Family Classic Cars has moved into a new 40,000-square-foot showroom in San Juan Capistrano.
This isn’t your ordinary auto dealer. Rides there can go for more than $500,000.
The auto dealer sells exotics, classics and restored muscle cars.
Family Classic needed more space to displace its fancy wheels so it snapped up a former Saturn dealership site and moved out of its small garage-like space in San Juan Capistrano.
It’s now showing about 40 cars, including a Shelby G.T. 500 and a beige 1962 fuel-injected Corvette Roaster. The auto dealer also is offering monthly storage space for rent plus auto maintenance services.
A Disney artist is painting murals on the walls, one of which will surround a big-screen TV. The mural will look like a drive-in theater with the TV as the screen.
Family Classic, co-owned by Marc Spizzirri of Family Automotive, is in the process of putting together plans for even bigger digs in Dana Point. It won’t move for a few years.
Manager Larry Alderson recently hosted his car collector’s club,The Hideout,at the new facility. Legendary racecar driver Dan Gurney attended the event.
To visit the new showroom via a live cam, visit www.familyclassiccars.com.
Let’s Make a Deal
General Motors Corp.’s “Employee Discount For Everyone” campaign has hit a nerve.
Irvine-based Kelley Blue Book Co. and Harris Interactive’s monthly AutoVibes report says customers increasingly don’t want to buy without the incentive.
Makes sense amid all the competition among automakers.
More than half of the U.S. adults who plan to buy or lease a vehicle in the next year said they won’t without a discount, according to the AutoVibes survey. That’s up from 44% last year. Seventy one percent say they’re likely to buy when an incentive is offered.
The companies surveyed about 2,000 adults who plan to buy or lease a car during the next year.
Kelley’s site, www.Kbb.com, has a rundown of some of the new cars for 2007. Styling autos include the 2007 195 miles-per-hour Bentley Continental Flying Spur, the Dodge Charger and the cute 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser safari car.
Metrosexual Makeover
There’s another men’s grooming salon for the “metrosexual” man in Orange County.
Metro For Men opened on Alton Parkway in Irvine. For those who haven’t seen all the coverage the trend has been getting, a metrosexual is a heterosexual man who likes to keep himself well groomed.
That means manicures, pedicures,treatments usually thought of as women-only services. Other manly amenities at Metro For Men: drinks, cigars, satellite TV at each station and a shoeshine.
A similar concept, Moxie For Men, opened last year in Laguna Beach.
Bigger, But Better?
Anaheim retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.’s rollout of its new PacSun store prototype at the Tyler Galleria mall in Riverside raised a big question for some observers: Will the 9,000-square-foot store drive enough sales per square foot to handle the higher costs of running a bigger floor such as payroll and rent?
Stacy Pak, an analyst with Prudential Equity Group, liked the new look. The prototype design, with faux upside down skateboard ramps flanking each site, is set to replace existing store designs.
The Tyler Galleria store is more than twice as big as PacSun’s other stores.
Shoes are highlighted with blue neon lights, according to a store clerk. Tees are featured on a big table in the middle of the store. Girls’ fashions also are a bigger part of the mix.
Women’s Wear Daily described the new look as “mod but sophisticated.”
It’s also a bit more feminine thanks to more girly clothing colors, such as pinks and oranges.
The clothing magazine says that 20 stores are set to be remodeled this year. The next is in Volusia, Fla.
Riverside Goes Upscale
Riverside’s growth has boosted demand for high-end clothing, according to a recent story in the Press-Enterprise.
Boutiques such as Playhouse Clothing, Bella’s and Stephenson Cree that have cropped up in the area give Riversiders an option to shop near home instead of traveling to Fashion Island or South Coast Plaza, according to the report.
Playhouse, for example, offers that same $350 pair of True Religion Jeans that fashionistas could get by driving an hour or so to OC’s top malls.
Auction Action
Net2Auction Inc., a Las Vegas-based company that offers eBay dropoff services, has opened its first six locations in OC.
The openings are part of the company’s push to launch 75 stores this year.
Net2Auction competes with Costa Mesa-based QuickDrop International, which has more than 40 U.S. stores. Others include ISold it LLC, which has a store in Costa Mesa.
Dropoffs are sites where people leave items they want to sell on eBay. Photos are taken by the companies, which handle the auction for a fee. The sale proceeds are sent to the seller.
Net2Auction sites are at pack-and-ship stores in Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Tustin and Irvine, where the company opened at two locations.
