Cars in Shopping Malls

[Henry]

I remember one scene in The Blues Brothers where John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd drive through a suburban Chicago mall, and one of the stores is set up to look like an actual car dealership, given the "Oldsmobile" signs, a salesperson's desk and at least two cars visible in it. This particular scene has me thinking, have any new cars ever been sold in a shopping center/mall as in a traditional dealership?

[SteveG1988]

Well, that mall was a prop that was built as a real mall, and they did fill up the stores with fake stores with real products.

I'd venture that yes...it could happen, if it is a small volume marque, For example lotus or alfa romeo in the 80s could probably have done it, have that be the show room, have one or two test drive cars on site, and have the car ordered for delivery.

[jeffandnicole]

I know some malls allow dealerships or manufactures to advertise their vehicles within common areas of malls.  I'm pretty sure though you would have to go to the dealership, which wouldn't be a department store within a mall, to fill out the paperwork.

In the past, I wouldn't doubt that car dealerships were located directly within shopping malls.  Over the 50 or so year existence of indoor malls, their stores and usage has changed fairly dramatically. 

[oscar]

The West Edmonton Mall in Alberta had at least one branch showroom for a car dealership, when I was there in 1994.  The mall was somewhat underutilized back then (including two Bay department stores at opposite ends of the mall), so space was not at a premium.

The mail was notable not just for the really long hike from one end to the other (Minnesota's Mall of America might be larger, but is more compact and walkable), but also its indoor beach.   

[roadman]

I remember one scene in The Blues Brothers where John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd drive through a suburban Chicago mall, and one of the stores is set up to look like an actual car dealership, given the "Oldsmobile" signs, a salesperson's desk and at least two cars visible in it. This particular scene has me thinking, have any new cars ever been sold in a shopping center/mall as in a traditional dealership?

Great.  Now I can't get the theme music from that chase out of my head.

[briantroutman]

I just pulled up the chase clip from The Blues Brothers, and I don't know that it was intended to be a permanent dealership in the manner you're thinking. Notice that the Oldsmobile sign isn't a backlit sign box mounted on the front of the store but is instead a banner hung on the back wall. And the banner itself is specific to the "80 Oldsmobile" . It looks like more of a seasonal satellite operation of a local dealership to get people to look at the new cars.

And I have seen that done in many places. This past weekend, I was at the Houston Galleria, and a Cadillac dealership had a display on the first level concourse–not just one or two cars parked, but several, with large signs, a video wall, and sales staff. When a mall has a vacant store space, I've seen the same done in a storefront (like in The Blues Brothers).

Most automakers probably have dealer franchise requirements that would make it difficult or impossible for a dealership to make its primary base of operations in a shopping mall. Like requirements to have minimum street frontage, service bays, a minimum service parts inventory, and so on.

But more along the lines of what you were thinking, the mall in my neighborhood has a Tesla retailer. It's not technically a dealer (as the many dealer association lawsuits are quick to point out), but they have a few Teslas parked in the center court of the mall, and nearby, there's a storefront where you can get more information, look at options, arrange a test drive (there's a cluster of Teslas in the mall parking lot), and place your order. Cars are built to order and delivered, so there's no traditional inventory. There's no service on-site, but I believe most owners make use of a valet service for that.

[lepidopteran]

While a traditional dealership wouldn't do so well inside a mall for the reasons described above (not to mention, where would you test drive?), a full-service dealership might be a good use for one of the many dark anchors found at dead malls, and even not-so-dead malls, as mergers/acquisitions have reduced the pool of available department store flags.  Especially if the former anchor had an auto center (TBA?) which could be re-purposed for the service department.  Even the empty swath of parking could be creatively re-striped and/or landscaped for test drives, and the customers could go and shop elsewhere while waiting for their vehicles to be serviced.   Of course, many anchors were large enough that the dealership would carry 2 or 3 marques, e.g. Pontiac-GMC-Subaru, instead of just one.  Just make sure that if the second floor is used as a showroom, the engineers properly check that it can handle the extra weight!  Many malls built in or since the '70s were designed so that there were entrances on both levels of a 2-story department store, lest you need a huge freight elevator.

I once saw a car parked inside a mall department store.  That, however, was a raffle prize -- remember the ill-fated Cadillac Cimarron?

[DaBigE]

Maybe I am misremembering, but I seem to recall Ford airing some commercials which appeared to be "stores" in a mall (around Christmas?). This was during the time when Mike Rowe was the Ford spokesman.

[Roadrunner75]

Some history of the Dixie Square Mall, where the Blues Brothers chase scene was filmed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Square_Mall
It was abandoned for many years before finally being demolished recently.

[bulldog1979]

The anchor slot on the eastern end of the Marquette Mall in Marquette, Michigan, is Riverside Auto. Previously that anchor location was Angeli's Foods. (The other anchor was Woolworth's, then Menards and now it is split between the Dollar Tree and Big Lots.)

[Brandon]

Jefferson Square Mall here in Joliet used to have a branch of the local Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in the 1990s.

[formulanone]

Longo Toyota in El Monte, California is a former shopping mall, although only a few vestiges of the original facilities are still standing.

[txstateends]

There is a Tesla store at NorthPark mall in Dallas (http://www.northparkcenter.com/stores/northpark-tesla-motors).  I haven't seen it yet to see whether it's a boutique or something more.

[AsphaltPlanet]

There is a Tesla store in Yorkdale Mall in Toronto as well.  It's a small store where I think they sell both cars as well as general Tesla merch, such as t-shirts and hats.

[Doctor Whom]

The Tesla Web site lists Tesla stores and galleries (since states have different laws on car sales) in many malls.

[DandyDan]

In the dying days of the original version of the Nebraska Crossing mall at Exit 432 of I-80 in Gretna, NE, they had a used car dealership there (I believe it was Dove Auto, which is one of Gretna's used car dealerships), as well as an Indian Motorcycle dealership.  I have no idea what became of the Indian Motorcycle dealership after they demolished the original mall.

[cjk374]

They have an "Auto Mall" in Shreveport off of Bert Kouns Industrial Loop (LA 526).

http://www.automall.com/

[GCrites]

The old Scarborough Mall AKA Brice Outlet Mall in Columbus OH is being turned into Lindsay Honda/Acura.

[Laura]

The Tesla Web site lists Tesla stores and galleries (since states have different laws on car sales) in many malls.

Yep. I've visited the one in Tyson's Corner Mall in Virginia.


iPhone

[billtm]

At the Tippecanoe County mall, when you walk in, there will always be a Subaru on display at almost half of the non store specific entrances. I assume that's because there is a Subaru factory just a few miles down IN 38, but maybe the local dealership is paying for them to be on display? I know that as you drive on I-65 you can see 3 Subarus just north of exit 168, and those are definitely put up by the factory.