NADA President Mike Stanton joined the show to lay out the association's priorities heading into the back half of the year, and nearly every one of them traces back to a single number: dealers accounted for 96% of new-car sales last year, and NADA's goal is to close that last gap entirely.
NADA President Mike Stanton joined the Automotive State of the Union to preview the association's fall priorities, from FTC pricing compliance to the ongoing fight against direct sales and Chinese OEM entry into the U.S. market.
The Priority Stack
1. FTC Pricing Guidance.
NADA is working directly with the FTC as dealers adapt, with additional FAQ guidance expected in the next couple of months. Stanton was direct about scope: this isn't the old CARS Rule with its mile-long list of requirements. It's narrower, focused specifically on pricing, and he believes the added clarity ultimately benefits both dealers and customers.
2. Direct Sales.
Stanton called out Volkswagen by name, pointing to a strategy he called misguided: cutting dealer support with one hand while investing upward of $3 billion in a new plant initiative with the other. [At] a moment when great leaders bring their teams together to focus on fixes, VW is doing the opposite, irritating the retail network that got the brand to where it stands in the U.S. today.
3. Chinese OEMs and the Repair Act.
Dealers are broadly aligned on keeping Chinese automakers out of the U.S. market for the next several years, a position Stanton frames primarily as national security, not competitive protection. NADA is fighting a parallel battle on the Repair Act, which it views as a similar risk: opening the door to reverse-engineering of parts that raises the same security concerns.
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The Line That Matters
They really are our best lobbyists.
Stanton told a story about sitting in on a meeting with a senator in Wyoming, ready to thank him for supporting dealers on EV policy. Before Stanton could get a word out, the senator told him to sit in the corner. He wanted to hear from the people who actually generate the revenue and hire the employees in his state. Stanton's point wasn't subtle: NADA's job is facilitation. The actual persuasion happens when dealers show up and speak for themselves.
That's the real function of NADA's Washington Conference this September. State associations coordinate the meetings, NADA supplies the talking points, and dealers who've never done a Hill visit before are told upfront that they'll make it easy. What they need to bring is the thing lawmakers actually came to hear.
The 96% isn't a stat. It's a target with a deadline nobody's set yet.
Every priority Stanton named, from FTC compliance to fighting direct sales to opposing the Repair Act, is really the same fight from a different angle: keeping the last four percent of new-car sales from ever finding a reason to go around a dealership. The FTC's pricing push, in Stanton's own framing, aligns with what customers already want. The dealers who treat that as a compliance exercise are missing the more useful read: it's a map of exactly where the last 4% is looking to go.
