Important Dates

DealersEdge Webinar
Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Seven Essentials for Buy-Here, Pay-Here Success. How to create BHPH or LHPH Success in Your Dealership or Group . . . Is this for you? It's time you...

2012 Chicago Auto Show
Friday, February 10, 2012

Held annually at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois, 2012 marks the the 104th edition of the Chicago Auto Show.

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History of the CATA

Founded in 1904, the Chicago Automobile Trade Association is the oldest and largest metropolitan new-car dealer association in the nation. Today, it lists nearly 400 new-car dealers as members.

Mission of the CATA

For more than a century, the CATA has stood for high principles of business. Its basic tenets remain as steadfast today as they were a hundred years ago: Promoting honesty and dependability in business operations; Employing truth and accuracy in dealer advertising; Standing by guarantees; Improving business methods and ethics and keeping competition fair so that dealers and the public are well-served; and Refraining from practices detrimental to the industry or contrary to the public interest. Currently, CATA dealerships employ more than 20,000 people in Chicagoland. Over the past century, these locally based small businesses have provided good paying jobs for their employees, who, in turn, contribute to their communities. The CATA’s commitment to excellence in automotive retailing remains its core value and will remain so through the next century.

Chicago Auto Show

First staged in 1901, the Chicago Auto Show is the largest auto show in North America and has been held more times than any other auto exposition in the world. This year marks the 104th edition of the show.

Since 1935, the CATA has had the honor of presenting the the Chicago show. Over the years it has grown with the city moving from the Colisium to the International Amphitheatre to the original McCormick Place and then to the current McCormick Place. Today, the show occupies two exibition halls with more than 1 million square feet of exibition space.

The CATA’s generosity and commitment to the community is shown not only at the Chicago Auto Show’s "First Look for Charity" where this year almost $2 million was raised in one night for local beneficiaries, but throughout the year in countless episodes of humanitarianism and community involvement.

Latest News

January 23, 2012
Data is king for vendor TrueCar
Dealers who use TrueCar are not obligated to provide it with open access to their customer data.

January 23, 2012
3 reasons to be optimistic about 2012 sales
Aging vehicles, check. Affordable credit, check. Aggressive incentives, check and mate.

January 23, 2012
Consider 'adopting' a school to attend 2012 Chicago Auto Show
Dealers can plant a benevolent seed with students by sponsoring a school group's visit to next month's Chicago Auto Show. The measure can be a...

January 23, 2012
CATA closed Feb. 3-19 for Chicago Auto Show
Orders for the free forms provided cannot be satisfied during the closing, and meeting room space cannot be reserved.

January 06, 2012
CATA wary of TrueCar methods
The CATA contends TrueCar might be violating the state's motor vehicle advertising regulations and its Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices...

January 06, 2012
NLRB delays poster deadline
Businesses--union and non-union alike--now have until April 30 to display a new employee rights poster. The former deadline was Jan. 31.

January 06, 2012
Materials coming for 2012, auto show
Materials shipped Jan. 6 to all members of the CATA in good standing, to help them through the coming year and to help them publicize next month's...

January 06, 2012
NADA: 3 factors will lead to 13.9 million new-vehicle sales in 2012
Aging vehicles? Check. Affordable credit? Check. Aggressive incentives? Check and mate.

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Important Dates

History of the CATA

Mission of the CATA

Chicago Auto Show

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