Audi Wants To Spend How Much In NY?

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By Gunnar Heinrich

HAAH…

-sucks in lower lip, rubs chin quizzically-

Audi/VW wants to spend how much again on NY real estate?

VW’s total outlay for the real estate purchase and ensuing renovation will be around $125 million. Wrote AutoBlog.

Hmmm… a new dealership. A hundred twenty-five mil. What’s it replacing?

The automaker said it is buying and will renovate a building at 11th Avenue and 55th Street owned by Robert and Alan Potamkin and occupied by outlets selling General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick brands. Wrote Bloomberg.

Why, that’s just across the street from the BMW dealer!

There’s plenty of large and loud automotive representation in NYC. A city, that still embraces Ford Panther platformed tanks with a vengeance, mind and whose mayor wants everyone to take the MTA and have the last few remaining motorists pay for it.

But nevermind.

It’s a matter of profile.

According to Bloomberg, it’s all part of a marketing effort to double US sales by 2013. BMW’s got a tall high rise overlooking within eyesight of the West Side Highway and the Hudson River, for example. And Manhattan MotorCars has a pretty small but sweet Lamborghini/Bentley/Rolls-Royce display somewhere just south of the Javitz.

But, to be truthful, all things automotive tend to blend into the Big Apple’s background, what with every other spectacle that the City offers the A.D.D. legions.

So in terms of cost-benefit profile pay off, a “flagship” Audi/VW dealer costing the publicly traded German automaker $125 million tucked snuggly somewhere on the West Side…

Well, to break even, those salesmen are going need to move, oh, 3,571 A4’s or so, just to break even.

Almost forgot. What’s Audi going to do with that old spread over on Park Ave.?