As a lifelong car guy, Gordon Tormohlen has never turned down an opportunity to talk shop with fellow car dealers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traveling to different events around the country, Tormohlen has relished each chance to visit with peers in the past year as president of NIADA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to a number of association and annual meetings and the biggest piece is just talking with fellow dealers,\u201d Tormohlen said. \u201cWe all speak entrepreneur as a language but for them to realize that the guy that\u2019s in the top position at the association is a normal dealer, not some highfalutin big mouth. We can talk about issues and what\u2019s going on in their state, what they think about car sales and how F&I is doing for them or setting up a service department. I think it\u2019s good for them to know that, and it\u2019s been good for me to be seen in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At each of the events, the veteran dealer from Freeport, Ill., was also learning as much as he could to improve his business just like the other attendees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI took notes at every association meeting I went to and I benefited by those meetings that the executives and committees set up at the state convention,\u201d Tormohlen said. \u201cThey did a heck of a job. I benefitted greatly by being there. I\u2019d take a few notes and pick up an idea or two.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tormohlen began his tenure as president last June at the NIADA Convention and from his opening statement laid the groundwork for helping dealers be successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to see others thrive in this business and have the myriad of good experiences that I\u2019ve had with it,\u201d Tormohlen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a dream business. You can start out with doggone near nothing and eventually wind up with a very significant business on your hands and earn a good living doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tormohlen served on the NIADA Board of Directors for more than a decade before rising to the president\u2019s seat last summer. It was just months after CEO Jeff Martin arrived from the Texas IADA and began working through some of the association\u2019s financial constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI do feel we are on more firm footing than 12 months ago,\u201d Tormohlen said. \u201cDealers will see that when we get to our annual meeting. We\u2019re well ahead of our normal cash flow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside from the financial status, Tormohlen has seen the association make strides in unifying the industry, working with dealers, state associations and vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The association also worked to be active in the past year with its advocacy efforts from filing an amicus brief in the NADA and TADA lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission on the \u201cCombatting Auto Retail Scams\u201d rule to bringing a coalition of industry leaders together to protect the use of GPS and starter interrupters in Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe association has worked hard in the last year to give dealers a voice,\u201d Tormohlen said. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the association to be proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s excited to see the Certified 360 program grow and the Certified Master Dealer training return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tormohlen will move from the president\u2019s seat to serving as the chairman for the next year. He remains committed to helping the industry and fellow dealers grow and enjoy success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy job will change a little bit next year as chairman. My task will be to see that our president succeeds,\u201d Tormohlen said. \u201cI\u2019m going to continue to support the industry in any way or shape that I can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs of August, I\u2019ll be 51 years in the car business, which includes you know the 50 cents an hour at the age of 13 washing cars and parking cars on the lot for my dad. That\u2019s a lot of years of experience. It has been an outstanding ride and one that I don\u2019t intend to stop when I\u2019m finished with my presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tormohlen looks back on year as NIADA president As a lifelong car guy, Gordon Tormohlen has never turned…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-niada-news","category-industry","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}