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Park Place Extends Pick-Up and Delivery Services to all Locations

‘Pick-up and Delivery’ will temporarily be offered at all Park Place Dealership locations for clients who continue to have service and detail needs. 

Park Place Dealerships recognizes that COVID-19 is affecting our clients’ day-to-day lives and we are here to continue to assist by offering pick-up and delivery for all your service needs. We want to make this difficult time as seamless as possible for you and your vehicle, while also ensuring you and our members assisting feel safe.

Click Here to Schedule Service

Park Place is taking extreme safety measures when it comes to sanitation for the health of our clients and members. You can expect the following precautions to be taken with every pick-up and delivery appointment for your vehicle and your loaner vehicle:

    • Member must wear latex gloves
    • Member will spray a liberal amount of dis-infecting cleaner into a micro-fiber rag
    • They will wipe the driver’s door handle thoroughly and then open driver’s door and wipe down interior door handle, switches, and armrest
    • Additional disinfecting cleaner will be sprayed into a micro-fiber rag and wipe down the steering wheel, center console climate control, console screens, switches, center console lid, and gear-shift selector
    • Our member will exit the vehicle and spray additional disinfecting cleaner into a micro-fiber rag and wipe down the driver’s side rear door exterior handle, interior handle, switches, and armrest.
    • FOR SUVS: Members will also wipe down the rear tailgate exterior release handle
    • They will wipe down passenger’s side rear door exterior handle, interior handle, switches, and armrest
    • and finally, they will wipe down the passenger’s side front door exterior handle, interior handle, switches, and armrest.

Once the sanitization process is complete, the member will mark the driver’s front window with a checkmark, and keys will be sanitized prior to handing them over to our clients.

Check out this service delivery from our team at Motorcars Dallas to see what these new pre-cautions look like:

Disclaimer for clients scheduling an appointment:  

Prior to a service appointment being scheduled, our service coordinators will ask the client the following questions to ensure the safety and health of everyone involved:

  1. Have you recently traveled outside of the United States or to a hot-zone state?
  2. Have you recently been around anyone with COVID-19 or COVID-19 symptoms?
  3.  Are you currently experiencing any flu-like symptoms?

Park Place’s top priority is to take care of our clients during this difficult time with top-notch service and increased health precautions. Contact us today to reserve your pick-up and delivery appointment:

  • Book Online: https://www.parkplace.com/schedule-service.htm
  • Call: 855-361-6745

Pick-up and delivery is by appointment only. Must have a valid U.S. driver’s license, insurance and credit card. Geographic restrictions may apply. See your dealer for full details. 

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BodyWerks Fort Worth Shop Manager – Born to be Wild

Member Spotlight: Greg Cinicolo, Body Shop Manager at BodyWerks Fort Worth

Westchester County in New York is well-known for its quaint villages and picturesque towns as well as open spaces and a network of beautiful parks. But Hells Angels? Yep. And at just five years old, Greg held the flashlight while his dad repaired the members’ Harleys from his garage in small-town White Plains.

 

“They’d babysit me,” he laughs. “Dad restored motorcycles and cars as a hobby and I’d pass him wrenches and other tools. The bikers took a shine to me and I remember having a blast. In fact, one of dad’s buddies is Chuck Zito, the actor from the HBO prison drama “Oz,” who was president of the New York Hells Angels chapter!”

Clearly, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree – Greg’s always been into cars and motorcycles. His family moved to Texas in 1984 and at 16, he went to work at a Chevrolet dealership and never looked back. “I even read books about body shops and repairs. For fun! I’m totally boring.”

Greg Began at Park Place in 2011

Greg began his Park Place career in 2011, serving as an estimator at Grapevine BodyWerks for six and a half years. He’s been in his current role, shop manager for BodyWerks Fort Worth, for almost three years and oversees 22 members as they go about their daily operations, which include everything from major to minor structural repair, paintless dent repair (PDR), paint and bodywork … and in several cases, even animal rescue.

“We’re not surprised by damage from floods and hailstorms,” he says. “But animals are another story. A client came into the Lexus service department with a hawk trapped in the vehicle’s grill. But they saved the hawk! Another time, raccoons made themselves at home in a vehicle. They were still in there by the time we got the vehicle, so that was a job for sure.”

It’s a Science…and an Art

One of the more challenging aspects of vehicle repair is also one of the industry’s oldest and most vexatious – paint-matching.

“It’s a science as well as an art,” he says. “Modern paints are all water-based acrylic polyurethane enamels and very durable, but UV rays are terribly destructive to any kind of paint and actually change the color. Vehicles with clear coat, basically a pigment-free paint, suffer much less UV damage than those without it and make matching much more precise.”

Fortunately for owners, Greg says that the BodyWerks members have all the necessary technical certifications and industry experience to make things right. They also have another essential ingredient – artistry.

“They’re really artists,” he says proudly. “They view these vehicles as their canvas. And day in and day out, they prove their gifts. It’s an honor to work with them.” 

Protect your Paint!

His advice to owners – take care of that clear coat. “Savvy owners know to wash the surface thoroughly, then polish the paint, then wax the polish. That protects the clear coat, which protects the paint. If you don’t have the time, we’ll do it for you. It’s a great investment to keep your vehicle pristine.”

Family First

It’s clear Greg is not only passionate about his profession, but he’s well-equipped to run this full operation. But while it might be hard to imaging, restoring vehicles to their “before wreck” condition isn’t his only focus. In fact, his priority is now his family.

“These days, my hobbies have less to do with repairing motorcycles and more to do with family,” he adds. “We have three girls ages 10, 8 and 3, so we basically live in our backyard. But none of them are holding flashlights and wrenches for me – yet!”

For more information on how to join the Park Place BodyWerks team or to book a free estimate visit us at www.ParkPlaceBodyWerks.com

 

 

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Game Day at the Park Place Auto Auction

An up-close-and-personal look at Park Place’s Auto Auction for area authorized dealers.

It’s 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon at Park Place Auto Auction in Plano, and the non-stop auctioneer chatter over the booming loudspeakers is silent now. The twin driveways are devoid of vehicles, while administrators inside the facility quietly wrap up the mounds of paperwork required to transfer ownership of nearly 200 vehicles.

But a mere two hours prior, the place was a buzzing beehive. Sedans, coupes, convertibles, SUVs, crossovers, pickups, minivans, sportscars and other vehicles of every make and manufacture creep slowly yet continuously along parallel driveways while about 200 potential buyers – independent and franchise dealers alike – raise a hand or give a nod and a wink to convey their bids. The din from fast-talking, sharp-eyed auctioneers is loud and urgent. Enormous wall-mounted monitors display a dizzying blur of vehicles and ever-rising numbers for all to see.

“The whole process is actually well under control,” says Kenny Parmentier, Operations Manager of Park Place Auto Auction. “But to outsiders, it tends to look like complete mayhem,” he adds with a chuckle.

Where Did It All Start?

The idea for getting into the auction business came from Park Place President Jordan Case, who wanted to create a clean, comfortable and well-kept environment where authorized dealers could find an extensive selection of both high-performance luxury cars and top-quality vehicles of all kinds, and engage in an efficient, hassle-free purchasing experience. In short, he wanted the auction business to function with the commitment to excellence that makes Park Place, well, Park Place.

More often than not, he’s on hand to savor the experience, which kicks off every Wednesday at 2 p.m. sharp. From that point, a vehicle is sold every 38 seconds. In the next 90 minutes, about 195 out of about 200 vehicles will have changed hands. And then it’s all over. Until next week, when it all starts again.

Where Do the Cars Come From?

Most of the vehicles come from Park Place pre-owned lots where they’ve been for 65 days, the result of trade-ins on something newer and shinier. Or they’re front-line vehicles that are getting long in the tooth as a new model year looms. The auction gives them all a chance to find new homes – and Park Place more room for more desirable pre-owned vehicles that will hopefully turn faster.

Celebrating its two-year anniversary in February, the Park Place Auto Auction business is run in partnership with America’s Auto Auction, a full-service company catering to dealers in 23 locations across 15 states. They handle all the day-to-day activity – checking vehicles in, taking pictures, and handling collections, payments, and titles.

Parmentier works for them, as does his five-member team.

“We’re running at a 95 percent success rate,” he says. “Once a vehicle is sold, the buyer has 48 hours to complete the sale and move the vehicle off the lot. It’s a fast-paced business and really quite exciting. It’s game day!”

In 2019, the business sold 8,647 vehicles or about 720 a month. Those that don’t sell one week – called “reruns” – go through the line again a week later for another shot at success, and are usually snapped up by eagle-eyed bargain hunters.

That certainly wasn’t the case when a 2019 Rolls-Royce and a 2018 McLaren came down the line.

“We don’t get those rarities all that often,” Parmentier grins, “but when we do, they’re show-stoppers!”

 

 

 

 

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Your Rights. Your Choice: Choosing Your Collision and Hail Repair Shop

When it comes to choosing your place for hail or collision repair,  some carefully worded phrasing and confusing verbiage from an insurance could imply that you do not have the right to choose your repair facility.  In an effort to empower our clients through what can sometimes be a frustrating situation (especially in the event of a collision),  Park Place BodyWerks will not only provide 100% guaranteed repairs with OEM certified parts and technicians, but our team of experts will guide you through the process and facilitate communication with the insurance company.

TRUE OR FALSE? The repair shop you want is not on the insurance network shop list, so an insurance company can’t guarantee the repairs?”

FALSE. By law, insurance companies cannot tell customers where to go for repairs. The Texas Department of Insurance Bill of Rights lists regulations for auto insurance claims.
 
Here are 7 things we recommend you consider before choosing your repair facility for your collision and hail repairs:
 

1. You choose where you want your vehicle towed and repaired. It’s the law.

2. You only need one estimate to determine the amount of damage.
3. Review your car insurance policy especially regarding car rentals.
4. Verify the insurance company pays for all covered repairs.
5. Take care in choosing the right repair shop because your safety depends on it.
6. Insurance companies have deadlines they must follow regarding the claims process
7. Ask questions until you get all of them answered. This is a step toward picking the right body shop.
 
Choosing a certified collision repair center is your choice. So learn more on how Park Place BodyWerks is here to not only provide top-quality repairs, but also assist you throughout the process with your insurance.