GNYADA December 2013 Newsletter

Louis Roberti Elected NYSADA Chairman 7

Louis Roberti, of Somers, N.Y., has been installed as Chairman of the New York State Automobile Dealers Association. He is a current owner of Arroway Chevrolet Cadillac in Katonah, located near Mt. Kisco, NY.

ated from Manhattan College in 1973 and from the Wharton School of Business in 1989. Lou has served as Director and an Officer of NYSADA for the past 14 years. He has also served as a Director of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.

Since 2000, Lou, has volunteered as a pilot with Angel Flight, a non- profit organization that arranges free air transportation for any legitimate, charitable, medically related need.

On behalf of GNYADA, we wish Lou great success in his new role.

Lou began selling cars in 1974 and bought Arroway in 1988. He gradu-

Best Single Car Sales Month Since February 2007 8

Notably, this was the best November since 2003 and only about 84,000 units behind the industry's best November ever, in 2001. Industry sales topped 16 million units from 1999 through 2007 before the col- lapse of 2008-09. Of the larger automakers, only Honda slipped, 0.1% (and that was from a record November in 2012).

Nationally, sales of cars and light trucks rose 9 percent in November to 1.24 million units, the best pace in almost seven years. The industry's seasonally adjusted annualized rate of sales (SAAR), rose to 16.4 mil- lion, up from 15.3 million a year ear- lier and crashing through analysts' forecasts that had been in the 15.8 million range.

November’s SAAR was the highest since that indicator reached 16.8 mil- lion in February 2007, before the start of the recession. It's is also the second time the SAAR has topped 16 million this year, having done so in August, when it reached 16.1 mil- lion. Economists take that as a sign that the industry's recovery still has plenty of gas in the tank.

GNYADA Delays Code Changes that Impact Dealers 9

GNYADA has successfully obtained a delay of a hearing on proposed zoning code changes that would affect automobile dealerships in the City of New Rochelle. As soon as we learned of the proposal, we contacted city officials to express our concerns and objections. We impressed upon them the compli- cated nature of the issue and the major negative impact the proposals could have on dealerships, which are a significant business in New Rochelle. The proposals are very restrictive and could make dealership operations difficult and expensive.

As a result of our objections, a public hearing scheduled on that proposal has been delayed until at least next month. The delay will give us an opportunity to meet with those City officials and provide information and the dealerships’ point of view as to the hardships that the new rules rep- resent. In addition to the numerous state and federal laws and rules with which dealers must comply, they are also subject to codes and ordinances of the numerous counties, cities, towns, and municipalities in which they operate. GNYADA will continue to

make its concerns known to the city officials, and work to ameliorate the impact of such proposals on the deal- erships. We have scheduled a meeting with the city’s Commissioner of Development in early January. In the meantime, we will collect data to demonstrate the negative impact of this proposal and present it to the City officials. We have been in con- tact with all the dealers in the city, and have invited them to participate in the meetings and the public hear- ing on the proposed amendments.

Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association • www.gnyada.com

The Newsletter • December 2013 5