By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | July 03, 2009
FAIRFIELD - Good news in the auto industry? It apparently can happen.
A new Fairfield-based Subaru dealership got its license on Tuesday from the Japanese automaker and was officially able to begin selling cars on Wednesday.
'Subaru has been absent from Fairfield for quite a few years,' said Turk Ercen, director of operations for the group. 'And there's a lot of Subaru owners in the region.'
Subaru has been slowly expanding its network of dealerships nationwide in recent years, Ercen said.
'They are expanding but on a very selective and limited basis,' he said.
The last Subaru dealership locally was on Oliver Road in a joint venture with Ford and Mazda brands. In late 2006, the owners dropped Mazda and Subaru, taking only the Ford brand as they jumped across the freeway to create a new Ford Lincoln Mercury dealership in the Fairfield Auto Mall. That dealership closed in October.
Since the closure, Ercen said Subaru had been insisting that any new dealership sell exclusively Subarus and that it be located in the auto mall. After a series of closures in the auto mall, Ercen said Subaru dropped the latter requirement, paving the way for the Martin Road dealership.
On Wednesday, Ercen said the dealership had just started getting deliveries of its first cars.
See the complete story at the Daily Republic online.
