Eckler's Camaro World

The SEMA show begins next Tuesday October 31st and closes on Friday November 3rd. This is the worlds largest trade show with more than 100,000 automotive vendors,and wholesellers in attendance. The SEMA show grows each year, and the convention center really rolls out the red carpet for their guest. I can honestly say this is the show of shows for those of us who are in the business of locating new parts, solving issues with current parts and passing on to our vendors suggestions from customers. I discovered numerous new products from last years show, and many of those products became "best sellers" for Eckler's. While walking the floor and listening to various vendors instructing me about their product, I would think "why didn't I think of that". Some of these ideals were so simple, it really makes you wonder just how the "off shore" people think of these designs. Walking, walking and more walking is the order of the day, and row and row after row of vendors explaining how great their products are is exciting. There's state-of-the-art product displays, technology demonstrations and one-on-one evaluations for company representatives. The "New Product Showcase" is a nice place to visit, to view specialize products entering the market. In short, this is the place to be, and if you get the opportunity to visit SEMA don't pass it up!

We often hear about customers who experience "the nightmare from hell" type of service while purchasing goods from various outlets. A friend of mine purchased a big screen TV from a company and when the TV was removed from the box the screen had a large hole in it. When she inspected the box this same hole was on the outside of the box indicating that something had penertrated the box. When the store was contacted about this problem, the immediate comment was "it didn't leave the store like this. Once the TV was returned one of the stock clerks stated that this TV was in fact a damaged unit and not supposed to be sold, and the store manager was left with the look of dismay on his face. He was not aware of the problem, but immediately assumed that the customer must have damaged the TV. The automotive parts business is no different, but some customers get upset when they are informed that most electrical parts cannot be returned. The reason is simple, a vehicle can have electrical problems, i.e. alternator, starter or battery, and by installing a new electrical part, these other problems can "fry" the new installed part. Once this happens, the customer thinks that the electrical part recently purchased must be at fault. This is not to say that all electrical parts sold are 100% perfect, but most are tested prior to leaving the factory. We are very "customer service friendly" here at Eckler's because we believe that a satisfied customer will continue to purchase parts from us, and for the price of most electrical parts it's not worth causing customer dissatisfaction. I can't tell you how amazed I am when customers call Eckler's and report receiving an extra part that they did not order. I think that the honesty of our customers is simply amazing since many people in our country would simply keep the product. Our customer service department is well trained in customer satisfaction because they know we want your business!

After a wonderful Camarofest last weekend, Eckler's is having the Corvette Reunion this weekend where they expect to have more than 1,000 Corvettes. If someone is interested in purchasing a Corvette, the Corvette For Sale Coral will be full of these fiberglass beauties at very good prices. This weekend is also Super Chevy weekend at Gainesville Florida, and although there's a slight chance of rain on Sunday, Worldwide Camaro Club will be represented in the Drag Racing Event. Next weekend is the World Street Finals which actually starts on Thursday October 26th at Race Rock, in Orlando. If you've never attended this event, you are missing a great door slammer event. Some of the baddest, No! the baddest door cars in the country converge on Orlando to determine who has the "baddest of the bad" street appearing car. There are four qualified classes of 32 each and just watching qualifiing is a special treat since thousands of a second determine if you in the field or headed back home. This is the one event drag racing enthusiast look forward to each year. It's like a big three day party at the track, and my excitement grows with each passing day. This use to be a little guys sport, but that quickly changed into a big money sport with customer made chassis, extremely high dollar engines, and large customer car haulers. Where does all the money come from? We all ask this question and it's amazing that our answers varies from individual shop owners, to corporate guys just spending their stock shares. We can only hope that those lucky numbers come in some that we too can jump in the fray!

Well the 3rd Annual Camarofest is in the books and the show was super! The quality of the Camaros at this years show was superb. You could not ask for better weather and a better place than Old Town to have this show. With over ninty top quality Camaro including race cars, Central Florida's fastest street car (8.20, 169)and one 1st Place Show winner at any show (a 69 Blue Camaro with a Motion built 572 cubic inch motor) everyone got to see cars of their personal taste. Some of the best door prizes where handed out like clocks, t-shirts, Polo Shirts and Camaro CD provided smiles on the lucky winners faces. The Drag racing event held Friday night was also a success, with numerous Camaros owners taking advantage of the free food and fun at track side. By popular vote everyone would like Eckler's to hold this show at Old Town next year and we also agree there is no better place to hold this show.

OPEC will cust global oil production by 1 million barrels said the Nigerian oil minister and OPEC president Edmund Daukoru on Wednesday. The cuts will begin at the end of the month so the oil producting countries can prop up oil prices. Oil prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks. On the New York Mercantile sweet crude oil reached a eight month low at $1.44 a berrel. Now I will add my two cents worth on this subject. It's time to start raising the prices of grain, beef, and other comsumable products we send to these oil producing countries. Make them understand that it's a two way street and that they need our products to live! Now watch the oil prices come down and the greed stop. You can't eat oil!

I remember many years ago receiving the various car magazines and the excitement I had just reading about fast cars from California, Michigan, New Jersey and other states. When you live in an area where it snows, it's nice to read about car guys in other states making horsepower, and what they did to achieve the fast drag racing e.t's. Well times have changed and although we still have various magazines on the book shelves, most contain stories about show cars, and owner claimed e.t.s that simply can't be true. It's not uncommon to read about 1,000 horsepower street cars in todays magazines, and although turbo cars make outrageous horsepower most don't make that kind of power. Today's magazines do a good job of including a variety of subjects but most of us are truly interested in hard core, power to the ground subjects. Now to my point, the new on-line magazine, MAXCHEVY.COM fills this void for us, and it's on the cutting edge of what car guys really want. I throughly enjoyed the interview with Vic Edelbrock and I'm sure you will also. These guys have found something that's been missing in the automotive market for many years and I hope they have continued success with the on-line magazine. Read it for yourself I'm sure you'll enjoy the articles.

That's right! Just four more days until the beginning of Camarofest which actually starts Friday night (Oct 13th 6PM) at Orlando Speed World. We will have our Eckler's Truck & Trailer at the race track, free food for Camaro/F-Body owners and track testing. Once we leave the race track we'll head to Kissimmee where we'll wash our cars and relax in the hotel parking lot talking about what else, "Camaros" Saturday is going to be a great weather day, from our pre-entry results, we expect a much larger show that previous years. Several Camaros from South Florida have also pre-entered and some coming from as far as Georgia. If you're looking for a fun event, you love Camaros and F-bodies in general, don't miss this show.

Talks of a marriage of convenience between General Motors and Nissan-Renault have broken up over disagreement about the value of the proposed tie-up. Neogotiations faltered on General Motors insistence that Nissan-Renault pay a "control premium" if it brought 20% of GM's stock as part of the alliance,The Wall Street Journal reported. Rick Wagoner enthusiastically touted the strides General Motors has made in excuting a turnaround aimed at regaining market share and stemming massive financial losses. This may be the reason the talks with Nissam-Renault were terminated.

I can't believe how fast time flys, it seems like only a few months ago we were in Las Vegas at the SEMA show and now it's time to return. Last years event was nothing short of spectacular. The best thing about an event such as SEMA is it allows us the opportunity to speak directly "face to face" with the manufactor about our concerns such as quality issues and back orders. Last year we had a method for visiting vendors and that method was simple, each day we would select a floor and walk that entire floor making sure that we did not miss any vendors. With more that 100,000 industry professionals in Las Vegas visiting SEMA just walking the floors can be an experience. I truly enjoyed viewing the various "new products" and last year and I could hardly wait to return so I could show case some of these new products in our magazine and our web site. This years show promises to be better than last years event so I once I return I will report my findings to you.

Since I attend car shows for a living throughout the year, one would imagine that I could not find excitement in attending another car show. The truth of the matter is I find attending car show not only fun but time to speak to friends whom I known for years about cars as well as personal matters. I for one fully understand just how short life can really be, and losing my car friends is a personal tragedy that I hate to experience. When I'm on the road attending car shows and people find out that we are from Florida, they comment how lucky we are to have car shows in the winter time. We are lucky, but on the other hand we have access to so many car shows that we either can't chose which one to attend or the weather is the deciding factor.
Well it's been my experience that you simply make a conscience decision to go to the show of your choice and have a good time, and if you don't have a good time, you find another show that's better than the last one you attended. Our Camarofest will be fun because we included a special event called the "early bird special" which will be held October 13th at Orlando Speed World. We will have our truck & trailer at the track so stop by and sign up for the show or obtain club membership information. As a added bonus, anyone with a F-Body that records a perfect reaction time (000) that evening will receive "free entry" to Saturday's event.
If you've never attended an all "F" Body event, don't miss the start of this show, and after we leave the track follow us to Kissimmee Old Town for our car wash and spend the night at the hotel. This is going to be a great show!