CATA News

Election ballots for the open positions on the CATA Board of Directors were mailed just prior to Memorial Day weekend, one per dealer and were addressed to the dealer principal on record.

In accordance with the bylaws of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, a Nominating Committee met and selected five nominees whose name appears on the ballots. There are four directors to be elected for a term of three years beginning at the conclusion of the Annual Meeting & Golf Outing on June 11, 2024. The current directors whose terms expire but who are eligible for re-election are John Crane, Fred Marks and Jason Roberts. Additional candidates on the ballot are Karen Sutton-Ford and Jared Wickstrom

Ballots must be returned before 12:00 p.m. on Friday, June 7, 2024.

DriveChicago.com, a significant complimentary benefit to all CATA dealer members, recently launch a completely redesigned website. As before, the primary mission of DriveChicago.com is to capture in-market vehicle shoppers and deliver them to CATA member dealers. Ancillary to that is advancing CATA marketing initiatives like BBQ for the Troops, the Chicago Auto Show and Chicago Drives Electric.

Extending a more than 10-year partnership with automotive digital marketing powerhouse Automotive Internet Media (AIM), DriveChicago.com takes advantage of the latest cloud-based database management and webhosting software. The new site is more focused and extremely fast, delivering vehicle listings in the blink of an eye.

DriveChicago.com does not get in the way of the shopping experience, rather it delivers the customer right to your door. When a site user clicks a vehicle listed on DriveChicago.com, a new tab is opened displaying that vehicle on your dealership’s website. In the coming months, look for DriveChicago.com to become the No. 1 non-paid referrer in your site’s good analytics.

DriveChicago.com continues to list ONLY the new and used inventory of CATA dealer members. There are no priority, sponsored or featured listings. Vehicle search results are solely based on the users filter options. As part of the rebuild, AIM also developed a way to eliminate inventory feeds and instantly update the more than 100,000 vehicle listings on the site.

Even though the new site is live, the AIM team continues to refine dealership listings and deploy tools like WebBuy’s digital retailing tool for trade-in quotes and values. However, the biggest value of DriveChicago.com remains, driving traffic to YOUR website.

The CATA is excited to introduce SoftEdge, a new grassroots software that enables you to easily connect with your local legislators to communicate critical issues that impact your business.

In light of the Governor’s recent initiative to cap Illinois retailers’ sales tax collection allowance, we’re hoping a tool like SoftEdge will make contacting your local legislators easier and more effective. In the next week, emails will be sent to dealer principals and dealer members. Simply register for the system and note the city in which you reside as well as the one in which you do business.

Via SoftEdge, the CATA will prepopulate letters to local legislature that dealers can simply forward along or customize as desired. The goal is to get as many dealers/business owners to contact policymakers to communicate pertinent information so they can consider our side as they enact various laws.

The CATA is committed to lobbying and advocating for issues that matter to you, but we need your help (there’s power in numbers). Please contact us with any questions.

The CATA wants to make you aware of a potential change in the retailers’ sales tax collection allowance. There are currently several legislative proposals, as well as a provision in the governor’s FY 2025 budget, to cap the retailers’ collection allowance at $1,000. As of now, vendors may retain 1.75% of state sales tax collected as partial reimbursement for acting as the state’s tax collector.

In 2022, franchised new-car dealers collected $2.9 billion in sales tax for the state of Illinois. New-car dealers are currently required to submit a separate sales tax form for every vehicle sold or leased, making sales tax collection a very labor-intensive process.

The current collection allowance already falls well short of the actual work required to collect the taxes. If the reimbursement amount were to be capped at $1,000, a typical dealer would lose $60,000 per year in administrative costs. For comparison, the Illinois Department of Revenue collects a 2.17% discount on 24 different taxes it collects.

We urge you to contact your state legislator via SoftEdge (highlighted in the article above) and make them aware of this potential detrimental change to the reimbursement amount and urge them to vote NO to any proposal that could cap the current 1.75% retailers’ collection allowance .

The need for senior leadership development in the automotive space has never been more urgent. Dealerships realize that to survive in today’s volatile, uncertain, and complex environment, they need leadership skills and organizational capabilities different from those that helped them emerge as area leaders in the past.  Industry analysts find that traditional automotive training programs no longer adequately prepare executives and dealer principals for the challenges they face today and those they will face tomorrow.  Dealer principals seek the communicative, interpretive, affective, and perceptual skills needed to help them and their executive teams lead compliant, profitable dealerships.

Enter Zurich’s Advanced Leadership & Performance Seminar (ALPS), being held July 8-11 at Zurich’s North American Headquarters in Schaumburg.  Zurich’s Advanced Leadership and Performance Seminar is designed for dealership leaders and people managers.

This forum focuses on driving the performance of your teams and building a stronger culture, ultimately developing the next generation of leaders to support your organizational growth and expansion.  This is the first training of its kind, designed specifically for dealer principals, platform directors, automotive CEOs, etc. to be offered in the Chicagoland Area -- and at a dramatic discount for CATA Members. CATA dealers are eligible to take advantage of the Zurich customer rate of $2,295. Register here.

What: If you owned a business that accepted credit cards from 2004-2019, you are eligible to receive compensation for the overbilling done by Visa and Mastercard.

The $5.5 billion class action settlement against Visa and Mastercard addresses claims that these companies charged merchants excessive fees for accepting their credit and debit cards between 2004 and 2019. Merchants argued that Visa and Mastercard conspired to fix interchange fees, which are typically 1-2% of each transaction, and restricted merchants from steering customers towards cheaper payment methods, thus violating antitrust laws.

This lawsuit, known as the Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, has been in progress for nearly two decades. The settlement is one of the largest antitrust class action settlements in U.S. history. The settlement covers over 12 million businesses that accepted Visa or Mastercard payments during the specified period.

When: Filing Deadline extended from May 31, 2024, to August 30, 2024.

How: For more detailed information and to submit a claim, visit the official settlement website: https://www.paymentcardsettlement.com/en.

For more information, you can contact the new CATA Allied Member Cost Advisor, Bill Brudenell, at 847-505-9210 or bill@costadvisor.us.

In a 31-page opinion issued on May 6, 2024, by U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr., the Federal District Court dismissed Volkswagen's challenge to the recently enacted warranty provisions in the Illinois Motor Vehicle Franchise Act. This is fabulous news for all Illinois dealers. Our legal counsel continues to  review each of the findings regarding the multiple claims made by Volkswagen. We will share additional updates as we receive them, but at least wanted to share this great news with CATA dealer members.

• Cost Advisor (Credit Card Processing) – Bill Brudenell, bill@costadvisor.us
• ComEd (Electricity) – Lisa Mannella, lisa.mannella@comed.com
• EAI Design (Building Design and Construction) – Nick Randazzo, nr@eanthonyinc.com
• Grant Merchant Services (Credit Card Processing) – Joe Campagna, joe@grantmerchantservices.com
• Hireology (Staffing and Employee Retention) – Tiffany Czerwinski, tczerwinski@hireology.com

Hilb Group is the go-to partner for CATA business owners who need help controlling costs and navigating the complex world of healthcare and human capital management.

Specializing in the auto dealership business for over 30 years and serving more than 1500 dealerships, Hilb Group knows the industry and can help you pay for and manage employee benefits more efficiently. Hilb Group’s proven process collaborates with you every step of the way to develop a customized strategy that fits your business’ unique needs. They were built by dealers, for dealers to ease the administrative burden of employee benefits and to create pathways for you to decrease healthcare costs while simultaneously improving benefits for your employees.

Contact Colin Royster at croyster@integrumadvisors.com or (540) 526-7074 today to get started on potentially lowering your employee benefits costs by up to 35%. Click here (link to document) to find out what sets Hilb Group apart from other healthcare vendors.

Summer is right around the corner, and that means so is BBQ for the Troops!

This year, we have new ways for you to participate and we look forward to another summer of community fundraising festivities across the Chicagoland area.

More than a decade ago, the CATA and area new-car dealers partnered with the USO to create the Barbecue for the Troops campaign to raise money for our local troops and their families. What started as a few hot dogs and tin can has now grown into an annual festival which brings in thousands of dollars. In fact, the program’s lifetime total is over $1.1 million raised for USO!

As a participating dealer, the CATA will provide you with a starter kit of marketing materials. The CATA also runs an area-wide marketing and advertising campaign which includes a listing of all participating dealers and is an excellent opportunity for media exposure.

The 2023 event had 85 participating new-car dealers who hosted events that ranged from online fundraisers, to full-blown community summer festivals that included 21 gun salute, live music, bouncy houses, and, of course, a delicious barbecue meal. We look forward to growing the participation this year.

To participate, select one or more of the following options to raise money for the USO:

1. Host a BBQ Event: As in previous years, you can host a BBQ event at your dealership on Saturday, July 13 which will be advertised across the market. These events can range in size from lunch with customers to full-blown community festivals.
2. NEW! Test Drives for Donations: Drive traffic to your dealership by inviting your community to come and take a test drive at your dealership. For every test drive in the month of July, your dealership will make a donation to the USO. The CATA suggests a minimum of $10 per test drive.
3. Make a Donation: If you’re unable to participate in one of the activations in July, you can still make an impact! You can make a one-time donation to the USO and be listed as a BBQ for the Troops donor on DriveChicago.com.

As we know, dealers have deep roots in their communities and by participating in the Barbecue for the Troops program, dealers can further connect with their customers and contribute to a great cause.

Sign Up Now!

If you have any questions, please contact Hayley Feichter or Jim OBrill.