Serving San Diego and Riverside Counties
Harvey Mitchell, chief executive officer of the Escondido Chamber of Commerce, said with the auto park full, it is important for the city and the dealers to be inventive. Mitchell said the area around Lincoln and North Broadway is perfect because it is near the terminus of Highway 78.
“I’ve always thought it would be a great idea to put more auto dealers in that part of town,” said Mitchell, stressing that Escondido relies on more than 3 million per year in sales tax revenue from auto dealers to provide essential city services. The Suzuki dealership will replace San Diego Auto Thrift, a used-car dealership that Frank Turlo has owned and operated on the site for the last 12 years.
Turlo, who will also own and operate the Suzuki dealership, said it should be open in December or early January. “We’ll probably be operational in December, but I want to open properly in January after we get the kinks out,” Turlo said. “We’ll spend the first 30 days learning what we don’t already know about Suzuki.” Crews were busy this week building a 4,000-square-foot showroom that replaces a much larger building that the Auto Thrift used for sales and service, Turlo said.
“We tore down the old eyesore of a building,” said Turlo, explaining that the old, 7,500-square-foot tin structure was much too big for the half-acre lot. “The new building will open up the whole property and create visibility for the automobiles.” Turlo will have the only Suzuki car dealership in North County. He said Suzuki dealerships were common nationwide two decades ago, including one in Escondido.