Mario in a Mercedes-Benz?

2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA Mario

It isn’t often that we get to see the playful side from the creators of the world’s first automobile, Mercedes-Benz. Lucky for us, the other day Mercedes-Benz joined forces with Nintendo. The partnership brings a bit of luxury to a video game that has been a cornerstone of childhoods around the globe for decades.

The newly downloadable Mercedes-Benz 2015 GLA is available as your preferred mode of transportation on the new Mario Kart 8 on the Nintendo Wii and other Nintendo devices. This is sadly not going to be available on all versions of Mario Kart 8. It is currently only available in Japan, but rumors of the GLA in other countries are swimming around. Once Nintendo’s new game, Mario Kart 8, is released in Japan it is said that the lead character (Mario) will be driving a 2015 Mercedes Benz GLA in the opening scenes of the game. The GLA will be able to be driven as the GLA SUV and also as the GLA Kart with your choice of any of Nintendo’s playful characters in the driver seat.

Along with the new pair of digital wheels this partnership grants us, it also points to an even bigger marketing movement inside Mercedes-Benz For decades Mercedes-Benz has been mostly perceived as a car brand for old money customers, not in the same light as most of its neighboring luxury British car manufacturers, but sporting a base of clients with a rather high median age nonetheless.  A clear shift in Mercedes-Benz marketing shows the brand taking a swing at a younger target audience. The shift started gradually in the 1980’s with lower price range vehicles and has progressed to having a car that could suit a new college graduate or even royalty. Brand and buyer intelligence like this is what makes Mercedes-Benz in combination with their illustrious history and reliability a leader in automotive excellence.

If you are trying to make a car investment that will last then look no further than Park Place Motorcars a Mercedes- Benz dealer. Each vehicle is refined and perfected in Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz is the most reliable, elegant automobile on the road.

There is only one place you should trust to match the quality and care delivered with such a fine product – Park Place Motorcars a Mercedes-Benz dealership. With three convenient locations throughout the Metroplex Park Place Motorcars Dallas, Park Place Motorcars Fort Worth and Park Place Motorcars Grapevine all provide you with the quality of customer service that should come standard with a product like a Mercedes-Benz.

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The 2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe: What It Feels like to be Alive

2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe

How alive are you? That is the tag line for Jaguar’s new showcase of ludicrous performance and Jetson-esc technology that is encompassed inside all their new vehicles. The question is one that begs an answer yet the answer cannot be given properly until you find yourself behind the wheel of Jaguar’s newest fiend; The 2015 F-type coupe.

The Jaguar brand connotes picturesque images of James Bond villains and British royalty zooming through the long, windy roads that the Beatles sung about. The new F-Type coupe does not stray from those iconic imageries. It not only meets the top shelf criteria of Jaguar, but also takes the legendary brand to the next level. The 2015 F-type coupe is one of those machines that drives past you on the other side of the road and your car swerves into the next lane because the second you caught a sight of it your eyes instinctively had to follow it. As you attempt to get your head back on straight and cool off from the vision, you catch one last glimpse of the F-type as you glance into your rearview mirror but it is already gone. The 2015 F-type Coupe launches you from 0-60 in a mere 3.6 seconds. If that wasn’t enough to get your blood pumping then try one of these British beasts on a quarter mile track where your will  be pressed to the back of the seat because you will be flying down the track at a top speed of 122.3 MPH.

The design of the car exudes luxury and class while having that vibrant sprinkle of nostalgic charm flowing over each of its carefully crafted curves which only a Jaguar can deliver. When you strap in and find yourself at the helm of this speed demon you suddenly feel the need to loosen your tie, roll up your sleeves, throw your sunglasses on and press the gas pedal to the floor board.

The sound alone from the 2015 F-type coupe is enough to bring a grown man to his knees. Motor Trend said “The F-Type Coupe R sounds like an autopomorphic soccer hooligan. As if the big cat’s genetically predisposed to pelt the other cars with empty lager cans. And that’s just while cruising up and down the block. Open this monster up and boy howdy! The Coupe sounds good, incredibly, raucously, dirty, filthy double plus good. If you’re another car, you’ll be embarrassed that you almost certainly don’t sound anywhere near as sexy, as evocative, and as angrily hostile; you can’t compete with this mad Jag.”

If you are looking to walk around with the keys to what could be 2015’s most exhilarating new car or you simply want to experience the thrill of having your hands on the brink of automotive ecstasy then come by Jaguar of Plano or Jaguar Dallas to see for yourself the beauty that is the new 2015 Jaguar F-Type coupe.

2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe

The 2015 Porsche Macan: Porsche’s Newest Animal is Finally Released

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If the sports car purist in you is screaming to get behind the wheel of a machine meant for speed and hugging curves, but your practical side says buying a two seated speed machine is just not a smart move – well then you are going to be just fine. With the release of Porsche’s newest vehicle, the Porsche Macan, your inner speed demon and responsible parent sides can find a common ground in the driver’s seat of this amazing new machine. The Macan is the new brother of its enormously successful predecessor the Cayenne. Although the Macan is the new kid on the block, and definitely the smaller member of the family when it comes to cabin size, it still packs a punch the way only a SUV by Porsche can.

The Macan S comes barreling in with a 340-hp, 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 with all-wheel drive and a seven-speed transmission to ensure that even though there might be a back seat full of happy meals and soccer equipment, you still feel the power of driving a Porsche. The Macan is the perfect fusion of performance and utility: it maintains the essence of a sport car while not skimping on the comfort or function of an SUV. And with a base asking price just south of $50,000, this perfect package is also surprisingly affordable.

Looking for even more power and performance? Come by Porsche Dallas and take a test drive the Macan Turbo  – a total track tempest that hauls tail and a couple of golf bags.. The Macan is available now at Park Place Porsche Dallas.

For more reviews and run downs of the Macan, check out these articles by some of the most trusted publications in the industry: Autoweek, Motor Trend and Car and Driver.

Park Place Porsche Macan 2015

 

Maserati Lithographs: Framed Automotive History Finally Avalible

Park Place Maserati Fort Worth lithography

A brand new and important artistic project created to celebrate a century of Maserati victories, is available in the Maserati Store. The collection of 100 special-edition lithographs, inspired by vintage posters, will retrace the most important stages in Maserati’s sporting history. For those of you who are up to date on your fine art speak, lithography is a method of printing originally based on the principle that oil and water do not mix, making the textures and colors contrast while complimenting each other to provide an even more vivid image.

100 numbered prints of each individual lithograph will be produced, each signed by the artist, Enzo Naso. These exclusive prints have been created using high quality materials and techniques, reproducing the original poster, and featuring the Maserati model that starred in that particular competition.

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If you are a fan of nostalgic pieces of racing history, fine art, or simply see these Maserati special-edition lithographs to be pure eye candy, then you can make one yours at the official Maserati online store now.

The 100 Maserati lithographs will be released in five issues over the course of 2014, the Maserati Centennial year. Go to the online store now to get the first 20 prints from the collection!

Once you have one of these special edition lithographs, you might want to check out the vehicles that fueled the inspiration behind these works of art. If you do come by Park Place Maserati Fort Worth or Park Place Maserati Dallas and admire the large selection new and pre-owned Maserati vehicles in stock.

Arlington Chosen As Site For New Mercedes-Benz Dealership

Mercedes-Benz of Arlington Rendering

ARLINGTON, Texas (May 29, 2014) – Park Place Dealerships broke ground today on a two-story, 91,000 square foot Mercedes-Benz dealership in Arlington. The 16-acre site is located at Interstate 20 and Beltway Place. The project is expected to be completed in summer 2015 and will create more than 325 construction jobs and approximately 90 permanent jobs.

“Mercedes-Benz has one of the most exciting product lines in its history and there is a strong demand for the vehicles,” said Ken Schnitzer, chairman of Park Place Dealerships. “April sales for the brand were up more than 12 percent from a year ago. Arlington is a great market and with this new location, we will be able to better serve current clients in the area, as well as expand our client base.”

Mercedes-Benz of Arlington Rendering

Mercedes-Benz of Arlington, a Park Place Dealership, will feature a showroom that can showcase up to 16 new vehicles. The multi-million dollar project also willfeature a shop with 35 service bays and 10 make ready bays. Every area of the dealership has been designed to make the experience more efficient for the client.

Mercedes-Benz of Arlington will also handle sales and service for the line of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans. Three service bays in the shop will exclusively handle service for the vans. The Sprinter vans are available in cargo or passenger models.

Hesham Elgaghil, a Park Place member for nearly 14 years, has been named general manager of the dealership. Elgaghil has held several positions with the company including most recently, general sales manager at Park Place Motorcars Dallas.

“Park Place has consistently been recognized as one of the top places to work,” said Schnitzer. “Through Park Place University, we encourage members to continue to learn and as a result, we have a strong employee retention.  A significant number of our members have been with the company for more than 10 years.”

This will be the 18th dealership for Park Place Dealerships, which just opened a new Maserati store in Fort Worth earlier this month.

Good, Fulton & Farrell has been named the architectural firm for the project with Hill & Wilkinson handling the general contractor duties.

Ken Schnitzer founded Park Place Dealerships in 1987 with a single Mercedes-Benz dealership on Oak Lawn. Today, Park Place Dealerships employs nearly 1,800 people and operates 17 full-service dealerships representing luxury brands including Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Infiniti, Volvo, smart, Jaguar, Lotus, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, McLaren, and Maserati. For more information about Park Place Dealerships and Maserati, visit www.parkplace.com.

Park Place Online Marketing Partner Appreciation Event 2013

Thank you to all of our vendor partners who attended the Park Place Partner Appreciation Event at the Texas Rough Riders game to recognize your efforts. In attendance were our partners from AutoTrader, Cars.com, Century Interactive, Cobalt, the Dallas Morning News, DealerTrack, Dynamic Dealer Services, Online Performance Marketing, On Target Digital, RankHammer, Kari Mitchell, and our content maven, Meryl Evans. “We are thankful for all of your contributions in 2012 and 2013 that have made the online efforts at Park Place Dealerships successful,” said Frank Sobyak, Director of Internet Business Development. “This success has been based on your expertise, personal commitment, and a true sense of partnership.” Below are some photographs from this memorable family event. ParkPlace-VendorEvent-Kids

The kids really enjoyed cheering on the Rough Riders.

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And, there were even two baseballs that were caught by the kids – what a treat!

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The lollipops were good, and the kids also enjoyed the endless soda-pop bar and the ice cream sandwiches.

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But with all that sugar, things sure got silly.

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Bryan Phillips is from the DealerTrack team and has been instrumental in helping us to implement some payment and financing tools to help clients find payments that meet their purchase goals.

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Dan Laube is from Dynamic Dealer Services and his team helps make sure our vehicles are photographed and well merchandised on the Internet. His company also helps the dealership post vehicle listings on Craigslist. Dan and his team are always there for Park Place and consistently go the extra mile to overachieve.

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Kari Mitchell of KCreative creates the fabulous graphics and vehicle banners that you’ll see across our multiple websites. She also helped create several sections of the Park Place website. Kari is creative, smart, and fast and efficient. She is an invaluable resource and basically operates as a true extension of our team.

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Meryl Evans is most probably the best copywriter in town, she helps keep our clients informed about every new model that comes out with her comprehensive model guide overviews. Plus, she manages the SEO, specials and content on our Porsche Dealer website. Meryl has a great attention to detail and is always punctual with her deliverables.

Nicole-Cobalt

Nicole is with Cobalt and her team helps us manage the SEO and content on our Lexus manufacturer sites. With their efforts we have reached our ranking goals for organic search.

TimDavis-OnlinePerformanceMarketing

Tim Davis is with Online Performance Marketing and assists the Park Place Dealership group with SEM. His constant monitoring of our accounts helps ensure they are efficiently driving traffic to the Park Place website. Tim has won an award from Google in and international contest for his proficiency in paid search. Tim’s easy going yet persistent personality makes him a pleasure to work with while getting results.

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Cade Herzog from OnTargetDigital manages the Park Place banner/display advertising and retargeting efforts. Cade and his team show a true sense of personal commitment in everything they do. We appreciate Cade for the value he places on the long-term partnership with Park Place and can count on him to consistently lookout for our best interests.

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Jennifer Whaley with Century Interactive, we call her “Wonderful Whaley” because she has been so efficient in taking our call tracking capabilities to an unprecedented level. Jennifer is always positive, patient and helpful – traits we greatly appreciate. RickWesthoff-Carscom

Rick Westhoff is our Account Representative from Cars.com and one of our favorite vendor partners. We appreciate that Rick tries us first with new product introductions and the fact that we can always count on his honesty and sincere commitment to partnership.

NathanByloff-RankHammer

Nathan and Steve from RankHammer direct the Park Place SEO efforts and are invaluable for their insight, direction and in pushing us to be the best we can be. Their commitment to Park Place has been nothing short of phenomenal. They are always available and always willing to lend a hand.

Thanks again to everyone… not only for your partnership, but for your friendship as well.

Park Place Volvo Dallas Named to Volvo President’s Club

Volvo Cars of North America named Park Place Volvo a recipient of its prestigious 2012 Volvo President’s Club Award.  The Volvo President’s Club, in its ninth year, acknowledges outstanding performances of the top 10 percent of Volvo retailers nationwide.

Park Place Volvo is one of 25 Volvo President’s Club dealerships that delivered the highest levels against their business objectives in the following areas: customer satisfaction, sales and service quality.

“This award is a testament to Park Place Volvo’s dedication and commitment to its customers,” said John Maloney, President and CEO of Volvo Cars of North America. “Only a small percentage of Volvo dealers achieve this recognition, and Park Place Volvo has proven they are one of our very best.”

Volvo Cars of North America, LLC, (www.volvocars.com/us) is a subsidiary of Volvo Car Group of Gothenburg, Sweden. VCNA provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to Volvo automobile retailers in the United States. For more information please refer to the VCNA media website at: http://www.media.volvocars.com/us, and follow Volvo’s blog at: www.volvoblog.us.

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PARK PLACE JAGUAR PLANO HONORED WITH TOP AWARD

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(PLANO, TX.) – March 05, 2013– Jaguar North America recently announced the recipients of the 2012/13 Pride of Jaguar Retailer Excellence award. Park Place Jaguar Plano is among the select group of Jaguar dealers to achieve this honorable award.

“Park Place Jaguar Plano is honored to receive this prestigious award,” says Ken Schnitzer, Chairman & CEO.  “It shows our continued dedication to providing an exceptional experience to our customers.”

Pride of Jaguar winners are dealers who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence and the Jaguar brand. Sixteen Jaguar dealers were selected from a network of 164 dealers across the U.S. based upon being top performers in three core business categories; customer advocacy, sales and business excellence.

“The Pride of Jaguar award annually honors those select dealers who exceeded expectations in customer satisfaction, sales performance, and overall business excellence. These dealers are key elements in Jaguar’s continued success,” says Andy Goss, President, Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC.

For more information on Park Place Jaguar Plano, visit http://jaguarplano.parkplacetexas.com/.

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Park Place Dealerships Recognized As Winners Of Prestigious Manufacturer Awards

At Park Place Dealerships, we pride ourselves on being Experts in Excellence. That statement extends throughout our organization, and multiple dealerships, with the lofty goal of providing an extraordinary automotive purchase and ownership experience. As a result of that goal, we are proud to announce that several of our dealerships have received awards from their respective manufacturers for maintaining the integrity and excellent client service that should be expected from a luxury automotive dealership.

Park Place Dealerships Awards

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Park Place Motorcars Dallas, Park Place Motorcars Fort Worth, and Park Place Motorcars Grapevine have received the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Best of the Best Dealership Recognition Award based on outstanding performance in 2012. This award, presented annually, goes to the top performing Mercedes-Benz dealerships for demonstrating superior performance in various areas of their business.

“These dealers are exemplary representative of the Mercedes-Benz brand: an entrepreneurial spirit fueled by a commitment to excellence and strengthened by a total focus on customer satisfaction,” said Steve Cannon, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA.

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Park Place Porsche Dallas was once again recognized for the 17th consecutive year in 2013 through the Porsche Premier Dealership Program, which identifies the top 25 Porsche Dealers in North America. The Porsche Premier Dealer designation recognizes and rewards those Porsche Dealerships that best embrace the Porsche Business Model – achieving the highest performance among their peers in Brand utilization, product representation and the development of key Porsche business drivers; and in doing so, succeed as independent entrepreneurs who routinely exceed the expectations of their Porsche customers.

Recognition as a Porsche Premier Dealer bestows the pride and prestige of being named one of the most highly regarded Porsche dealerships in North America, ad Park Place Porsche Dallas is driven to continue our commitment to excellence that gained us this distinction.

Pride of Jaguar

Park Place Jaguar Plano has been awarded the Pride of Jaguar Retailer Excellence Award. The award is the highest honor a Jaguar dealer can receive, and is only bestowed on dealers who take the ideals of excellence and turn them into a way of doing business for every customer, every day. Earning the Pride of Jaguar requires that all areas of a Jaguar dealership’s business are focused on the customer. There are three key components to achieving Pride of Jaguar: providing an exceptional customer experience; exemplary sales satisfaction performance; and excellence in service quality.

“The Pride of Jaguar award annually honors those select dealers who exceeded expectations in customer satisfaction, sales performance, and overall business excellence. These dealers are key elements in Jaguar’s continued success,” says Andy Goss, President, Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC.

Elite of Lexus

The Elite of Lexus award is reserved for those dealers who excel at everything they do. From sales and service to the overall ownership experience, these dealerships are truly in a class all their own. Lexus bestows this honor on only a very select group of dealerships, based on customer ratings and a rigorous series of operational and certification requirements. We are honored to say that Park Place Lexus Plano has earned this prestigious award 19 times and Park Place Lexus Grapevine earned it the past 11 consecutive years.

Park Place Lexus Technology Specialists: Helping You Learn Exactly What Your New Lexus Is Capable Of

At Park Place Lexus in Plano and Grapevine, TX you will find an elite group of Lexus Technology Specialists available to help you feel comfortable with the technology included in your Lexus vehicle. As cars become more advanced, it’s perfectly natural to have questions about the plethora of new features available. That is where your Lexus Technology Specialist comes in. When you purchase a new Lexus, a Lexus Technology Specialist will be there to guide you through the new technology until you get the hang of it, but your relationship doesn’t end there. If you ever have any questions on how to use the technology in your Lexus to its greatest advantage, simply give our Lexus Technology Specialists a call, or drop by Park Place Lexus to gain hands on experience in navigating the technological marvel that is your Lexus.


To get in touch with your Lexus Technology Specialist, give us a call at 877-753-5747, and you will be routed to the Park Place Lexus Technology Center of your choice at Park Place Lexus Plano or Park Place Lexus Grapevine.

If you are looking for a quick online help to connect your smartphone with your new Lexus, or navigating the Lexus Enform App Suite, take a look  at our Lexus How-To library below!