(February 14, 2010) ORLANDO, Fla.—With manufacturing reviving and with certain policies exposed to public scrutiny in the past year, “we the retailers need to … embrace the freedom to innovate and create new ways of doing business that simply delight our customers,” said AutoNation CEO Michael Jackson at the NADA convention. “We have an awesome responsibility—considering the trauma that this industry has gone through—that we don’t miss this moment.”

Dealers must push back against “push manufacturing,” an “insane” practice by automakers of overproduction and incentive pricing that left dealers with huge inventories and no credibility with customers.

In most industries, the retailer is the “top dog,” Jackson said. “You think manufacturers are stuffing WalMart? I don’t think so. WalMart’s telling the manufacturers what to do, and it’s us in the automobile industry that’s getting stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey.”
Jackson, whose career spans nearly every facet of car manufacturing and retailing, told dealers to take “the voice of the customer, into the factories, as to what to build, and what not to build,” and, even more important, how to configure cars so they meet the customer needs. “We must seize this chance.”