Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Garcia.
Hi Gary, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
So, I used to manage another shop, that was more geared into performance, which I had done as a hobby since I was young, I mean, I would spend weekends with my buddies helping them install their go fast bits, rebuild their engines, setup their suspension. You know, car guy stuff.
Eventually the shop we worked for was not working out with my ethics and that of my team, we ended up all rolling out our toolboxes, left resignation notices and I figured I could go back to an old trade and just carry on with my life. The shop we worked at ended up closing its doors and sadly, due to my customer service and relationship to customers, the entire time I am trying to interview for new jobs, I am doing house calls for customers, coming over to their houses, installing suspension, doing diags.
My entire team is telling me “Hey look, we appreciate you more than you will ever know, if you start your own shop, we will follow you to making it happen”, I started receiving a lot of positive support, kind of made me want to take that leap.
The harshest thing that nobody speaks bout when trying to get into automotive, is nobody wants to lease space for automotive, they dont want to deal with the logistics of oil, drilling concrete for lifts or the backed up vehicles in small parking lots, I was blessed to have acquired a place that fit all of our needs as a small shop.
At this point I made the decision to open a shop that specializes in Subarus, the entire community is constantly going on about how they are being misdiagnosed and overcharged at the dealerships, and the part of that community that is into modding and tuning is being turned away because the dealers dont want liabilities involved with vehicles that have or would cancel out their manufacturer and third party warranties.
So I became the shop that will service your subaru, modded, not modded, old, new, we do not discriminate as long as its a subaru.
We have since opening our doors expanded to a second bay, business is doing great and even tho I was told at the beginning that I could potentially bottleneck the shops income by exclusively doing subaru, it has actually become a positive, we are able to keep marketing costs down from word of mouth, our community outreach has been tremendous and even tho we literally offer a fairly priced honest service, our competitors have started to undercut us, we have also been so throughout with our service that we retain a 5.0 on our google reviews and that helps new customers know that we are a place that they can trust and will receive the best customer service in the industry, and god honest fairly priced certified subaru service.
And yes, my techs have 10+ years of experience and certifications from Subaru of America, which is also one of the biggest reasons we have chosen to be Subaru Specialized.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely not been smooth by any means, I don’t think any of the small business owners have a smooth road in this day and age, overhead costs are absolutely brutal, new businesses don’t qualify for business loans, majority of investing parties want to take you for large percentages, or I have even had offers from private equity companies to buy into the shop and I refuse to take that route, I take pride in the care I take for my customers and team, if I sold out I feel like I would be betraying everything I stand for doing as a business owner.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As I mentioned, we are Subaru Specialized, that means that we do everything Subaru, from your basic maintenance routines to full power builds, from oil changes to installing and setting up air suspension, and not only that, I have ensured that my sublet network is a list of the right people to make us the one stop shop, cracked your windshield? I can get one of my guys out there to replace it at your location, you want a 700 horsepower build? I got a guy that loses sleep over making sure that his blueprinting engine work is of the highest standards in the industry, we want to make sure that we meet expectations and some days even go above and beyond.
With techs that have over 10 years of experience and certifications and an age where the dealerships are running off their best techs? Yea, I would say Subaru of America should be endorsing us along with the dealers too.
What sets us apart? We don’t stop trying to do better, we don’t stop the testing, we don’t stop trying to find ways to deliver better results to our customers, we are constantly evolving, learning, and even our own personal subarus, we do not stop at bare minimums or at the “good enough” point.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I mean, first of all, if it wasn’t for my team, I would be back at my old trade, doing something else that I am not passionate about as much as I am about these subarus for sure, my sublet network has been rooting for me like crazy, which I love and shows how much other people want to see you thrive, the customers of course, majority of them have just thanked me for being everything they wanted out of a shop of this class, I consider majority of them friends at this point with how much they support us.
We would not be here without you. Thank you everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.isekaigarage.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isekaigarage/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsekaiGarage
