Mazda
is upgrading to "
Mazda Evolution" showrooms. I was just at my dealership, and the sales guy showed me the architectural drawing of it...a two story all glass building. Supposed to be done in 2 years.
The interesting thing at this location (Flow Mazda in Charlottesville, VA) is that the owners hold local dealerships for Mazda, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche. They are gong to consolidate these dealerships into one location (something like a small strip mall), with the Mazda Evolution building being the anchor. The rest of the buildings are nondescript smaller white brick. Anyone going there to purchase any of those brands will be drawn to the Mazda building. And customers for each specific brand can walk to each adjacent building to check out the other brands. This can only accrue to Mazda's benefit.
In North Carolina, Flow also has dealerships for Buick, GMC, Nissan, Mini, Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Honda, Lotus, MV1, Subaru, Jaguar, and Land Rover in 7 towns/cities. They sell Mazdas in 2 of those towns. If this format is repeated there, it should also help to expose more folks to the brand.
Also makes me wonder if these modern showrooms might provide a foundation for your idea, Antoine. But there are just so many challenges when you're the size that Mazda is. So tough to justify boutique showrooms. It would be interesting to see regional sales broken down by model. There may be a couple of locations where this could be justified. Members on the CX-5 forum speak of having 6 Mazda dealerships within easy driving distance (somewhere in Ohio.) I have one dealership 20 miles away, another one 40 miles away, and the next closest is 90 miles away.