Holy ancient threads! :P
Our So Cal home is 20-ish minutes away from the New Port Beach Lexus dealership and the Flecher Jones boys. Not too many years ago the lovely folks of NPB (including FJ mercedes) sponsered an international airport in "our" backyard (meaning the surrounding cities of Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, and Aliso Viejo). Big Money NPB did NOT win that war. But the hard feelings remain. None of our surrounding cities has any impovrished areas ... by a long shot. We simply out spent them, and leagally out manuvered them. It took years of legal manuvering and spending. That said, I'd push our Lexus home before doing business with anyone in NPB. Well, actually, I'd call triple 'A' :P
But driving down Pacific Coast Highway (pch) we've seen the dealership. No big deal. Like most all older cities, NPB has its skuzzy areas too, as well as over-priced ones. That's one of the nice things about living in NPB's surrounding cities ... newer planned community/cities. New cities literally plan bad areas out of existence. You don't have to drive too far down PCH before you get away from the hoyty-toytie areas, near the NPB Lexus dealership, or FJ Mercedes ... or the Ferarri delership ... or the Lambo dealership, etc. But a huge chunck of the NPB Lexus dealership is just the cost of being where it is. NPB land in that area, even in these depressed times is horribly expensive. With the devaluation since that article came out? I'll bet NPB Lexus is really hurting.
Our Lexus replaced a big'ol land barge Range Rover. 13mpg. Oh boy. Unreliability, and over-priced too. What a combo. The Range Rover dealerships around here have all the fancy junk too (both NPB as well as the one in Mission Viejo). It just comes with the territory of being in a pricy area. Anyway, the Lexus Dealerships (NPB as well as others) GM dealers, Chrysler, etc ... they're ALL hurting now. When the Markets open tomorrow, it'll be quite a ride ... and the overpriced Dealerships of NPB? We'll see. But seeing how the economy has changed since Lexus made its plans to break ground (over three years back) ... you only know Lexus wouldn't have gone to all the expense if they could have had a crystal ball showing October 2008.
No joke there...I watched my stocks the other day and had to say 10 hail mary's...and I'm not Catholic...lol... oh well.. we will see.. I dont have any real short term investments so I will continue to ride it out.. but have just shut four companies down in the past few years I do feel the climate change.. If I would have had a crystal ball I would have bought stock in the company that made them... because that seems to be the only one that can make money for the time being..lol.. good insite though.. enjoyed your statement/right on the money