Luxury on display at Fairfield's new Mercedes-Benz dealership

By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.com
Posted: 11/27/2011 01:03:26 AM PST

Carl Benz invented the first modern automobile in 1886, and Mercedes-Benz cars eventually came to be identified across the globe with words like quality, dependability, precision, innovation, but also, and perhaps most of all, luxury.
And, as most savvy consumers also already know, costly, with Mercedes-Benz base prices ranging from $35,000 for a standard C-Class sedan to $133,000 for a CL-Class coupe to a whopping $212,000 for an S-Class S65 AMG.
Whether affordable to the middle class, say, the C-Class models, or to the rich, say, the S-Class models, they are "exceptional" cars, said David Long, general manager of the newly opened Mercedes-Benz of Fairfield, who boasts nearly 30 years in auto sales and management.
Owned by Thomas A. Price and Adam Simms of the Price-Simms Auto Group, which also owns Ford Fairfield and other Bay Area dealerships, the newest player on the city's Auto Mall Parkway might also be noted for the exceptional building housing some of the world's most stylish and well-made vehicles.
The 41,000-square-foot structure, completed in October after more than a year of construction, is a two-story, glass-and-steel affair with a curved frontage, literally a stone's throw from Interstate 80. Drivers and passengers speeding by can easily see the vehicles on the lot and inside the sleek, spacious and airy showroom, covered with an angled roof facing eastward, an architectural statement Long called "Autohaus design."
Set apart from the many other boxy dealerships on Fairfield's auto row, it will eventually be powered entirely by solar panels, he noted, adding that the dealership has "one of the smallest carbon footprints in the nation" for a building of its kind. Plans call for a gift shop, a cafe and a "presentation" space, where customers, if they wish, can learn about their newly purchased new or used vehicle before driving it off the lot.
In many ways, the design reflects the company's and Long's way of doing effective customer-centric business.
"Our philosophy is being transparent," he said Saturday, showing off the building to a visitor, including the service bays, where, if desired, a customer with an Internet connection will eventually be able to watch his or her car being repaired from several different angles and communicate with the technician in real time.
"It's an amazing facility," said Long, who was quick to give his sales and service teams equal billing.
Before they opened for business on Nov. 1, the company's hiring managers interviewed 800 people for 65 positions, 20 in sales and 45 in service, after "a very long and stringent interview and screening process," said Long, who described his management style as "collaborative and consensus-building."
Each sales person, whether on the floor or making online sales, is considered "a sales manager, empowered to make a deal," with some 70 percent of them expedited via the Internet, he pointed out. And customers are called "guests," he added.
To Long, who also busied himself with decorating the lobby for the December holidays, the biggest challenge is finding enough "hours in the day to get everything done."