The level of entrepreneurial sophistication needing to run the modern American new-vehicle dealership has reached a fascinating new level.

The dealer principals who guided their companies through the recession and the culling of stores by vehicle manufacturers are among the brightest and most  quick-witted business people in this country.

They are survivors in part because they are thinkers.

There are endless trials and tribulations that go with running dealerships - coping with the challenges of all entrepreneurs, but at the highest levels. And mostly they are up there working without a net.

There are at the mercy of a wildly fluctuating economy affected by everything from fuel prices to natural disasters. They must deal with constantly changing management structures at the manufacturers and the factories’ rapidly shifting priorities and demands.

They must face down competition down the street and the economic disturbances from around the world.

They must manage inventory with the calm and guile of a riverboat gambler while meeting both the volume and profitability goals of the manufacturer in a changing environment.

The American auto retailing business has always been run by thoughtful, intellectual men and women, but never more so than today.

The leaders who run vehicle retailing in the United States are changing. They are relying increasingly on data and analysis and management theories. They are looking for insights in the numbers and are they are augmenting their natural skills as high-stakes business people with as much information and management theory and ideas as they can absorb.

It is a new world with new kinds of leaders. At Auto Retail Net we will reflect this changing scene by delivering news and analysis at an intellectual level that car dealers have never experienced in a media outlet.

We’ll do this by relying on the industry’s best and brightest thinkers to spot the trends, analyze the data and deliver it all to our readers in vivid and compelling words and numbers.