hello, i know there is someone out there who is beter qualified than me to answer this. doesn't the costs of a dealership to build a all new state of the art dealership (Lake Forest Sportscars) or a dealership rennovation (Continental's new indoor showroom) reflect higher operating costs? which then reflect higher selling prices? the example i have was here in rockford. Auto Werks of Rockford (porsche/mercedes/jag/audi) moved from a small but very successful dealership to a mega-plex dealership in the high rent district. the owner apparently was so quickly in the red, that he had to sell the franchise to the Napletons dealership within one year of moving into the new facility. my point is the "old" LFSC in downtown Lake forest was a small, charming dealership. the new one, while state of the art, has to have a significant impact on their bottom line. (Continantal's too) any thoughts? thanks.
I don't know about the cost structure, but isn't the argument a bit of a mood point: Unless you are a dealer, you can't sell any new cars. So regardless of what potential overhead costs you might carry, you have no real competition in the market of new cars.
LFSC now has much more room to service the cars, which is where the money is. Previously, if your TR needed a lot of work and could not / should not be driven, it had to sit around for awhile before all the parts came in. Now, they can at least get started on the car as the parts come in, because they have soooo much more room now. You can only move so many cars, especially when the new ones are limited in production. With the internet (Homer:"the internet? is that thing still around?"), everyone is an exotic car dealer, so moving used ones is somewhat limited too.
thanks for the reply, i guess what i meant is that if you sell X amount of cars each year and then double the size of your dealership, are you going to be able to sell twice as many automobiles to make up the difference? probably not. again, i love the two chicagoland ferrari dealerships. i am no expert (obviously) in the business end of a situation like this. thants why i was asking. thanks. joe
I think that you are "right on the money" there, Joseph. I've been checking around for a 30K on my 308. And both of those places are quoting about $2000.000 more than the prices that they quoted just a couple of years ago....before their moves and renovations. They used to say about $6500.00, now $8500.00!!! Thats like 20 to 30% of the value of a 308! (Which, I have found, usually gets no respect until it's service time... ) And, I'm not thinking that $200K plus cars are flying out of the Showroom on a daily basis. Therefore, hit 'em with the Service costs to make it up...
You can't use that argument because otherwise a 400 or a GT4 or a Mondial would never get serviced. And sadly that's often what happens. Service costs are what they are, independent of the overall value of the car. Having said this, give Ed a call.
Well, I thought it was due, but I found that it wasn't necessary yet. So I held off. Also, I had an inkling of bringing it down to that place in Texas, "Norwood Engineering" and having a little bit of "extra" work done.... Thanks for the referral! I appreciate it!
Oh yeah, I know. I wasn't using it as an argument. But it's just kind of funny...The poor little 308 gets little or no respect...especially, it seems, from the Ferrari dealers these days....UNTIL.....it's Service Time. THEN....all of a sudden.... Then, you look at what an independent guy charges. Who is just as qualified, if not more, and fully capable of doing the SAME EXACT job. And it's almost 1/2 the cost! Same quality Ferrari parts. Same Know How. Same time to do the job. Less overhead. Thats all. But, in comparison, it would be like paying $50K to service a 430!.... No, the cost does not bother me. As I mentioned in the earlier post. I was considering bringing it down to Norwood and having it serviced AND worked over alittle bit. Which wouild probably then cost more than the FCar dealer service. But....with some "Extra" oomph!.... Much more worth it then, IMO....
