Pub. 3 2022 Issue 4

Dealerships are, in many cases, pillars of their communities and many have been in their local area for decades. Dealers are some of the most generous contributors to their local communities and WVADA is proud to highlight some of our members’ activities.

Edward John Thomas, 95, of Parkersburg, passed away Oct. 22, 2022. He was born October 13, 1927, a son to the late Louis and Sadie (Kantoush) Thomas.

NADA’s political action committee, NADA PAC, is a critical part of NADA’s advocacy on Capitol Hill. NADA PAC receives voluntary, personal contributions from dealers and managers of NADA-member dealerships and contributes to pro-business candidates for the U.S. House and Senate.

WVCar is the West Virginia Automobile and Truck Dealers Political Action Committee, and your support is vitally important in order for us to have a voice at our state capitol in Charleston. WVCar is the best platform for our message to be heard by legislators and signify our value in West Virginia communities.

By now, many of us have seen a TikTok video filmed at someone’s workplace – a “day in the life” video, someone complaining about their co-workers, supervisors, or customers, or someone talking about an unrelated subject while at the office. And a relatively new platform, BeReal, goes a step further
by encouraging users to provide an unfiltered view into their “real” everyday life at random moments throughout the day. Of course, such organic social media clips can be a valuable tool that helps market your brand and build stronger employee relationships – but where do you draw the line?

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 introduced a complex set of requirements for obtaining the tax credit for clean vehicles. We will focus on electric vehicles, other clean vehicles (fuel cells) and commercial clean vehicles beyond the scope of this article.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our recent eTitle and Registration Seminars. We are excited for this next step of progress in transitioning to e-titling!

In keeping with the overall goal of
providing the best customer service possible, the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles has made reducing customer wait times in the regional offices a priority in recent years.

The nomination of Chris Miller, president of Dutch Miller Kia in Barboursville, West Virginia, for the 2023 TIME Dealer of the Year award was announced in October by TIME. Miller is one of a select group of dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 106th annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show in Dallas, Texas, on Jan. 27, 2023.

Each year Ally, TIME and the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) team up to celebrate the many ways auto dealers are doing it right in their industry and giving back with extraordinary contributions to their community.

WVADA is proud to announce our new chairman. James “JR” Toothman of Toothman Ford in Grafton will serve for the upcoming term. We recently sat down with him and are excited to work with him in this capacity and hope you enjoy getting to know him.

There are many attributes which combine to make a successful chair in any organization, such as integrity, personal strength, vision and quite simply being good at what they do. WVADA has been fortunate in its leadership over the years, and we want to say a heart-felt thank you to those dealers that have given so freely of their time and expertise over the years to create the outstanding organization that we are proud to have.

I hope each of you enjoyed the holidays and are ready for a new year. WVADA made a ton of progress in 2022 and we are hitting the ground running in 2023.