Vancouver, BC – Select guests were invited to the VIP Grand Opening party of the new Mercedes-Benz Boundary Road dealership on Thursday October 23, 2014.
Although the dealership “soft” opened on September 3rd, the night’s event marked the VIP formal opening of the sprawling new three storey dealership, as well as the launch of the all new 2015 C-Class sedan and 2015 GLA-Class crossover
With around 1,000 guests, catering from award winning Hawksworth restaurant, a live band and the top brass from Mercedes-Benz Canada in attendance, the kick-off party was certainly worthy of the high-end ambience of its surroundings.
Formally located on Boundary Road, the new dealership is now located at 3550 Lougheed Highway in Vancouver and is the largest Canadian auto sales and service facility under one roof.
The 95,500 square building was built using state-of-the-art concrete pour tilt-up construction and is located on a 7.5 acre plot of land. It houses Mercedes-Benz luxury car sales, Smart car sales, and Sprinter commercial van sales departments. The latter was formally located in a separate building altogether.
There are 10 Mercedes-Benz sales, 1 Smart, and 6 Sprinter consultants manning the floor to serve customer needs.
The facility also houses a service and parts department, a client care centre (which books sales and service appointments for all 4 corporate dealers in the area), a business development centre, and acts as the Western Canada technical training facility for the brand. To encourage employee interaction, there is only lunchroom for all office staff.
There is extensive use of glass throughout the building to create an open and airy feel. To give you some perspective of the size of the showroom floor, it’s roughly the size of the CFL football field and can be used to showcase 40 cars inside in addition to the 10 spots out front. There are also plans to designate a section of the massive floor space for a dedicated AMG performance area in 2015.
Unlike other building designs, this dealership does not include roof top parking for inventory cars. Instead, there is a massive 240 spot parking lot out back that has been allocated for those vehicles.
General Sales Manager Jason Dickinson also took me on a behind-the-scenes tour of their shop area.
“There are 32 work bays – 27 Mercedes-Benz car and 5 heavy duty Sprinter lifts”, explained Dickinson. “8 of the bays are in front of the windows to the client workstation area where the customer cars are in full view of the owners”.
He further explained that after being checked in via a service advisor with an iPad, vehicles requiring more extensive work would be performed in the service bays further back, whereas routine maintenance would be done in plain sight.
“You can literally watched your car being worked on if you like”, joked Dickinson.
As a nod to the typical German high standard of precision, every passenger car lift is integrated into the floor and fluids are automatically portioned to each service bay depending on the make, model, and year of the car that is being worked on by a certified technician.
“The computer knows what vehicle is on the lift and the system works wonders in eliminate errors. It also minimizes wastage”, said Dickinson.
Efficiency, transparency, and customer satisfaction was a big consideration of the customer journey as there is even a sophisticated computerized workflow system, called Venue Vision. It shows the customer the live status of his/her vehicle in the servicing process if he/she opts to wait in the lounge for routine maintenance to be completed.
Mercedes-Benz Canada’s President Tim A. Reuss said, “We’re excited to have such a fantastic facility to serve our Vancouver customers. It’s a world-class facility worthy of a brand that has just won the Formula One constructors’ championship”.
If you’re a Mercedes-Benz fan, a new or existing customer, or just a fan of industrial architecture, be sure to stop by Mercedes-Benz Boundary to visit this state-of-the-art dealership of tomorrow for yourself.
It’s at least worth the bragging rights to tell your car loving friends that you’ve been to the largest auto sales and service facility under one roof in Canada!
