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Two Auto Dealer Groups to Speak with One Voice in Lansing

5 December 2000

Two Auto Dealer Groups to Speak with One Voice in Lansing

    DETROIT, Dec. 5 Two of Michigan's leading auto dealer
associations have joined together to form a new statewide organization to help
strengthen their legislative efforts.
    The new entity -- Auto Dealers of Michigan LLC (ADM) -- is a joint venture
of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA) and Michigan Auto Dealers
Association (MADA), and is based in Lansing, Mich.  ADM will enhance and
streamline the legislative, political action and grass roots activities of
Michigan's automobile dealers.
    DADA President William J. Demmer and MADA President Kim Thompson made the
announcement today.
    "We believe that it is time to make improvements in the way both the DADA
and MADA work cooperatively with the Michigan State Legislature," said Demmer.
"By joining forces, we have identified a number of ways we can operate more
efficiently and effectively in Lansing, Southeastern Michigan and around the
state, while having Michigan auto dealers speak with one unified voice."
    Demmer, who is also president of the Jack Demmer Automotive Group in
Wayne, Mich., said there are more than 800 new car dealerships in Michigan
that employ some 40,000 people.
    "We realized, collectively, that the only information legislators were
receiving about dealers and dealerships was what they read in newspapers,"
added Demmer.  "Our joint efforts will help affect the amount, as well as the
quality of information legislators receive about dealerships, their employees
and their customers."
    "The auto dealership business is highly regulated in Michigan," said
Thompson, who also is president of Thompson Sales and Service, Inc. in Alpena,
Mich.  "It's important for us as employers, as entrepreneurs and operators of
family-owned businesses, and as taxpayers, to stay abreast of the oft-changing
legislative climate in Michigan.
    "ADM will help dealers across the state to work more collaboratively and
cooperatively with our elected officials in Lansing."
    Both Demmer and Thompson said it was important for representatives and
senators to understand that there's a "real person" behind the dealership
sign, and that many dealers are community leaders, providing an important
employment and tax base in towns and cities, and that small business is still
the backbone of the local economy.
    ADM will be housed and staffed in the Lansing area.  Its director of
legislative affairs is expected to be announced shortly.