McLaren Dealership Races into Palo Alto with Fisker on its Tail

Sports car enthusiasts across the Western United States will soon have a showroom floor to drool on as they ponder the raw fury that is McLaren’s latest car: the MP4-12C.

In the history of the elite British car company, McLaren has produced only one other street-legal version of its Formula One race car, the F1, and it sold every one of them.

Now again, the demand for the MP4-12C far exceeds the supply.

“There’s already a wait,” said Adam Simms, a Price Family Dealerships partner who helped land McLaren, and soon Fisker, in Palo Alto, where he said they “were trying to pick active collectors of super exotic cars.” When completed, this will be the only McLaren dealership west of Chicago.

“Guys are going to have a Ferrari, have a Bugati,” he said, “they are going to have other cars like this in their collection.”

With a base price of $229,900, the MP4-12C is highly exclusive. An older, used F1 fetches between $3-$6 million, according to Simms.

Simms described the MP4-12C as an engineering marvel, incorporating numerous features that have been banned by Formula One, such as brake steering.

“When you turn,” he explained, “if you’re turning to the left on the race track, the left brake will come on to help you gain momentum.”

The MP4-12C also uses an air-brake wing that activates when you hit the brake pedal—another feature outlawed by Formula One, he said.

Simms and the Price Family are spending $4 million to renovate the old Volvo dealership lot on the corner of Arastradero Road and El Camino Real.

“It’s really just a fantastic use for a corner that’s been vacant for a couple years,” said Thomas Fehrenbach, the city's economic development manager.

The McLaren showroom, due to open July 15, will anchor a corner building and also house Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other high-end brands, as well as a rotating display of Indy race cars.

Fisker, due to open this fall, will be right next door. Both buildings will be LEED Silver certified.

Fehrenbach said the new dealerships are a welcome addition following the loss of numerous car retailers over the last decade.

“This is hopefully a step in the right direction for us as a city to attract more dealers into an area where our community values sustainability and EV and hybrids,” he said.

Fisker, a California-based electric car company, also has a strong position in the Tesla-dominated market. There is already a two-year wait list for the Karma, a four-door, four-passenger sedan powered by lithium-ion batteries, Simms said, which runs about $110,000 “nicely equipped.”

The Fisker dealership will also sell used Lexus and other hybrids and will provide a full-service automotive shop for all European brands, including BMW and Mercedes.

Simms is particularly excited about the facilities, noting that the Fisker showroom will be outdoors seasonally. His team enlisted Palo Alto-based VDTA West to design the buildings and Plant to build them.

“We think this is gonna be the new standard of auto retailing in the Bay Area,” said Simms. “There’s nothing else that even comes close.”