2 Maserati Dealers in Dallas?????

I don't think that will go over very well with Mr. Risi.

 

Yep, my partner just dropped his Maserati coupe for service yesterday at Park Place. I understand there was some dispute over marketing or advertising costs, so PP got a store

 

http://www.parkplacetexas.com/DealershipHome.asp?DealershipID=14

 

I noticed Park Place started selling Maserati's over the holidays. All of a sudden they had two sitting in the used lot and one on display inside. I haven't seen any over there lately, but I only get to look on the weekends when I'm home.

 

Yes, Amanda works for me.

 

Rob, that wouldn't entirely surprise me. I've been hearing some things about Park Place making more space and trying to expand things. They have been selling Bentley as well since sometime last year. MB, Porsche, Maserati, Bentley.... what's next?

Other news of late, is the Aston Martin showroom on Lemmon has opened recently. Can't wait for some of the new models to be coming through there.

 

Egad, that's bad news. Its a pleasure to drive over and spend time at the Plano facility. I absolutely HATE driving down to Park Place in comparison... lousy little roads, excess traffic. If they move Ferrari down there, it'll definitely reduce the pleasure of owning a Ferrari.

Hopefully they instead make the FMoD building a satellite Park Place location for their various marques and keep Ferrari service there. It would be a shame to lose that beautiful facility.

 

Ahhh... a little searching and I found what I remembered hearing about Park Place. They bought out the old Haggar headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, near Love Field. They are planning on moving out there at some point. Sounds like they have an agreement to sell the current location to the Presbyterian church across the street. I assume they are gonig to raze the Haggar buildings and build something new. Will it include Ferrari? hmmmm...

 

Even if they gut an entire block on lemon they still will be on lemon Terrible neighbourhood to have a car dealership (IMHO)....road bad traffic worse than on Oaklawn....

the Plano location has bunches of land next door.... and the typical customer for this may not be the highland park matron but someone living more out of that enclave....

 

I think the keys to the Lemmon move are:
1) still in the same general area as before, so you're not upsetting current customers.
2) much more "car buying" traffic, since I read there are something like 14 other dealerships along that stretch of road, including Lexus, Infiniti, Audi, Aston Martin, and other competitors.
3) more space. I love the Oak Lawn location because it's very unique (plus I love going by it all the time and checking the inventory since it's very close to me), but there is no room to grow. They simply don't have enough space, and the Lemmon location is definitely bigger.

The Plano location only comes into play if they're buying out the Ferrari dealership, which is still only speculation. I would imagine Park Place inked the deal to buy the new space first (first word of the move was about a year ago).

 

The thing to remember is the traditional Maserati buyer is a businessman looking for a fun toy that still rides like a "regular" car. The idea of having a dealership near Highland Park makes sense.

It's a different market than Ferrari.