Quite sudden IMO, caught me by surprise, CJ Wilson from AZ will run new Mclaren store in the city.
dang. CJ is buying everything. he started with a couple of Mazda stores in Chicago so I guess he's coming full circle. where will the new store be?
There was a whole thread on Mc forum. LFSC owner went off on customer--scary stuff. CJ will be welcome change for IL owners I have a felling.
Here's the McLaren forum link: Warning! Mancuso Lakeforest Sportscars No Longer Supporting McLaren - McLaren Life
Obviously, there are two sides to every story. Perhaps we'll hear from the Mancuso's regarding what happened between them and McLaren.
I read that too and agree, very bizarre and totally out of character for Rick. There are always 2 sides to the story and I suspect the real exchange was not as described by that Mp4 12C owner.
Hi Guys (and Gals), As you can imagine, there are always two sides to every story. Here is a note from our GM: After 6 years with McLaren, the last 9 months of which were spent intensely working out every detail in order to part ways with McLaren, a deal was finalized on April 13th. We are moving on and this will allow us to continue our growth as the preeminent Ferrari retailer in the Midwest. As you can imagine when you are winding things down in order to transition a franchise to a new owner, there will always be those individuals who get caught up in that transition. When that client is someone who did not purchase their pre-owned vehicle from you and then becomes upset at the level of service provided due to the shut down and transition that is an unfortunate case of bad timing that simply could not be avoided. The most important takeaway is that our focus and excitement for the future has never been higher. The future is bright and we are thrilled with our ever growing relationship with the GREATEST automotive brand in the world: Ferrari! Shortly, a new phase will begin that will include a construction project utilizing the "new found additional space" in our facility to create a state-of-the-art New Car Ferrari Showroom, Atelier and Classiche Area. We wish the new McLaren Chicago team well and we look forward to welcoming everyone to our updated Ferrari space in the near future as we proceed with our Ferrari journey that we began in 1982. As always, we appreciate all of the support and loyalty received from our clients and we remain dedicated to maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction for our valued clients both present and future! Forza Ferrari! Dan Carver General Manager Lake Forest Sportscars
Doubtful- although his team runs GT4, he is doing the GT3 cup himself and owns a few Porsche dealerships. I would suspect he will continue that route, but who knows.
Great news...Good to see them expanding more into Classiche. Always a friendly dealer that I enjoy visiting, with a super nice staff.
Thanks for the explanation, although anyone who ever dealt with LFSC in the past has a great opinion of that dealership and the entire staff, regardless of whatever fantasy someone puts down on the internet from time to time. Brings back the memory of one nutty F430 owner trying to bully the dealer to cover his own abuse and damage to the car.
Or that time that Chicago Bears RW McQuarters walked into their showroom back on N. Western to announce that he was there to buy a Lamborghini... Only to be asked to leave after his friend ran his finger up and down a new 360 Modena (i,e. Ferris Buheler's day off) There is more to this story. IMHO
From a guy who has been in the car business since the day he turned 16... WELL SAID! Seriously... usually... the GMs I have come across are total idiots. So well done! And if you are a total idiot... Keep your secretary who wrote that!
CJ has a great passion for McLaren and it'll be great to see the Ferrari expansion, no matter what transpired it seems like a win-win
Well Dan is the son-in-law, what do you expect him to say I never had a good experience with them on the phone. Change prices, want to sell, don't want to sell. Any who, glad to see CJ is taking care of the McLaren owners.
It is indeed very bizarre. The staff at that location have always been insanely friendly and welcoming to everyone, not just customers too. Something must have happened.
While I guess we don't know exactly what occurred and what was said or asked, I think it's kind of weak if you're saying your level of service depends on whether or not they bought the car from you. You're well aware that you're servicing an entire region and that you don't have 100% of the market stock or competitive prices at any given time. If a buyer wants an orange car and you don't have any, what do you expect them to do? Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't go the extra mile for good customers or if you're willing to knock off a few dollars for big spends and profitable customers (and I don't even know what that customer was requesting you do,) but if your service was subpar then it was subpar. The owner of the dealer can do whatever he wants I guess, but as an adult, I can't even imagine why I'd yell at another adult (assuming he did in fact start yelling as was claimed). It's just childish and embarrassing. Whether a customer is a pain in the ass or annoying or just plain stupid, the best way to deal with the stuff is to simply say, "sorry, we can't do that." And say it over and over again. Instead, you have someone posting on forums how the owner went into a screaming rage and treated him like **** and felt threatened. Either that customer is straight up lying or you guys just screwed up. No idea which it is, but it seemed like a pretty crazy story to just fabricate... I'll end this on a positive note though. I've never had an problems with LFSC customer service. I've had my car serviced there many times and things were fine. I intended to do it again until I just found out it's no longer a dealer. I think they screwed up once and caused a delay, but they picked up the tab on shipping it back to me (probably $1000, at least.) I had good experiences with everyone I talked to there. Maybe the owner was just having a bad day or something.
It is also been published that they are selling Aston and Lotus .My understanding is that they will open at 301 n Waukegan rd in Glenview (former McGrath Audi site) Buyer owns some high volume ford stores I believe.