http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18425-2004Apr16.html

Excerpt from the bottom half of the article:


But Mazda already is at work putting up modern Smart-type dealerships in the United States. Mazda's see-through vending towers, which the company calls jewel boxes, have the same display and marketing mission as the Smart tower in Hambach.

"The idea is to draw as much attention as possible to the product in an environment that is friendly to the consumer," said Jay Amestoy, vice president of public relations for Mazda's North American group.

So far, five of Mazda's 700 dealers in the United States, all with some financial assistance from the company, have built jewel-box dealerships. O'Sullivan said that 30 such Mazda dealerships are "in planning."

Typical of the genre is Bountiful Mazda in Bountiful, Utah.

Bountiful opened its jewel-box store in January 2003. The dealership provides wireless communications technology for the assistance of its customers and employees. There are computer kiosks. There is the jewel-box display tower featuring the dealership's latest offerings. There are no tacky "closing booths" where customers are hammered into paying higher prices, or bamboozled into buying vehicles they really don't want. A fleet of washed, waxed, polished and vacuumed test-drive cars stands ready for consumers who want to drive before buying.

"All of those design elements are meant to create a car-buying experience that is like no other," O'Sullivan said, adding that Mazda "is putting a lot of its skin" on the line in the development of these new dealerships.

The company's financial assistance to dealers participating in the new marketing and building program can go as high as $350,000 per dealership, O'Sullivan said. "That means we want this to work, and that we are willing to do what is necessary to make it work," he said.

In the modern automotive retail world, car companies may have no alternative, O'Sullivan said. Cars increasingly are reaching parity in terms of quality, pricing and performance. Mazda is emphasizing styling, image and, if you will, vehicular soul in its popular "Zoom-Zoom" marketing plan.

"But the Zoom-Zoom philosophy has to be injected into our dealership network, too," O'Sullivan said. "The excitement of the selling process has to mirror the excitement of the cars."


Has anyone seen these Jewel-Box dealerships?

All i found find are these pics:

Premier Mazda Georgetown, Texas (http://www.ftwoods.com/projects-auto-pm.html)
Bountiful Mazda (http://www.bountifulmazda.com/about.html)

I've seen these types of dealerships in Toronto, Ontario but not a Mazda dealer yet.

We have a BMW dealership that opened up last year and is 5 stories high and in the 3rd and 4th floor are 6 huge (car sized) windows which display 6 of the brand new cars. The reason for this is free advertising that can be seen from the highway.
There is also a harley dealer here that is doing the same sort of thing, where the dealership is all glass and you can see all the bikes when you pass on the highway.

I've seen one in Columbus (or very similar) and Lang's here in Dayton has just built one like that. Plasma screens inside with playstations and gt3 :)

I haven't been by to see it completed yet, but they have been really excited about it.

Soposedly Sterling Mazda here in Michigan is being rebuilt like this. They have been working on it since I bought my car. I wonder how much longer it will take to finish?

-JiM

Mz's latest bonus program is really focusing on trying to get the Dealer body to inprove the appearance of the dealership facility.

They have one or two prototype dealers they helped to design and funded.

The program even pays the dealers up to 300,000 USD to help offset the cost of building/improving.

It seems the push is to have many more dealers as "stand alone" by the end of this year.

Yeah I considered buying my RX-8 from Bountiful. Their dealership was very impressive, like nothing ive ever seen before. They have computer kiosks that you can use to order the car you want. I thought this was cool until I sat down and saw that once you get past the main menu it just takes you to the website (which was down at the time). In the waiting room they had a PS2 with Gran Tourismo 3 with the unlocked RX-8 prototype. The salesman warned me not to play with that car though because it was too slow in the game.

Also the sales staff wasn't that great. I argued for 20 minutes with the sales manager about whether the touring package came with leather (he was wrong). And when I called back the following day (and the day after that) the salesmen I had been working with had taken the day off to 'go shooting' and then to attend a sales training. On the positive side, they were all very friendly and even when the pressure was on it was nothing like other dealerships 'what can I do to get you into this car today' style. This is largely circumstantial, but I have to admit that after being wowed by the building and the insane number of cars on their lot I was rather disappointed by the staff.

I do take my car here for service though. They hold the highest certification Mazda gives for their service shops.