schnellmb

The guy who ones several local dealerships, including MB, Acura, Saab, Audi, Cadillac, Buick, Dodge, Chrylser, among others has reshuffled a franchise to another.

They have added Saab to the Cadillac/Audi dealership. I know GM owns Saab, has anyone seen Saab dealerships realign with a GM dealership?

I'm wondering how Audi would feel about Saab sales so close. I know many dealers have competiting lines. The building doesn't look like any other Audi dealership I've been in either. There aren't separate venues to sell these cars.

Interesting observation.

Cargasm2.7

A lot of dealers in midsized cities sell all the lux. Euro brands, it's common.

April

They still blend the dealerships sometimes, but it tends to be the VW and Porsche blend.

RyanJohn2.7

Not the best dealer tho<ul><li><a href="http://www.petersontoyota.net/en_US/">peterson</a></li></ul>

schnellmb

They don't put the effort in Audi--they hustle Caddys. My sales guy in Cleveland was telling me about some possible restructuring of dealerships in this area--there's one here, but 3 in Cleveland. I wonder if something is going on...hmmmn.

For example, Lexus does not have a dealership here, and there are quite a few running around. Closest one is 65 miles away. They do pickup-delivery service, or just do service at your house. If Lexus was here, they would do a killing.

There are alot of Audis here. Closest Audi dealer is outside of the local one is 75 miles from me--my dealer. I don't think Audi would close a dealership in this market.

I bet Audi will have a grump about this, since lack of different showrooms, or maybe this is a signal that things would change. I would like to see the local VW/BMW dealership pick up Audi.

no.radar

All SEVEN Chicago-area Audi dealers are now exclusively Audi.

ESN

AoA is now mandating that the new Audi stores be "Audi-only" facilities.

April

It does sound odd that there aren't more stand-alone highline stores around. Must be that the old time dealers have a strangle hold on the market.

schnellmb

They make their sales on Cads, not Audi. They carry some intersting inventory on their Audis, but don't sell much--hence the S4 that's been on their lot since March, and the left over Slines and a 4.2. They don't like to deal and have the service to match.

The Benz dealer was bought by this "big guy" about 15 years ago (Benz dealer is small, he has maybe 10 cars in inventory). A few years ago, this same guy bought the Caddy/Audi dealer.

The only indy dealer is the BMW dealership, but they have VW &amp; Volvo, along w/ Suby &amp; Kia.

Interesting....I just want to see Audi well represented, and not treated as a side line when things could be much, much better locally.

That's why I drive 75 miles to Cleveland. : ^ )

April

even lower margins over invoice than I ever sold any decently outfitted C5. The dealer and salespeople take one look at that, and go back to selling Caddys to Grandmas and Grandpas and wannabe rappers ;-(