As Auto Trends with JeffCars.com wraps up
Black History Month, Damon Lester, the current owner of the
Maryland-based Nissan of Bowie and the former president of the National
Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD), joins us over the next
two weeks to discuss the highs and lows he encountered during his 16-year tenure at
the helm the organization.
Since its founding in 1980, NAMAD has collaborated with policy makers and auto manufacturers to establish fair and sustainable business practices for minority
dealers in America.
Currently, ethnic dealers account for approximately
8 percent of total U.S. dealerships. When Lester became president of the dealer advocacy
organization in 2006, the total minority dealership count was just short of its
an all-time high at 1,756, according to NAMAD data stats. However,
when the subprime mortgage crisis crippled the economy a few years later, 54
percent of the ethnic dealerships were forced to close their doors, bottoming out
in 2010 with only 811 stores still standing.
