The long-planned and oft-delayed South Coast Motorcars store in Mission Viejo is being redesigned and may become a showcase for all of Ford Motor Co.’s luxury brands, while plans for a satellite location in Newport Beach have been withdrawn.
The luxury automotive division of Ford, Premier Automotive Group, is in the midst of consolidating its five brands’ headquarters into a 300,000-square-foot facility under construction in the Irvine Spectrum. The group recently began talking with local dealerships about establishing a new, yet-to-be-named multi-brand OC dealership that would incorporate the Volvo, Lincoln, Jaguar and Aston Martin lines as well as Ford’s latest acquisition, Land Rover, all under one roof.
It would be a new dealership concept: featuring all the company’s luxury brands together in a North American market with high-end demographics. One plan would display cars in separate showrooms under a single roof and another would incorporate separate dealerships on a single campus.
As part of that effort, Ford is re-evaluating the glitzy South Coast Motorcars project in Mission Viejo, while a plan for a satellite showroom in Newport Beach already has been called off.
Three years ago, Jaguar Cars of North America proposed building a South County dealership featuring specialized services and upscale amenities as a prototype for Jaguar and Aston Martin. The pre-marketing blitz for the upscale dealership included hosting special social events to get potential customers’ input on its design and amenities. Jaguar Cars sold the South Coast Motorcars dealership to U.K.-based operator Pendragon plc in January. Plans were to open the dealership in fall 2000.
Now architects are working on a new design for the 2.7-acre site and construction has been postponed indefinitely.
“We are revising the plans and I don’t know when the start date will be, but we are redoing the plans and sometimes that takes six to eight months,” said Gordon Mountjoy, one of two architects working on the project.
“A lot has happened since South Coast Motorcars was first proposed,” said Tom Mattia, vice president of public affairs at Lincoln Mercury. “We are just taking a pause (with the South Coast Motorcars project). Ford continues to own the land and we are looking at its best use. We do want to look at opportunities for a Premier Automotive Group dealership location someplace in Orange County.”
Victor H. Doolan, the Premier group’s North American executive director for marketing and distribution, is heading up efforts to determine what would be the best use of the Mission Viejo site, Mattia said.
Pendragon is one of the U.K.’s largest dealer groups, with franchises selling Fiats, Jaguars, Volvos, Aston Martins and Mazdas. Pendragon exec Russell Smith was installed as project director and general manager of South Coast Motorcars and told the Business Journal in February that this was his company’s first U.S. presence.
“We are big partners with Jaguar in the U.K., and we plan to expand in the U.S.,” said Smith, who had been franchise director of Pendragon’s Prestige Motor Cars division.
It is unclear what role, if any, the British company might have should the multi-brand concept be adopted. Pendragon has extensive experience running luxury dealerships in the U.K.
Meanwhile, Jaguar Cars of North America last month dropped its plan to build a satellite store in Newport Beach,putting an end to a dispute with Bauer Jaguar in Santa Ana, which in August 1998 protested the plan to the California New Motor Vehicle Board, saying the satellite site would infringe on Bauer’s territory. Jaguar allowed its lease option on the site at 3298 Coast Highway to expire, said an attorney for Bauer.
New Strategy
Premier Automotive Group executives are talking with OC dealerships that sell its brands, including Bauer Jaguar, about their potential involvement in the new dealership concept. The strategy is one that the company hopes will one-up competing luxury-car dealers such as Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach.
“There are several options, but we will do what makes the most sense for consumers and dealer bodies for all the brands in the area,” Mattia said. “This is Southern California and it’s such a critical market for luxury auto products that we want to make sure all the brands come to market in the best way.”
Time of Transition
This is a time of transition at Ford, which two years ago moved its Lincoln Mercury division from Michigan to Irvine. Later the Volvo, Jaguar and Aston Martin operations were acquired and the Premier Automotive Group was created in 1999. Volvo will move about 150 employees here from its headquarters in Rockleigh, N.J. Also, Jaguar and Aston Martin, which share headquarters in Mahwah, N.J., will move about 60 of its 260 U.S. employees to the West Coast. Doolan was hired away from BMW in July to head up the U.S. operations and set up a distribution strategy for the new brands in North America. Additionally, Jaguar North America CEO Mike Dale retired this spring and was replaced by Mike O’Driscoll.
“It’s been a very dynamic situation,” Mattia said. “The acquisition of Land Rover was finalized last week, so we are moving forward on projects that make sense and others like (the Mission Viejo dealership) that would be a major investment in Orange County, so we want to make sure it’s done right.”
The Mission Viejo site is the former home of Mission Imports, which moved across the freeway to Laguna Niguel in 1998. Although the original plan for South Coast Motorcars was approved in May 1999, the city of Mission Viejo never received applications for building or grading permits to begin the project. About two months ago, the city received erosion and landscaping plans, officials said.
The dealership spent an estimated $1 million on the sponsorship of numerous upscale OC events and programs such as the Concourse d’ Elegance, the Orange County Museum of Art, the Treatment Assessment Center and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Also, the company hired Madeline Zuckerman Public Relations in Newport Beach to head up its PR efforts.
“I think they did a marvelous job creating a sense of awareness about Jaguar and the upcoming enterprise,” said Mattia, who added that it is undetermined whether the multi-brand dealership concept would employ the same tactics or retain the South Coast Motorcars name.
The proposed South Coast Motorcars site sits across the street from Land Rover Mission Viejo on Marguerite Parkway. It is a block away from Lexus Mission Viejo, which is building a new, larger store on the same street. A Saab dealership will move into the current Lexus site. n
