In looking at minutes from 1937 (handwritten, by the way, in lovely cursive) the association voted to raise funds “to employ counsel for the purpose of prosecuting the constitutionality of the present insurance law.” In 1941, we voted to support HB321, “relating to the financial responsibility of owners and operators of motor vehicles,” and opposed HB213, which was going to do away with “recording of conditional sales contracts.” Also, in 1941, NHADA opposed a federal bill that “would increase the amount of Excise Tax on automobiles 500%”. In August of 1941, NHADA was closely following the federal attempts to curtail the production of automobiles, governmental price-fixing, and governmental control of the distribution of automobiles. Later in the war years, there was a discussion on the used car price controls, gasoline availability, and hope that synthetic tires would be more widely available.

Since then, we’ve dealt with keeping vehicles safe, ensuring the investments made by franchised dealers weren’t randomly taken away by the manufacturers, policed our own through AutoCAP, helped to grow our auto tech workforce, passed and improved the Dealer Bill of Rights, and so much more.

For the past 100 years, the automobile has been part of and the cause of much of our economic success. Nearly every single item you see in a store (or online) was transported at some point on a truck. And don’t forget about repairs – without intrepid auto techs and body techs to maintain and fix what broke, we would still be using buggy whips to move our transport and mufflers to cover our faces on cold January days. I was excited to see that NHADA admitted “independents garage operators” and used car dealers in 1933. Independent shops now make up more than half of the NHADA membership. Looking to the vast NH outdoors, our power sports and RV community is central to much of what makes NH attractive. Finally, the equipment dealers have been, and are still, critical to the construction and agricultural backbone of NH.

Critical to NHADA’s success has also been our willingness to get together regularly, not just for business but also for social aspects. In 1934, 300 members gathered together for a meeting, and it was noted in the minutes, “…some exceptionally good entertainment was provided.” The minutes from 1944 noted a golf tournament at the Manchester CC followed by a luncheon and a business session. This tradition has certainly continued with our annual gatherings, every other year business expos, excellent golf outings, and now the Big Raffle.

In the 25 years that I’ve been involved with auto associations, just about every year, there was talk about the franchised dealer going away, the individual owning an automobile going away, flying vehicles landing on our lawns, or the need for repair shops disappearing. Be it pandemics or medical miracles, economic crashes or stock market highs, auto businesses adapted, as did the NHADA. Yet, with each of the challenges thrown at our auto industry, the dealers, the repairers, and all of you adapted and kept selling and fixing. Even during this pandemic, shops quickly adapted.

And yet, there have been dramatic changes and will continue to be such changes. Today’s dealer and repairer bear some similarity to their ancestors of the 1920s. Still, technology has pushed the vehicles’ complexity to the point that today’s technician is a computer and electrical whiz. What hasn’t changed, and won’t change, is the need for auto shops to keep the public on the road in safe and roadworthy vehicles.