THE ITALIANS ARE COMING!
Maserati’s new beachhead in Westlake

By John Grafman Maserati, the Italian luxury sports car manufacturer is staking out new turf out west: Westlake, to be precise. The new Maserati of Westlake dealership’s grand opening proves that when you build a better mousetrap, people will beat a path to your door. Even on a mid-week, rainy night well-heeled patrons of north L.A. County, Thousand Oaks, Westlake, and Ventura County are showing up in droves. Not only is this mousetrap better, it’s bigger, brighter, and it provides service and repair. Bruce Fredrick, President and COO of O’Gara Coach Westlake and Maserati of Westlake, kindly shows us the gleaming facility that comes to life on the 100th anniversary of the Maserati brand. This building sat unused for three and a half years. Now, after an impressive remodel, the showroom is a beehive of activity, and three times its original size.

O’Gara Coach celebrated its grand opening a year ago, but it wasn’t until recently that the Maserati brand became part of the O’Gara family of upscale brands. Mr. Fredrick informs us “We’ve have been selling Maseratis since March out of this facility without our showroom, because it was under construction. ”Currently, the Maserati showroom is 3,450 square feet. The new adjoining Ducati annex is another 2,200 square feet. The combined Rolls-Royce and Bentley showroom combined add roughly 8,500 square feet of space. On top of that are 32 services bays for cars. As Bruce confidently puts it, “We have a tremendous foot print here”! Certainly, a sparkling, state of the art facility will attract customers, but this still comes back to product. Timing for O’Gara couldn’t be better. As Maserati unleashes the stylish 404 horsepower, four-door Ghibli sedan with a starting price of just under $67K, the question won’t be, how will O’Gara move all of this sheet metal? With an engine built by Ferrari, and Italian good looks, the real question will be, is there room here to stock enough cars to feed this hungry marketplace”? Judging by the packed house here tonight, it looks like Bruce and crew might just have a bona-fide hit on their hands. Of course, Tom O’Gara, owner of O’Gara Coach, is banking on this. But, the real winners are those luck enough to land some of the first Ghiblis to roll off the line.

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