by Dave
Humphreys
President
Recreation Vehicle Industry Association
 Unfortunately,
the RV dealers in Texas and the manufacturer members of
RVIA are in sharp disagreement at the moment regarding
some legislation that some RV dealers are attempting to
have passed by the Texas legislature. As of today, May 8,
1997, the battle is still raging, so it is difficult to
discuss the situation in detail. However, there are a
number of observations that we can make.
In
general, it has been RVIA’s position that
legislation should be sought only as a last resort. In
Texas the manufacturers were given no opportunity to have
substantive discussions before the dealers decided to
seek legislative relief.
There are
a number of important issues in the Texas legislation.
One of the most important is the question of whether
trailers should be subject to lemon law provisions. RVIA
has fought very hard in every state to keep lemon laws
from applying to the living portions of RVs. Lemon laws
were originally designed to apply to automobiles and
light duty trucks because they were sometimes out of
service for an unreasonable length of time. No one has
proposed that a house be subject to lemon laws because
they are so complex and can still be used while service
is being provided. RVIA believes that no one in the RV
industry will be well served if for the first time
trailers will be subject to lemon laws.
The main
questions presented by the situation in Texas are the
following:
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1.
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Should either dealers or
manufacturers ask states to pass legislation that
will regulate the way our industry does business
without first trying to work out a voluntary
solution?
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2.
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Should the living portion of
RVs be subject to lemon laws?
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3.
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What will happen to the
industry if we keep increasing the amount of
money that will have to be spent to comply with
state requirements?
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4.
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Will states restrict their
concerns to how manufacturers do business with
consumers, or will they soon want to deal with
how dealers do business with consumers as well?
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There
are many other issues that could be discussed. However, I
believe that the most important thought to focus on is
the fact that leglation is not the best solution to the
concerns of dealers.
RVIA
believes that dealers should have written agreements with
manufacturers that are carefully negotiated between the
parties. It is important these agreements be readily
enforceable by both parties. RVIA has developed a very
simple mediation process that dealers and manufacturers
can use to resolve any areas of disagreement. RVIA is now
recommending that RVDA develop mandatory, binding
arbitration that cannot be appealed to the courts. This
is the system that RVIA has arranged for RV manufacturers
to use with the Big Three in Detroit, and we highly
recommend it for RV dealers and manufacturers.
It is
ironic that at the very time that the industry has
managed to come together to promote a national
advertising campaign in a show of outstanding unity, we
find dealers and manufacturers at odds in Texas. In the
long run, it seems clear to me, that our industry would
be much better off if dealers would first exhaust the
negotiation process before seeking state legislation.
The
course the dealers in Texas have chosen seems to me to be
very dangerous if we believe that industry unity is
important to our future growth.
RVN
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