Times are tough for the world’s automakers, which means dealers are having a rough go of it, too. The world’s largest Chevrolet dealer was forced to close its doors earlier this year, but the economic downturn and credit crunch isn’t just reserved for the more mundane brands as the world’s largest Lamborghini dealership has officially closed its doors.
Located in Santa Ana, California, Orange County Lamborghini – the world’s largest Lamborghini dealer by volume – has shut down its operations. Thanks to its close proximity to Tinsel Town and celebrity customers like Kobe Bryant, Orange County Lamborghini routinely accounted for about 10 percent of Lamborghini’s annual sales.
According to Pietro Frigerio, COO of Lamborghini America, Orange County’s problem wasn’t related to sales, but rather to some of the owner’s other business ventures. No word on what else owner Vik Keuylian had gotten himself into.
Lamborghini is now scrambling to fill the massive void left by Orange County’s exit, both on the retail and service sides.
11/06, 6:25 PM
posted by:
Rafa LL
10% less unseen beauties.
11/06, 6:42 PM
posted by:
ckron247
So it has nothing to do with people not buying them. The owner of the dealership just screwed himself with his “other business ventures”. Sucks for Lamborghini.
11/06, 6:43 PM
posted by:
b53491
No one wants to buy that guy’s franchise? The sales are not in trouble and the dealer accounts for 10% of lambos annual sales, isn’t this a no brainer?
11/06, 7:00 PM
posted by:
cocksterS
Anyone want to go halfsies on a dealership?
11/06, 7:01 PM
posted by:
pzimet
So wait, if the closing isn’t related to sales, and in fact related to other stuff, then the first part of this article is totally wrong when it states that the economic crisis is what is making the dealer shut down. Lame reporting LLN.
11/06, 7:11 PM
posted by:
golf4me
LLN, why do you delete posts that poke fun at your mistakes? C’mon, have a sense of humor.!
11/06, 9:37 PM
posted by:
Lariat Luxury Locomotive Liner No.3
I saw the other day that the store was empty, but I thought they had moved.
11/06, 10:09 PM
posted by:
eff1Fifty
Yeah, the other day when i drove by i noticed no BRIGHT ORANGE Gallardo. and now i know why
11/06, 11:18 PM
posted by:
ddanman
Actually, they opened a new Lamborghini dealership closer to the other European car dealerships on Pacific Coast Highway, on Mariner’s Mile in Newport Beach. Much closer to the targeted clientele. The old dealership was literally hard to get to, and sitting almost on the freeway. It was not the ideal Lamborghini dealership, from the outside at least. The new one is small, but much nicer on the outside, and easy to get to.
11/06, 11:58 PM
posted by:
howsmydriving
I wonder if they’ll miss my business.
11/07, 4:21 AM
posted by:
desertdriver
Seriously, what happened to LLN? Writing quality is bad when it used to be good a year ago. While not as impressive looking, the old site was much better because it literally worked. There have been so many times with the new site where I cannot see the pictures or the browser loads something that looks like a kaleidoscope image. Could someone please tell me what is going on with LLN? Was LLN bought by Microsoft? Is LLN on Dell servers?
11/07, 9:29 AM
posted by:
Madcapp
Gosh, darnet……Oh yeah….who cares?
11/07, 11:25 AM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
The problem wasn’t related to sales, but rather to some of the owner’s “Vik Keuylian “other business ventures. Trust me I know the past of this “Business Man” it’s no secret in the car business out hire in So.Cali. I’m sure Lamborghini found some thing out and they cut the cord… As for other dealers to fill in the gap, this is California, they’ll find some one….
11/07, 12:43 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
Desert Driver, actually, LLN is a WordPress blog and I believe most of the styling is done by the same people that do the MacNN blog. As a result, it works fine on my Macs, with hiccups every now and then. I do know from previous posts that LLN has been moved to other servers, but what kind I have no idea.
They do need to test LLN with IE browsers, though. I’m pretty sure they do their testing with Safari, but LLN looks terrible on IE. I’m not a Windows user, so I seldom use IE for anything, but I’ve seen complaints and so I’ve verified them.
11/07, 2:39 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
The federal government should bail them out.
11/08, 10:38 PM
posted by:
VWgrouP
So what US! You have 80 ultra luxury car dealers in every state! If a Lamborghini dealer closes, oh, just walk next door and check out the other one..oh, that one doesnt have what your looking for..oh then try the one across the street! Give me a break.