I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and continued success in our industry in 2017.

I have made the decision to make this my final year of writing these editorials and again, I thank Bill Zadeits and his team for the opportunity and I hope to light a fire under key issues in our industry over the course of this year.

In this politically charged year, let’s go for the “Bad Deal Jugular”: new cars and trucks flowing from Mexico on rigs and trains going north, with empty rigs and trains going south.

Now, we can play the blame game and say the old administration made another bad deal, but what are we going to say if the new one doesn’t change that dynamic?

Some people are probably saying, “Who cares?”

Well, those are U.S. buyers, not franchised dealer trade consignors and repo companies.

I will be saying that the NAAA PAC (sorry Frank and Jerry) will have failed if we don't get this changed under this new administration, because it’s time to show respect for used as well as new and get our lobbyist to understand the dynamics inherent in our industry. 

I truly believe that we have been remiss in not addressing this in prior years to assist our consigning dealers. And if we don’t make it a priority, we devalue the used-vehicle market and are not being the marketing arm we say we are for our customers.

Let's keep in mind what I always tell my staff: WE DO NOT sell cars; we provide the best transactional market place we can for our buyers and sellers, and they make market value buying and selling decisions. 

That's what always annoys me when we devalue our selling side revenue streams; that consignors want more and more services at lower and lower costs (including transportation) and competing auctions create low bidding wars, thus underfunding our marketing arms.

In this era of large increases in minimum wage going from recon to operations, can’t anyone see that returns need to have an increase in investments on the consigning side for those returns?

And if I hear the Internet is the low cost solution especially for units older than five years, I am going to challenge the Kool-Aid they must be drinking. 

But I digress. If we are going to drive value and enhance the marketing arena we think we are, the NAAA and IARA need to work on an export solution and a revenue solution that looks at the LONG game. Prove your value as associations with some bipartisan politicking for what's best for the industry. 

Simple industry consolidation is NOT going to solve our issues.

Wake up industry: What are some of our key potential consignors telling us?  

Editor’s Note: Jim DesRochers is vice president at Dealers Auto Auction of the Southwest. As with any contributed content, the opinions expressed in this and other editorial columns are solely that of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Auto Remarketing or its parent company.