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Black Dealers
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Crossroads
Association Ponders R oad A h ea d
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half o f our membership. ”
To be sure, Vaden-W illiams wants N A M A D to be a
force in the industry7 and plans to concentrate heavily on
auto industry activism. “O u r efforts are not just going to
be focused on dealerships,” she says. “W e re going to start
taking a look at who sits on your board o f directors, who
are in your key decision-making positions. O u r goal is
that, in every aspect o f the autom obile industry, we w ant
someone there w ho can represent the interests o f m inori­
ties. Before year’s end, you will be hearing much more
from us.”
Pittm an candidly adm its that he has no magic wand
to halt the rise in car sales over the Internet or used-car
superstores, both o f which are redefining the way con­
sumers purchase vehicles. But then, neither does anyone
else.
“T his is a brand-new frontier, one we don't have a
blueprint for yet, Pittm an says. “N ot even the m anufac­
turers have a handle on w hat’s going to happen with this
new way of doing business.'
G M i i up A ll n^hh n \c n r d GM, G M (
f not at a crossroads, then the N ational
Association o f M in o rity A utom obile
Dealers (ÑA M A D ) could sorely use a
new road map. T h e old one had routes
for surviving econom ic dow nturns and
collisions w ith autom akers reluctant to
establish m inority dealerships. But no
one foresaw com puter shopping and
auto superstores as new hurdles to cross.
“These are serious times, absolutely,”
agrees newlv-elected Ñ A M A D President W inston
Pittm an, owner o f Cardinal D odge in Louisville,
Ky. “I m well aware of how critical it is that we
don't drop the ball right now.”
I he traditional way o f selling automobiles is
bringing about dim inished market share and shut­
tered dealerships. Ñ A M A D — which represents
African-A m erican, H ispanic, Native-A m erican,
and Asian dealers — has w atched its m em bership
shrink to 425 dealerships from 584, an eye-open­
ing 27 percent decrease. M any o f those lost 159
dealerships, representing millions o f dollars and
thousands o f jobs, benefitted African-American
com m unities. Now, only about 350 o f existing
Ñ A M A D dealerships are black-owned.
“Since about the end o f W orld War II, where
there were about 50,000 new car dealers in the
U nited States, we've seen a steady trend toward
consolidation in the industry,” says D onna Reichle,
N ational Autom obile Dealers Association spokes­
woman. T he total num ber o f dealers in the U.S.
decreased to 22,700 in 1997, from 25,150 in 1977.
NAM AD's executive director is Sheila Vaden-
Williams, a Harvard-trained attorney who worked
eight years as a corporate lawyer. She decided to
pursue the entrepreneurial route through an event
planning business. She became acquainted with
the 17-year-old Ñ A M A D in 1994 while planning
a Ñ A M AD conference. She assumed her current
post in February 1996.
“She is very effective at what she does,” says W il­
liam “Bill Shack, N A M A D ’s founding president
and imm ediate past president. “H er job is to in­
terface between autom obile m anufacturers and
vendors and other folks that we deal w ith on be­
hnun\ aiul llu GM( /<>(,•<» an n x i\lc n d inulcnuiris of General Molare ( oipomlion H ih kle I /». \ nie in </.'
By Blair S. Walker
U "inston Pittman
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AFRICAN AMERICANS O N WHEELS
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