Hi Mike: This is interesting regarding Gateway.
Car dealer adds computers for customer use
07/22/2000
By Terry Box / The Dallas Morning News
RICHARDSON – Customers at Classic BMW should soon be able to test-drive something other than lusty German sports sedans.
In a few weeks, they can opt to head down a different sort of highway via a Gateway Profile personal computer loaded with America Online and Microsoft programs.
The dealership, which is off North Central Expressway south of Richardson's high-tech Telecom Corridor, has converted a room on the west side of its service department to a small display area for Gateway business computers. Next to each of the three computers is a placard promoting the features of the machine and its cost.
David Leeson / DMN
Eric Maas, president and general manager of Classic BMW, has converted a room at the Richardson dealership into an area for Gateway business computers, which customers can test-drive or use.
But Classic customers can also use the computers to check e-mail, get on the Internet or take care of other business electronically while they wait for repairs or maintenance to their cars.
"In traveling around, I found the need to go online and get my e-mail," said Eric Maas, president and general manager of the dealership. "I got to thinking that wouldn't it be great if you could do that anywhere?"
Ironically, the showroom/office center is in space formerly occupied by an Enterprise car-rental facility, which still has ties to Classic but has moved to a bigger building just north of the dealership. In the future, Mr. Maas thinks, some of his service-department customers may find it more productive to work from the dealership's showroom/office center than to rent a car and go to their own offices.
Fresh idea
Classic is apparently the only area dealership that plans to provide its customers with office space and computers, said Drew Campbell, president of the New Car Dealers Association of Metropolitan Dallas. But dealers in general are offering customers far more services than they did five or 10 years ago – everything from restaurants and coffee bars to play areas for children and customer lounges.
And despite the promise – or threat – of the Internet, which is supposed to cut into car dealerships' floor traffic, dealers will continue to add customer services at their facilities, Mr. Campbell predicted.
"Everything now is consumer-driven," he said. "As everybody's day gets longer, people have to be able to do several things at once. Dealers have to facilitate that. This is something that fits right into Eric's customer base and his location in Richardson."
David Leeson / DMN
Eric Maas, president and general manager of Classic BMW, offers a testing ground for Gateway business computers in the Classic BMW Richardson dealership.
Classic seems to be on top of two trends that are reshaping the retail auto business: the Internet and harried customers' need for more convenience, said Mike Morrissey, spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association. Like most dealers in this market, Classic has a Web site.
"It positions the dealer in a high-tech community as a high-tech dealer," Mr. Morrissey said. "If someone wants to shop at home, you can go to his Web site. If you need to take your car in for service, you have the convenience of a computer and workspace."
The concept for Classic BMW's showroom/office center has evolved over the last year, Mr. Maas said. Like many area dealerships, Classic had a lounge that customers could use for work, and it included a phone line that could be plugged into a laptop.
"But it wasn't real good," he said. "It was kind of noisy and there were a lot of distractions."
Perfect connection
Mr. Maas, who also is the current chairman of the New Car Dealers Association and was chairman of the Dallas Auto Show last spring, noticed at the show that one of its sponsors had a kiosk there with three computers that people could use to go online.
"I got to thinking about it then and how expensive it could be," he said. "But it's a perfect connection – our customers and computers. I've got the techies. I get almost as many Internet hits as people who go through the store" – 10 to 15 a day. "It's almost like Barnes & Noble and Starbucks, books and coffee," he said.
Earlier this year, Gateway was upgrading some of the computer equipment at Classic BMW. That led to discussions that resulted in the showroom/office center, which will officially open in a few weeks, Mr. Maas said.
Classic BMW is providing the space for the center and Gateway is supplying the computers, he said. The center also has a fax machine and a phone line for a laptop.
The dealership is already figuring ways to expand the office center if that becomes necessary, Mr. Maas said.
"I think this is much more important than an espresso bar," he said. "Besides the convenience for our customers, this is literally a test-drive facility. Someone might use a computer here and pick up the phone to Gateway and say, 'Give me 15 of those computers.'"
Ultimately, he thinks, businesses of all kinds will have computers for their customers.
"I'm a lot like many of my customers," Mr. Maas said. "I'm 35, I have kids, I've got a really good job and it's a job that I want and need to stay plugged into. When people go places, there will have to be PCs available. I think that's the way it will go."
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