Smothers European has been voted Best Luxury Car Dealer in the 2011 NorthBay biz readers poll.
Today, its new vehicles are exclusively Mercedes Benz, Sprinter commercial vans and Volvo, yet Smothers also offers quality trade-ins that can fit most any budget. Its best Mercedes Benz sellers are the C class and the E class, “because of their affordability—believe it or not—quality, safety, styling and prestige,” says White. For Volvo, the S60 and XC60 are the most popular, “again for affordability and safety, but also a class-leading warranty [five years/60,000 miles with free scheduled maintenance] and their fresh new styling,” he says.
“The owners are on site every day,” says White, “and our employees have been here a long time.” He also mentions customers get an exclusive experience, adding that Mercedes Benz and Volvo have their own separate areas for service.
When asked about today’s trends, he mentions a lot more people are choosing to lease rather than purchase vehicles, largely due to the housing decline. “They’re looking for quality and affordability in one package,” says White. “The new cars are better, as far as reliability, than ever before.” Manufacturers are also wooing clients with strong offers to make the products affordable. For example, there are packages with low lease payments and/or close to free interest rates on loans [as low as 0.9 percent]. They haven’t traditionally done that before.
“People are also looking for better gas mileage, and diesel vehicles are becoming more popular,” says White. Mercedes offers a BlueTEC clean-burning diesel system on its ML320, GL320 and E320. “The Blue Efficiency engine uses diesel and gets better gas mileage than a comparable gas engine,” he says.
White also notes that navigation systems are more popular, and that Bluetooth is built-in on all new vehicles—meaning both hands can stay on the wheel, even if you’re talking on the phone.
And what if you’re looking for something completely different? “We have a 2011 Mercedes Benz CL63 right now, which has 536 horsepower, and a bi-turbo, hand-built V8 engine,” says White. “And last year we sold a 1978 P1800 Volvo classic.”
Smothers completely rebuilt its 8,000-square-foot Mercedes Benz showroom last year and held a grand opening in February. More than 300 attendees enjoyed local catering and wine. “We also hold model launch parties when new ones are released, and Volvo has a traveling road show about once per year where there are demonstrations and people can test drive the cars,” says White.
The bottom lines for Smothers’ success are quality products, knowledgeable service and repeat business. “We really value our return customers,” says White. “There are people who’ve been buying cars from us since the 1970s. Thank you for voting us number one in NorthBay biz.”
