakers’ steel supply, causing them to close plants and lay off workers. Meanwhile, NADA started a campaign urging dealers to adopt a code of ethics. An NADA survey showed the public didn’t trust dealers, thought their profits were too high and took their cars elsewhere for service.NADA countered with studies show- ing that dealers made less profit than plumbers and bakers. After the Korean War, employment in the United States was at an all- time high. Detroit set production records, and for the first time, dealers worried about too much of a good thing. One NADA official called the specter of overcapacity “an automotive hydrogen bomb that hangs poised over all dealerships.” In a prophetic statement, 1952 NADA Presi- dent J. Saxton Lloyd said it was unfair to dealers “to be forced to absorb or dispose of so many more cars than the public will buy that we all 1933 - Official Used Car Guide