Shortly before the grand opening of the new Jaguar/ Land Rover dealership in Langley City on Saturday afternoon, Daniel Russman, the general manager of the Collection Drive location, was placing a sign next to a classic Jaguar E-type in the front showroom that politely asked people not to touch the decades-old sleek black coupe.
The car was not for sale, Russman explained. It was on loan from the president of the Vancouver Jaguar Club, Jim McLagan, who was willing to let the brand-new dealership show off some of the ancestral DNA of the classic British line of sports cars by displaying the E-Type next to the current F-Type coupe, a state-of-the-art evolution of the older vehicle.
“It’s stunning,” Russman said of the E-type. “You look at the lines on it, it’s beautiful.”
So beautiful that normally sensible people might just forget their manners and make contact with the carefully restored body, hence the sign.
On the other side of the 33,271 square foot building, another classic was loitering in the Land Rover showroom.
A hulking square-shaped Defender four-wheel-drive, in appropriate khaki colours, was positioned next to the latest generation of the legendary British off-road vehicles, which sported rounder shapes and more modern technology.
Just to underline the very long and very British history of both the Jaguar and Land Rover, people attending the opening were greeted at the entrance by a man dressed as a “Yeomen Warder of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London” otherwise known as a Beefeater.
The Jaguar/ Land Rover dealership at 5978 Collection Drive, off the Langley Bypass, is part of OpenRoad Auto Group’s luxury auto retail complex, known as “The Collection.”
It is the third Jaguar/ Land Rover dealership in the Lower Mainland, and the first south of the Fraser, senior marketing manager Andrew Ling explained.
And unlike the sold-out Richmond and Vancouver outlets, where buyers can face six-month waits, the new Langley facility has vehicles in stock.
“We actually have inventory,” Ling said.
And if, as seems likely, that situation changes, patient buyers will be treated to a literal unveiling when their new ride finally arrives in the Langley facility’s “delivery centre,” a dramatically lit room where a silver silk cloth will be whisked off the Jaguar or Land Rover before the new owner gets in and drives away.
Out back, the area where vehicles are serviced features state-of-the-art gear like laser-guided wheel alignment devices.
The work takes place in a high-ceilinged area with a gleaming white tile floor that gets cleaned by a miniature ride-em scrubbing device that strongly resembles a miniature zamboni.