Jay Feldman of Feldman Automotive Group (left), actor and producer Mark Wahlberg (center), and NADA Chairman Rhett Ricart (right).
The first-ever virtual NADA Show kicked off in high gear this week, offering an online experience that came as close to the live event as we could imagine — packed with speaker presentations, education and workshop sessions, and franchise dealer meetings, and all while running parallel with the expo.
Outgoing National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Chairman, Rhett Ricart, was the first to take the virtual stage on February 9, praising dealers for getting through a tumultuous 2020 and coming out “stronger, tougher and wiser.” He said there was no playbook for the challenges dealers faced, and continue to face, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the association worked hard and quickly to help ensure auto retailers had a franchise that remained valuable and protected.
“This association has never fought harder, worked faster, or given so much of itself so that business owners, like you and me, had a franchise that remained valuable and protected,” said Ricart.
He took over as NADA chairman at the 2020 NADA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in February 2020, less than a month before the pandemic began impacting auto retailers in the country. During his final remarks to dealers as chairman of the association, Ricart urged retailers to remain vigilant and confident in their ability to thrive in the face of adversity, while reiterating his belief that the challenges faced in 2020 will leave dealers better positioned for success in 2021 and beyond.
“Never forget what we went through, because it shaped who we are today,” said Ricart.
He also welcomed actor and producer Mark Wahlberg and Jay Feldman of Feldman Automotive Group to the virtual stage to explore their partnership and growing franchise. In 2018, Wahlberg partnered with Feldman to open Mark Wahlberg Chevrolet in Columbus, Ohio, and has since opened other stores. His franchises include Chevrolet and Buick-GMC.
Talking about his experience getting into the auto retail business, Wahlberg said he has always been a big car fanatic. His father was also a Teamster (of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters or IBT), and he knew Feldman was involved in the car business.
“Jay’s a real serious adult in the space and he’s been great at kind of teaching the business from the entry-level up until where we are today, with four stores,” said Wahlberg.
Feldman also chimed in about how quickly things progressed from a business perspective, the quality of his partnership with Wahlberg, and how that helped them take on more than one store. He said Wahlberg continuously aspired to improve. “You’re (aspiring) to get better all the time, and you’re doing it in the automobile business — aspiring to be better every day, very quickly,” said Feldman.
He also talked about his family’s involvement with a children’s hospital in the community and a recent project he and Wahlberg worked on when the pandemic first took root in North America. Wahlberg said they provided around 1,000 iPads to families in their community to be able to communicate with their loved ones while in the hospital. He said there were children with COVID-19 that could not receive the same amount of visitors or visiting hours that were in place pre-pandemic.
“Obviously for us, it’s important to give back to the community, help out in any way that we can, anywhere we are in the community. We want to be a part of the community,” said Wahlberg, later adding that “We want to make sure that we’re staying connected to people who are on the front lines. People who are really at risk and doing the real work and being the real heroes out there — our service men and women, hospital workers, first responders, all that sort of thing.”
The virtual 2021 NADA Show runs from Feb. 9-11, 2021. Stay tuned for more coverage of the event, which will appear on our Canadian auto dealer website and in our March issue.
NADA Chairman Rhett Ricart
