Garcia Subaru is located at 8100 Lomas Blvd NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110.

What exactly is the Subaru Rally Team USA Show-Car Program and what can you expect to see at Garcia Subaru during these three days?

The display features an authentic Travis Pastrana #199 Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car and a customized trailer featuring SPT parts, rally videos and Subaru Rally Team USA information.  The customized 40ft trailer is a sight to see with the exterior fully wrapped with Subaru/Travis Pastrana graphics and the interior walls lined with SPT parts that are used on the rally car and information on these specific parts.

You can stop by anytime during business hours at Garcia Subaru here in Albuquerque, NM to check out the display and to learn more about the rally program and to check out some of the great vehicles that Garcia Subaru has to offer.

For more pictures, please click here.

There is also currently a discussion going on about the event on the forums.

The resounding answer that I’ve seen is no. The driving philosophy behind several of these companies is acquiring a customer and then having as little to do with them as possible. Ultimately they are a business that seeks to increase their profit margins by decreasing their liability for repairing your car, often by excluding themselves in the small print of the contract.

Auto Repair Warranty - A fine example of the automotive repair warranties being advertised.

I’ve been witness to several instances where misuse of vehicle is cited to void the warranty on autos that show no signs of abuse. The company will even send out an inspector to comb over parts for technicalities. Other times they will interface with the repair shop to find out what exactly went wrong. There have been customer transmissions where the warranty company will pay for only the part that caused the failure, sometimes something as tiny as a check ball or a roller pin. I recall one consumer who had a check for 3.47 from their warranty company. They paid for the component, yet weaseled their way out of the several hundred dollars for labor to remove and install the transmission or pay for the rest of the rebuild parts.

With the company protecting their bottom line, is it really worth your time to wrestle over the phone with someone who is trying to subvert their promise to you? Save the hassle and the constant upkeep fees because it’s not a bargain if the warranty company doesn’t do what they say.

After a recent trip to the Las Vegas auto auction one of my colleagues noted that there the prices on pre-owned vehicles was soaring.  Who would’ve thought a time would come when people were more interested in that off lease, slightly used vehicles than that intoxicating sensation of driving off in a brand new car?  Well the fact is that those that are getting it right are focused on where the market is.  We need to rethink the strategy of the business to make it something people want to get involved in and right now the people are speaking loudly they “don’t want to pay the depreciation, they want the transportation.”

The good old days of fresh new cars driving down the road are going to have to be just that for now or will they?   Is it a good sign that prices are starting to come up on used vehicles?  In my experience it is the first time we can see that the market is aligning with what the people want; when it does that it moves the most units.  This also means that new car sale that dealerships are desperately going after are closer to happening because they will have a more valuable trade to not only the dealership but the customer as well.

I predict that if we hold to our plan and focus on the improvement of the vehicle prices we will be able to improve and being to stabilize the overall economy in the dealer body.  This is just the start of many other things that needs to happen including the bankruptcy of General Motors….but we’ll talk about that some other time.

“Don’t pay for the depreciation when you just want transportation.”