Jaguar, Land Rover dealer at home in county

Published 11:40 am Sunday, March 23, 2008

Since opening earlier this year, Jaguar Land Rover Seattle has found a welcoming home in Lynnwood, Sales Manager Robb Russell said.

“This whole area is amazing,” he said, noting the economic development that has taken place during the past few years, including expansion of Alderwood mall and the growing number of retailers lined up along Alderwood Mall Parkway. “… This area is ready for high-end, luxury automobile brands.”

With its opening in February near the 1-5/196th Street interchange, Jaguar Land Rover Seattle joined high-end dealerships Mercedes-Benz of Lynnwood and Lexus of Seattle in south Snohomish County. The dealership is affiliated with AutoCenter Northwest, which operates Jaguar Land Rover Bellevue as well as Bentley Bellevue, Lamborghini Bellevue and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Bellevue.

Russell said his dealership’s relocation from Seattle has pulled in customers from Camano Island and Anacortes in the north as well as nearby Snohomish, Bothell and Mill Creek.

“A lot of people who used to head to the Bellevue store are coming here,” he said. “We retained a lot of our Seattle customers as well.”

The 35,000-square-foot dealership and service department includes 17 work bays with “top-of-the-line tools,” Russell said. Outside and adjacent to I-5 is a test track, where prospective Land Rover customers can see firsthand how the rugged vehicles handle 36-degree side slopes and 40-degree downhill conditions.

“It’s nice to show the customers the angles, the hill-descent controls, just to show them how safe these vehicles really are,” he said.

Along with hill-descent control, features such as four-wheel, four-channel, all-terrain anti-lock brakes; all-terrain dynamic stability control; emergency brake assist; and four-wheel electronic traction control come standard on Land Rover’s latest LR2, LR3, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models.

“The Range Rover is probably the most popular sport-utility vehicle on the road right now,” Russell said of the model, which in January won the Prestige SUV category at the Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards ceremony for the third year in a row.

Along with the Range Rover, Land Rover’s LR3 has proved popular with families, who like the SUV’s ability to seat up to seven comfortably, he said. As for the newest addition to the Land Rover family, the LR2, the four-door, all-wheel-drive SUV has a suggested base price of $33,985, which appeals to every demographic.

“Everybody’s buying these right now. We have high school kids getting cars for graduation to retired people,” Russell said.

Likewise, Jaguar’s offerings are proving popular with all age groups, with the entry-level X-Type, available in both sedan and wagon models, having a suggested base price in the mid- to upper-$30,000s. With a 227-horsepower, 3.0-liter V6 engine, the 2008 X-Type includes such features as all-wheel drive, dual-stage airbags, automatic climate control and dynamic stability control.

“We are seeing the young generation purchasing all (models of) Jaguars, and one 81-year-old woman (recently) was looking at the X-Type just because of its all-wheel drive,” Russell said.

For those desiring a sportier look with more power under the hood, there are the XK and XKR coupe and convertible models, which run from the mid-$70,000s to low $90,000s and feature an aluminum alloy body shell that is rivet bonded to improve road performance.

The XKR features an Eaton supercharger, increasing the horsepower to 420 and enabling the coupe to go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.9 seconds.

Next up for Jaguar is the XF, Russell said, which will replace the S-Type and is scheduled to be launched early next year.

The new sports sedan will compete in the luxury midsize segment, with U.S. models to include the choice of two engines — a 4.2-liter, naturally aspirated V8 and a 4.2-liter, supercharged V8, according to the manufacturer.

“The styling, the way it looks — it’s already winning at auto shows,” Russell said of the XF, whose price has yet to be determined.

On average, the Lynnwood dealership has about 150 new and pre-owned vehicles on the lot at any given time, Russell said.