Volume 11 Issue 1 » 85
Congratulations on such a
spectacular home away from home.
Tell me about some of the "homey"
touches we're seeing.
order to make it more special we created
an indoor delivery lounge – no more rain
and cold!
So tell us about your career in the
auto industry. Weren't you a teacher
before joining the auto sector?
What drew you to this?
We wanted to create a building that
highlighted the beautiful community that
we are part of. We use glass extensively
so when our guests walk into the store
they first see the mountains behind us.
Our main display area is also in behind,
allowing our guests to view the cars
without having to listen to the traffic along
our front street.
To make the building fully accessible
to all we installed an elevator to join all
three floors. Plus we have a state-ofthe-art meeting room for our signature
“OpenRoad Owners Nights” where our
guests are invited back to get to know their
cars and our service team better. We also
have an auto spa automatic car wash, nine
service bays, a wheel-alignment bay, and
three laptop workstations with Wifi.
I’ve been in the auto industry for almost 29
years, 26 of them working with the Mazda
brand. I graduated from UBC as a teacher
but in those days teaching positions were
tough to secure. I’ve always been a certified
“car guy,” so the car business was a natural
fit for me. The automobile business is a very
exciting place to be, so once you get in, you
are in!
And I see the Zoom Café and Zoom
Junior. How’s the coffee and the
activities for kids and juniors?
By placing a glass wall between the service
counter and the Zoom Café, it gives
our guests a quiet place to catch up on
some reading or surf the internet while
waiting to have their vehicles serviced.
Zoom Junior has a PlayStation and a
large flat-screen TV to keep the older kids
entertained, and we have a large blackboard
and more toys for the real juniors.
So what else is OpenRoad Mazda
doing here to deliver “a better way?”
The design for the store started with a
clean sheet of paper. We carefully thought
about all the things we could do to make
things easier and more comfortable for
our guests. For example, we can showcase
ten vehicles in our showroom allowing
our guests to experience the entire Mazda
lineup indoors. And taking delivery of your
new Mazda is a special experience here. In
Now is this really the very first
dealer in Canada to carry Mazda’s
new interior look?
Customers have so many choices.
We wanted to create a unique Mazda
experience and when we saw the renderings
of the new Mazda look, we immediately
knew this was the look for us. We are the
first Mazda dealership anywhere to offer
this new look.
It feels very stylish with a luxurylike quality. Tell me about some
of these incredible finishings and
details.
To me it’s like walking into the ShangriLa. You see glass and mountains and it
just draws you in. Look at the mountains
and look at the cars. It invites you inside
and out. The writers are calling Mazda the
greatest product and now you’re seeing it in
a building that sets it off. The cars and our
guests deserve it.
F U N FA C T S
The 2014 Mazda3 seems to be on
fire. How’s it going?
That’s right. The 2014 keeps racking up
more and more awards and accolades
almost every day. It’ll be an exciting year
for Mazda and us.
What else can we expect from
Mazda in 2014?
The next exciting car for us is our
SKYACTIV Diesel Mazda6 which should
be arriving in a c