Fiat Showroom, Not Dealership, Open Downtown
You can’t purchase or test drive a new Fiat 500 at the new Fiat St. Louis Downtown Showroom. You can check out five different cars on display in the space on the corner of 11th & Locust St. I love that the Lou Fusz folks realized they needed a presence downtown and made it happen.
I wrote about this in January after two blogs incorrectly reported a Fiat dealership was opening downtown (If It Sounds Too Good Top Be True…). One of the bloggers, friend Frank DeGraaf, commented on my post:
I spoke with the broker and a representative of CB Richard Ellis. They both confirmed that a Fiat “dealership” would go into this space. I never implied that it would be a full-service (maintenance) dealership, because even I understand that the space would not be suited for that, let alone the environmental issues that would have to be negated . However, the space will be used to display and sell Fiat 500’s (I call that a “dealership”, I don’t know what else to call it), a significant and positive development for downtown St. Louis.
Is this a half-servivce dealership? One third service dealership? No, the word is “showroom”, not dealership, since they are displaying new Fiats but there’re not selling new Fiats. If you are interested in a test drive and purchasing you need to visit their two actual dealerships in Creve Coeur, MO (link) or Fairview Heights, IL (link).
As a huge fan of the adorable Fiat 500 I’ll be passing through frequently as a reminder to buy a lottery ticket each month.
I welcome Lou Fusz downtown. If you are curious about these cars stop by on your lunch break. The showroom is open 10-5 Monday-Friday. Special vents are being planned to get downtown workers and residents to stop into the space.
– Steve Patterson
I betcha everybody knows about an industrial area in Fenton that would make a great place to build a Fiat factory, Oh yeah, the Italian ran from St. Louis to build things in Canada (US picked Detriot over St. Louis in bankruptcy) and Mexico (Glad that I gave up Dodge pickup at end of day and won’t bother to look at one again)
As far as the showroom itself, think it is a great ide, good use of space and wonder if a couple of other dealerships will entertain the same idea. You will see a dealership in midtown if you give it some more time and continue to build the residence numbers between Downtown & CWE.
New Cool Update: This location is now offering Test Drive’s, has a Sales Representative on duty and can chauffer you to any location within the Fusz Automotive Network. Just stopped by during my lunch & was extremely pleased with the staff.