Posts Tagged ‘Buick’

Santa Monica Chevrolet-Buick: The Smallest Chevy Dealer in the US?

Posted: November 9, 2011 in Buick, Chevrolet, General Motors, Los Angeles Specific Issues
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I know GM has had a hard time here in LA.  Even though GM now has compelling and competitive cars in the market, it’s tough to sell cars to zombies under the spell of Toyota and Honda.  To state the obvious, GM has no one to blame but itself for the horrible products it sold over the past 35 years. Year after year, generations of Southern Californians deserted GM’s crappy products and ran into the waiting clutches of the reliable, inexpensive Japanese imports.

Slowly, GM is rebuilding trust with a new generation of customers here in So Cal; but dealer choices are still pretty sparse in Metro LA.   For a while now, I’ve been fixated with the GM (Chevrolet-Buick) dealership in Santa Monica because it’s the closest dealer to me and something I drive by often. Santa Monica Chevrolet-Buick was located on a small corner lot on Santa Monica Blvd at Centinela on the eastern edge of Santa Monica (90404).   The shallow lot left little room for inventory let alone a large number of service bays.  Hell, the Land Rover dealer two blocks away has a larger, much nicer facility.

Santa Monica Chevrolet-Buick was only in business for five or six years before it seemingly disappeared overnight earlier this year and morphed into Santa Monica Infiniti.  But it didn’t disappear – it’s hiding in plain sight – or so I’m told.

To look at the dealership, you'd be hard pressed to think that any GM products were being sold there.

After Infiniti took over, the old GM logos (Chevy, Buick and Oldsmobile) were removed from the top of the building.  At first, only the large Infiniti logo and “Infiniti” lettering appeared over the showroom entrance.  A cheap temporary banner for Santa Monica Infiniti covered the GM brands at the top of the building.  About a month ago, signage reading “Santa Monica” appeared in place of the then-tattered banner.

The new "Santa Monica" lettering is nice and clear. Still no hint at any affiliation with GM.

Over the summer, I stopped at the Infiniti dealer to check into whether or not it was still a Chevy-Buick dealership. I was accosted by a slimy salesman who didn’t like the fact I was taking pictures; but, he reassured me that it was still a Chevy-Buick dealership. I drove home and checked the official websites for Chevrolet and Buick; but only Chevrolet listed the Santa Monica location as a dealer.  If I were a customer I would have been hard-pressed to find the dealer at this address. You had to look closely to see the few small GM signs around the service entrance.

That was then.  Now, today, when I checked the factory websites, neither Chevrolet nor Buick lists a Santa Monica location.  Next, I did a Google search for Santa Monica Chevrolet and found some old listings.  I called the old number: 310 828-4424 and it was answered by an operator who identified the business as “Santa Monica Auto Group.”  I asked her if they still had a Chevrolet dealership and if so what was the location. She said there was still a Chevrolet dealership and it was located on Santa Monica Blvd at Centinela Ave.  It’s like the Infiniti dealer is embarrassed by the Chevy-Buick franchise, pushing it over to a tiny, obscure parking lot on the west side of the property. Very strange.

About a month ago, a new tombstone Chevrolet sign was installed at the entrance to service.  I have yet to see either the Chevrolet or Buick logo appear on the small glass and stucco crap-box of a building.  The new Chevrolet sign says that this is still a GM “authorized dealer.”  What does it means when your location is no longer listed on the official websites of the brands you claim to represent?

This is the new Chevrolet tombstone sign recently installed to remind customers that a dealership still exists on the site. It's not very noticable unless you're stuck in westbound traffic on Santa Monica Blvd.

I took pictures of the Chevrolet-Buick “inventory.”  I didn’t see any Buicks and only about a dozen Chevys, including the two red Corvettes by the sidewalk. Now, let’s be clear: real estate is very expensive in Santa Monica and it’s extremely common for dealers to keep lots of inventory at remote, usually covered, car parks. But I’ve never seen a franchise for such a large mainstream brand like Chevrolet relegated to a dozen cars parked on a cracked, uneven, barely-paved side lot. They don’t even get showroom space – at least not the day I drove by.

You can easily see the two red Corvettes in front; but the entire "lot" is only two cars wide and about six deep.

Here's a different view of the Chevrolet "lot." The yellow stucco building in the back is a residential apartment building, so you can see how shallow the commercial lot is.

Here's a look from a distance at the Chevrolet section of the dealership. Notice that there are no signs on the service entrance to indicate anything other than Infiniti.

If this is still considered a Chevrolet-Buick franchise by someone, I think it’s the smallest one in the United States. It’s also an embarrassment to the brands and maybe that’s the reason they’ve been delisted from the corporate websites. I’d love to hear from anyone who has bought a Chevy or Buick (or any GM vehicle) from this dealer recently.

Santa Monica Chevrolet – Buick: Hiding In Plain Sight

Posted: May 2, 2011 in Buick, Chevrolet, General Motors
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I’ve been on a mission for several months now, trying to find the location of the only Buick store from the 310 in Santa Monica to the 213 of Downtown Los Angeles.  I finally found it and it never actually moved!

Here’s the back story: Several months ago, Santa Monica Chevrolet Buick Oldsmobile suddenly became Santa Monica Infiniti.  A big banner went up over the store’s front door, all GM vehicles disappeared from the showroom and pre-owned Infiniti vehicles populated the few parking spaces in front.

I thought this was a good move as Nissan’s luxury division needed a presence on the West Side since the Beverly Hills store disappeared several years earlier.  If you lived in Metro LA,  you had to drive to Miller Infiniti in Van Nuys to shop and get service for an Infiniti.  That fact alone was hurting sales as no one voluntarily drives to The Valley from the “other side” of the Santa Monica Mountains unless it’s for work  or to visit your family.

I also thought the size of the dealership fitted the Infiniti brand.  The location on the north west corner of Santa Monica Boulevard at South Centinela Ave. was always embarrassingly small for a Chevrolet-Buick (and long defunct Oldsmobile) dealer.  There was barely any room for big trucks and SUVs let alone the few Chevy Aveos that used to show up in the one row parking lot in front. There were only a few service bays and the roof couldn’t hold much inventory.

However, for a relatively low-volume brand like Infiniti, it made sense. The building was there as were the necessary service bays, so up front capital cost was low.  And Infiniti was finally represented on the West Side again.

I went online to find out what happened to the Santa Monica Chevrolet-Buick dealership.  Buick’s dealer locator still gave the same address; but I thought it just hadn’t be updated yet. However, as recently as couple weeks ago, the website still showed the old location.

I drive past this address a few times a month. Each time I drive by, all I see is evidence of an Infiniti dealership. In fact, the original big banner came down and was replaced by a large Infiniti logo over the showroom door. The top of the building still had signage in the form of the old, faded badges for Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Buick and I noticed the GM service sign on the service entrance tombstone.  I thought those were just vestiges of the old dealer.  I just assumed that eventually those logos would come down as the faded yellow building was repainted and upgraded. That didn’t happen.

Both websites for Chevy and Buick insisted that the dealership was still there.  Yet each time I drove by the location, I scoured the parking lot and service bays for signs of a GM dealership.  No luck — I just wasn’t looking hard enough.

The last time I drove by, I parked and got out of the car.   The only indication I saw of a GM presence were a few new Buicks and a Chevy Camaro parked in storage to the west side of the lot – no more than 12 – 16 vehicles in total.  Was this it?  Really?

The large make-shift bow tie hints at Chevrolet. Note the few new cars behind the sign. I see one Camaro there. The trucks and SUVs must be elsewhere.

I took a picture of the Chevrolet/GM sign by the service driveway.  I took pictures of the building and the used cars in front. Yes, there it was, the most pathetic, lonely, GM dealer I’ve ever seen.  No big signs or balloons  here.

The reason they left the faded logos on top of the snow cone stucco and glass building was because, apparently, if you looked hard enough and wanted to buy a Chevy or Buick, someone inside could help you.   Don’t plan on strolling through the lot looking at window stickers and comparing colors.  Not at this dealer.  I hope there is more inventory than the sad sack bakers dozen shoved off to the side.

Faded GM badges, including Olds which was discontinued in 2004. Note the big Infiniti badge above the main entrance.

I’m sure that Infiniti didn’t want their expensive luxury cars sharing showroom space with lowly GM brands, so maybe that was the deal with the devil the dealership made to merge the two GM brand stores with their newly-acquired Infiniti franchise. You can sell Chevy and Buick, just don’t put them inside the showroom.  Maybe there was a Corvette or Regal on the floor – I just didn’t see it.

The used cars parked in front were mostly from Infiniti. There was a Honda Civic and on the corner facing Centinela, there was a 2006 Chevy Silverado pickup truck waiting for someone to buy it.

After I’d snapped the photos below, I got back into my car and some smarmy salesman/manager/owner (I have no idea his position with the dealership) ran up to me just as I was driving away. He wanted to know why I was taking pictures. I told him I was curious.  He wanted to know what I was curious about. I said “I’m curious about the dealership.” He needed to know why again, so I explained I was looking for the Chevy-Buick store and wondered if it was still there, with Infiniti. He responded in the affirmative and I drove off.  All this happened while he was on his iPhone 4 talking to someone else.

I’m glad someone noticed; however, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t much business that Monday afternoon and when someone drove up and stood on the sidewalk taking pictures, it may have been the most exciting thing that happened that day.

Across the street, in place of a small auto body repair shop, was the service location for most GM brands.  I’d seen that location before, but concluded that it wasn’t the dealership because there was no showroom space and I only saw a few cars and mechanics working there.  What I didn’t realize is that the small shop was THE service location for the Chevy-Buick dealership – that’s so pathetic I felt sorry for GM.  It certainly shows how unpopular the GM became in L.A. over the past two decades.

That's it folks! That litttle corner service center is definitely labeled Santa Monica Group Chevrolet Buick. There is a Chevy bow tie in front, but no Buick badge in sight.

So just in case you wanted to test drive a new Buick Regal or check out a Corvette, the Santa Monica Chevrolet Buick dealership still exists and might be able to help you find a car. It’s there; just hiding in plain sight.

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