Slipstream - June 2012

Advertiser of the Month: Park Place Porsche
By Linda Bambina, PR Chair
Park Place
Porsche has
been part
of the Maverick
Region for more
than 25 years. For
those of us who
were involved
with the DFW ’87 Parade, we
remember the original flagship
Dallas area Porsche Dealership
(Forest Lane Porsche) as the
sponsor for the Parade volunteer
workers. Besides some memorable
T-shirts, the dealership hosted the
400-member Worker Party (including
Mariachi Band, massive vases
of yellow roses, and tables and
tables of Mexican food). We packed
the place, taking over the entire
showroom floor and both huge
staircases, spilling into the office
and lobby areas upstairs and down!
Little did I realize how truly
undersized that earlier dealership
was until I recently got a tour of
Park Place Porsche. Parts Manager
Randall Johnson (Maverick member
for a decade) and I viewed
the city-block-sized site and other
surrounding Park Place facilities
from the third floor of the parking
garage. Provisions have been made
to facilitate adding a fourth level to
their parking garage when desired.
Park Place Porsche is a Porsche
Premier Dealer and has earned this
coveted award 15 times (only 25
dealers out of 215 are awarded annually
nationwide). Huge. They are
also the only Texas Dealer to have
ever been awarded both Premier
Dealer status & the Porsche Perfect
Service Award simultaneously.
Again: Huge. Recently, Park Place
BodyWerks won the collision repair
industry’s first National FIT Sustainability
Award. Doubly Huge.
Park Place Dealerships has over
1,500 employees, and was voted one
of the Top 100 Best Places to Work
in D/FW. There is virtually nothing
that Park Place cannot do for you
and your Porsche (or other high
end European car). They provide
an astounding variety of services
all handled on site: paint touch-up,
wheel repair, window tinting, and
they can install a variety of clear bra
products. They can wrap just the
outside mirrors and headlights, or
literally cover the entire car with
clear bra paint protection, or even
race graphics if you wish. They will
fill your tires with nitrogen, or align
and corner balance your street
and/or race car suspension for
track use. They can even arrange
transport for your car to the tracks
of your choice and provide full
trackside tech support at your next
Club Race or DE for you or your
race group as needed, through
their Motorsports program.
Randall, Motorsports Team techs
Charlie Lacy and Steven Taylor,
along with other employees, and
many of their clients, are regularly
active at various track events - Autocross,
Drivers’ Ed, and Club Racing
- they know “serious fun.” The parts
department walls are covered with
their magnetic car numbers, while
Randall’s race schedule is colorcoded
and kept by his computer
next to pictures of his Porsches. He
talks, walks, and breathes Porsche!
Service is key at Park Place and
is headed by Service Director and
29-year veteran Terry Powell. He
and his team of Porsche-certified
technicians all are trained at
dedicated Porsche technical centers,
and have unique expertise
in all aspects of maintaining and
servicing Porsches that you won’t
find at independent shops.
Recently Park Place has expanded
their newest multi-acre
complex in Grapevine to include
a second BodyWerks shop.
With the two shops, their Body
Shop Director, Eric McKenzie,
revealed that they are #1 in the
country for both volume & dollars
of body work and paint on
high-end European vehicles.
In 2009, Patrick Huston was
promoted to General Manager
of Park Place Porsche. He joined
Park Place in 2003 as the Porsche
Pre-Owned Sales Manager and
helped build Park Place Porsche
into the #1 Pre-Owned Porsche
dealer in the country. With his
leadership Park Place has continued
to garner National Awards,
and consequently they have an
over-the-top inventory of both new
and Pre-Owned Porsches. We’re
talking acres of amazing cars.
Park Place Porsche and its predecessors
have sponsored events of
all kinds for fully half of Maverick
Region’s existence. Besides providing
monetary support annually for
several driving events, social events,
three-day weekend Round-Ups, as
well as two Porsche Parades, they
have also given generously from
their Premier Porsche Goodie
Store for all of our Founder’s
Day events since we started the
charity raffles and silent auctions
over 18 years ago. For those of
you who came out in April to the
50 Years of Porsche Car Show at
TMS, you know that they were our
Premier Sponsor AGAIN, for this
amazing and historical event!
To quote Ken Schnitzer, Chairman
and CEO of the Park Place
Dealerships, “Excellence is hundreds
of small things done right.”
We thank Park Place Porsche for
all the hundreds of small things
done right for our Maverick Region
members over the past 25 years.
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