Speedway.
As street names go, there could hardly be a more fitting handle for the famed asphalt strip that was Tucson's auto mall before there was a place called the Tucson Auto Mall.
Long the center of Tucson's auto retailing - dealers new and used, parts stores, wheel and accessory shops, car washes and drive-ins - Speedway lost some auto dealerships to the Tucson Auto Mall in the 20 years since it was built. And some of those that remained started looking a bit shabby or were, more recently, tortured by the General Motors bankruptcy, as well as the recession.
But some experts say Speedway can still thrive as a place to sell cars - and for retailing in general - and that emerging auto industry trends may even favor Speedway dealerships.
The location of the former Steve Christy Jeep-Chrysler dealership, 5200 E. Speedway, and, before that, Galloway dealership, was sold last month for just under $1.2 million. New owners Bruce M. and Karen F. Daley also have the last parcel in the half-block that made up the former Jeep-Chrysler, and in earlier times, Plymouth, Eagle and AMC dealerships, under contract for an undisclosed amount, Bruce Daley said.
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But Daley said he doubts the property will be leased for use as a dealership.
Daley, the longtime owner of Thoroughbred Paint and Body Inc., 5133 E. 22nd St., said he expects to "split the property up and lease the various buildings out as separate entities." He plans to "plant a row of trees between the buildings, something that will give each building its own identity."
East Speedway in general, and particularly the former Steve Christy showroom - because it's 4 or 5 feet taller than nearby buildings - is still a strong location for retail activity, Daley said.
Down the street, the Chapman Automotive Group, which owns several dealerships in Tucson, mostly on East 22nd Street, now owns the former Magic Carpet miniature golf course. It's just a block from Chapman's Mercedes Benz dealership, Mercedes Benz of Tucson, 6001 E. Speedway.
No word on what Chapman plans to do with the property.
Don't expect all Speedway dealers to go the way of the Tucson Auto Mall.
"Speedway to me is still a terrific street to have a dealership on because of the traffic patterns - Foothills traffic that comes across going Downtown, traffic going out to Tanque Verde and Kolb," said Steve Lace, vice president of the Royal Automotive Group.
Royal owns several Tucson dealerships, including three in a row on Speedway's north side just east of North Columbus Boulevard: Royal Certified Used Cars (which was Royal Buick until GM ended Royal's Buick franchise); Royal Hummer (formerly Royal Isuzu, but Isuzu pulled out of the U.S. market); and Lexus of Tucson. The site also had Jaguar and Rover dealerships.
Royal recently bought the Don Mackey Cadillac dealership at the Tucson Auto Mall and was awarded Buick and GMC franchises by GM.
"Oh, those poor car dealers," may be the least-used five-word phrase in the English language. But a case could be made for the utterance if you considered what has happened to new car dealers in the last year, especially Royal and its GM cousins down the street at Quebedeaux Pontiac-GMC, 3500 E. Speedway.
GM closed the Pontiac Division in April, leaving Quebedeaux with a block-long complex (it acquired the neighboring Precision Toyota property after Precision moved to the Auto Mall) and nothing to sell despite high gas prices and a recession but big GMC SUVs and trucks, and used vehicles.
To get GM's blessing for a Hummer dealership in 2005, Royal put a good deal of money into the building on East Speedway. Four years later, the future of Hummer is up in the air. "The latest we've heard from Hummer is that their sale to the Chinese is due to close by the end of January. General Motors will still be producing product for them for a couple of years," Lace said.
Royal was awarded the new Buick and GMC franchises at the Auto Mall, near where it already had built new Jaguar and Rover dealerships in 2004.
But Quebedeaux officials aren't saying whether they will get a Buick franchise - the usual pairing with GMC franchises - from GM. Quebedeaux officials have declined comment on whether they are even in talks with GM about another franchise. They continue to offer authorized Pontiac service.
The potential for any new new-car dealerships on East Speedway is limited by space. Lace said the former Steve Christy Jeep-Chrysler site is probably the last space large enough for a modern dealership.
Speedway's appeal because of the amount of traffic that passes by remains an asset to retail businesses, said Greg Furrier, a partner in PICOR Commercial Real Estate Services.
And he said it may even get a further bump from the planned widening of Grant Road, expected to start in two years.
When Speedway was widened in the 1990s, Furrier said, some businesses fled to other east-west arterials. And afterward, the loss of front parking changed the potential use of some commercial property along the widened street.
He sees the same thing happening on Grant and putting pressure on remaining Speedway properties that have parking potential - like auto dealerships.
But in the meantime, he says, the Speedway auto dealers, new and used, are in a good place.
"It's a destination purchase," Furrier says of buying a car. "You're going to go wherever you have to go to do that, as long as you're reasonably central."
Manufacturers still want to dictate to dealers, said Chuck Dapoz, an auto industry veteran from Los Angeles and president of Align Research, an L.A.-based marketing services company.
In particular they make demands about the design of dealerships, often requiring that all stores for a particular brand look alike.
Despite GM's and Chrysler's ability during their bankruptcies to "thin the herd" of dealers, Dapoz said the balance of power is swinging back to the dealers.
It's against dealers' interests to look alike, he said, or to necessarily be in the same place, like the Tucson Auto Mall.
He said there are almost no bad cars anymore. And you can get almost all the features you want on many different cars. There has been a considerable loss in brand loyalty. But dealer individuality is one way to set themselves apart.
That might mean a different look or different features, whether it's the Wednesday manicurist at the new Tucson Dodge, 4220 E. 22nd St., the espresso machine and café at Jim Click Ford, 6244 E. 22nd St., or the convenience of having dealer service in midtown rather than nine miles away at the Tucson Auto Mall.
"You have to look at dealers as being different from fast food franchises," Dapoz said. "It doesn't make sense that all car dealers look alike."
Contact reporter Dan Sorenson at 573-4185 or dsorenson@azstarnet.com