Resources

Category: Educational Materials

• Buying New Car Dealerships – Common Mistakes

• Investing in Car Dealerships_- How to Do It Right

• Investing in Car Dealerships_- Doing Your Homework

• Is Now the Right Time to Buy?

• Investing In Car Dealerships – How To Value Them

• Valuing Blue Sky

• Buying And Selling Car Dealerships – Axioms When Negotiating

Category: Factory Accounting Websites

• GM Accounting Manual

• Ford Accounting Manual

• Toyota Motor Sales USA Dealer Accounting

• American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Dealer Standard Accounting Manual

Category: Dealership Audits

• Dealership Financial Statements: Learning How to Read & Analyze Your Numbers

• How to Survive an Unexpected Dealership Audit with Confidence

• IRS New Vehicle Dealership Audit Technique Guide

 Category: False Financial Statements

• Dealer’s lie made Debt Nondischargeable

• False Financial Statement makes debt non-dischargeable.

• Accountant’s Liability for Buyer’s Reliance Upon Financial Reports

In addition to the AICPA’s self-imposed standards, in 1984 the United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Arthur Young and Co. 465 U.S. 805 at 817-8, recognized that an independent auditor “assumes a public responsibility transcending any employment relationship with the client.”

In WS&B, the Maryland Court of Appeals the Court reviewed different tests employed by other courts to determine what, if any, duty an accountant has to a third party, in preparing a financial statement for his own client. These tests were:

1) THE TRADITIONAL (Ultramares) APPROACH, that holds that before a plaintiff could sue an accountant he had to have privity, or a relationship equivalent to privity. The Plaintiff must establish (a) the accountants must have been aware that the financial reports were to be used for a particular purpose or purposes; (b) in the furtherance of which a know party or parties was intended to rely; and (c) there must have been some conduct on the part of the accountants linking to that party or parties, which evidences the accountants’ understanding of that party or parties’ reliance.

2) THE FORESEEABILITY APPROACH, that holds that an accountant is liable to a third party whose reliance on the accountant’s services was reasonably foreseeable to the accountant. Accordingly, an accountant who prepares an audit report is liable to a third party for negligent misrepresentation if it is reasonably foreseeable that such third party might obtain, and rely on, the audit report. See 514 So.2d 315, 322 (Miss. 1987). This is an expansive view of accountant liability and even a number of the small group of states that adopted it, have retreated from it. New Jersey, for example, passed a more restrictive statute: N.J. Stat. Section 2A: 53A-25 (L. 1995,2000).

3) THE RESTATEMENT APPROACH, which had been adopted by 28 states, holds that an accountant is liable to third party if he supplies information to a third parties that is actually foreseen as a user of the information for a particular purpose. (Restatement [Second] of Torts, Section 552, adopted in 1977.) In other words, for liability to attach under Section 552, the plaintiff must be a member of a limited class to whom the accountant intends to supply the information, or to whom the accountant knows the recipient intends to supply it, and who suffers a loss through reliance on the information for substantially the same purposes as the bona fide client.(For example, the accountant may be held liable to a third party lender if the accountant is informed by the client that the audit report would be used to obtain a loan, even if the specific lender remains unidentified or the client names one lender and then borrows from another.)

See: Walpert, Smullian & Blumenthal, P.A. v. Katz 762 A.2d 582, 587 (Md. 2000)

Category: Special Dealer References

J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information firm that conducts independent and unbiased surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality and buyer behavior.

Category: Automotive Publications and Websites

Auto Exec Magazine

• Automotive Digest

• Automotive News

• Dealer Magazine

• Truck – Industry Sites

• Trucking Industry Magazines – Kona Communications

• Used Car Dealer Magazine Published by NIADA

Category: Federal Government Contacts

The White House Features statements and press releases by the president, as well as documents, an index of government information, history, and tour information.

• United States House of Representatives

• United States Senate Information on members and committees. Read a Senate history, and take a virtual tour of the Capitol.

Category: Educational Materials

Auto Dealers in the United States – Facts & Statistics

2023 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report