New Ferrari Dealer in Charlotte

Foreign Cars Italia is not a new dealer. They've been in Greensboro for a very long time, like decades. The Charlotte store is a few years old.

 

I don't keep track of their service staff, I live in Greensboro. BTW, changing out a battery is easy, you can do it yourself.

 

I would trust them to change a battery. If they are like the Greensboro crew though, it might take awhile for them to get to it. But who knows, Pista owners might get put to the first of the line. I'm just a lowly F430 and 458 owner so whenever I need a simple service, I have to wait...and wait...and wait. It really is super easy though.

 

As I understand it, the Charlotte location has been open since I think 2009 but was not an authorized Ferrari dealer/service center until very recently. Now that both stores support Ferrari I believe there are Fcar techs at each location. Feel free to reach out if you need help with the battery.

 

Foreign Cars Italia, aka Paramount Automotive Group has been the owner of the Greensboro Ferrari franchise since 2000. Prior to that, it was owned by someone else in Greensboro, can't remember his name. The Charlotte store is owned by the same dealer group, Paramount Automotive Group. I know the Charlotte store has been around for at least 2 years because I was looking at their inventory online prior to buying my F430, which was 2 years ago..

 

God, do I miss Terry Meeler.

 

Foreign Cars Charlotte has been around for a while, but it was not an official Ferrari dealer until the last month or so. I stopped in after dropping my 4C off for some warranty work at the Alfa dealer next door and met some of the staff. They mentioned that the service is performed in the same building as Alfa and other brands, but that Ferrari requires them to have several stalls that are Ferrari only.

 

Might be tmi, but for fun:

Steve Barney started Foreign Cars Italia in the late 70s and I think he sold part or most of it to Paramount around 1992, but stayed on for at least a few years after. FCI Greensboro moved to its current location in late 2004.

He later went on to open Sport Auto in Summerfield around 2001, which became a Lamborghini dealer in 2003 and built the Lamorghini Carolinas building on Wendover (near Battleground intersection) around 2007. He sold the original Sport Auto building about a year ago and they still perform service in a recently renovated building that he's long owned next door (old firehouse across from the current firehouse). Lamborghini Carolinas was sold to a customer in Charlotte a while back and relocated down there.

FCI Charlotte opened in 2005 as a Maserati point and when they moved to the Tyvola location around 2008, they added the Aston Martin franchise. As time went on, Jaguar/Land Rover corporate wanted the brands paired together and I believe Scott Jaguar sold their franchise and then leased the remaining buildings to FCI. They then knocked down the middle building which sold wheelchair minivans and added the Bentley franchise to the former Jaguar store and expanded their overall service capabilities (there was very very limited service in Charlotte prior). I think FCI is the second or may be the third owner of the Bentley franchise in Charlotte, as it struggled under previous ownership due to the long-established store in High Point.

Aston franchise was released from FCI Greensboro sometime in the last year I think, so now there's only one point in NC, and the building that used to hold the Aston showroom in Charlotte has now been fully converted to the current Ferrari design theme for dealerships. I checked out the staff page a couple weeks ago and from what I can tell, I do not think they relocated anybody from the gso location to clt (who would want to, with current housing prices anyway?)

 

WD above gives a good summary of the history. For Bentley they are only the second dealership here in Charlotte. Felix had one for about a year and closed in 2015 or so. The Ferrari dealership in Charlotte, while owned by Paramount like Greensboro, did just open and it is a separate Ferrari license/franchisee. Not an extension of Greensboro. Have not heard of tech moving here but not certain.

If we can ever help with your Ferrari, or other British or Italian cars please let us know. Unlike some manufacturers Ferrari does not allow independents to perform warranty work but we are comprehensive in providing all services after both mechanical and paint/body or customization.

 

Peter, have you guys ever replaced the speed and pressure sensors in the 458 DCT? If so, how much would you charge for this? I bought a 458 in TX that will need those sensors replaced.

 

Wasn't sure about Bentley, so thanks for the info. I remember Felix ran it out of his Mercedes store initially but then went to Independence, so wasn't sure if there was an ownership change there or not. Just looked it up - apparently he made an agreement in his lease for a building from Hendrick to not to sell any pre-owned that Hendrick had a franchise for and that killed their ability to sell pre-owned.

If I recall correctly, the owner of High Point was somewhat on the warpath when they first gave that license and fought tooth and nail to keep it from happening and then to compete hard for every deal when it did. He had renovated and expanded his store in the previous years, so can't blame him there. I think the store struggled initially at FCI, but when everything picked up the last few years, it's done pretty well.

I happened to see a BMW with FD plates and Bentley High Point tags a couple months ago (seemed weird to me) and looked it up to find that a dealer group from CLT/Pineville bought the store earlier this summer. Honestly surprised that Bentley didn't just retire the point

 

Has there been a good time when a Bentley dealership made sense on Main St in High Point?

 

I love the guys at High Point, bought 2 Bentleys there in the last 18 months. They're small but great service and they're very attentive. I hope the new ownership doesn't negatively impact any of that.

 

Probably pre-NAFTA. There's a lot of old furniture money around High Point, and the area also pulled from the rest of the Triad. Greensboro had a considerable textile and insurance presence back in the day, and Winston with old tobacco money and textile too.

I think a while back, people asked Barney (founder of FCI) why Greensboro instead of Raleigh and Charlotte, and I think the answer was along the lines of how central it was bc of the network of interstates (which have been greatly expanded since then [I-40, 85, 74, 73, and 77]). I'm assuming the founder of Bentley HP felt the same way or the presence of FCI back then created the market for exotics here in the triad vs the two larger cities.

When you think of it, every exotic brand to come to NC with the exception of McLaren was first placed in the triad - Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lambo, Aston

 

Yeah, Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte are pulling away from the Triad, however the populations used to be somewhat more comparable which led to the Triad being an ideal spot for all the exotic dealers due to only being about 1.5 hrs away from each. Now that the Charlotte metro is nearing 3M people though and there is a crazy amount of new money, exotics have gotten way too common to justify the nearest dealerships being over an hour away. I remember when I was a teenager you would maybe see one or two Lambos a month, now I see probably 5-10 a week here. I have heard that McLaren of Charlotte is the highest volume McLaren dealer in America (if not the world).

What is really crazy (and would have been completely unthinkable even just a few years ago) is that Charlotte has landed a dealerships for Koenigsegg, Rimac, and a few other very low volume automakers recently, and there are rumors that a Bugatti dealer will be joining those soon. Charlotte is in pretty rarified air, and at least in terms of exotic dealerships is closing in on the very top-tier cities such as LA and Miami. However when was RR in the Triad? I know there is a RR dealer in Raleigh which I believe is one of the only standalone Rolls dealerships in the world.

 

I think the central location of Greensboro is a large part of the explanation but also in the old world economy Greensboro/Triad was probably (or arguably) making more millionaires than Raleigh or maybe even Charlotte. Clearly things are different now.

Years ago (2008 or so) I was president of the NC Chapter of FCA and really an inordinate amount of the long-term members were people from the Triad but year by year most of the new members were from the Triangle and Charlotte. The triangle people became the most active, much more so than Charlotte, but that’s another conversation.

As for Rolls Royce… High Point used to be the dealer for both Bentley and Rolls-Royce (when the manufacturers were sister companies) and the dealer/company was called Transco. I believe it all changed when the store got new ownership, the manufacturers split, and Rolls-Royce opened the standalone location in Raleigh.

 

Went to the new Ferrari point in Charlotte this past week while in town for work. Beautiful building and updates, the current design theme suits the space really well, arguably better than the upper showroom in gso. Store felt lifeless though and more stand-offish than many of the big-city dealers I've visited. Either way, glad it's there and think the city deserves it

 

I believe it was Steve Barney who owned FCA. He then started the Lambo dealership. A true southern gentleman.

 

If you ever need assistance outside of warranty we would be happy to help. In our 22 year of servicing Ferraris.
Regards
Peter

 

Was going to mention you. Yet to hear anything negative.

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