Auto pilot sets course for dealers.

• Position: Frank Anderson, Jr. guides the National Automobile Dealers Association

Frank Anderson Jr., president of Sir Walter Chevrolet-Geo, a fixture in downtown Raleigh since 1928, is president this year of the National Auto Dealers Association. He's carrying a painful message to hardhit auto dealers: After the glitz of the '80s, when many dealers built fancy showrooms in the suburbs and formed multistate operations, it's time to mind the ledger.

"The big challenge we have is to trim our shops, trim our expenses and be poised for a return to the marketplace," Anderson, 65, says. "It's not going to be like the dawn comes up tomorrow."

It's unusual for NADA to pick a single-dealership owner for its president. But Anderson has paid his dues with long service in the state dealers' association. He's been on the NADA board since 1984.

He is trying to rally an industry in its worst sales slump in a decade. To help dealers, he lowered prices for NADA's educational seminars and consultations. And he's seen to it that its monthly reports contain more detailed sales statistics.

"There are complaints that the association should be doing more," says Ted Orme, NADA's public-relations director. "But the general consensus among the dealer body is that Anderson's the perfect man for the job this year. He's very...