Higher standards

IT WOULD BE FAIR TO SAY THAT H.J.PFAFF AUDI IN NEWMARKET, ISN’T SO MUCH A DEALERSHIP, AS IT IS A DESTINATION. PEOPLE LOVE BEING HERE.

President Christopher Pfaff has been a car enthusiast since he was a boy and now oversees a group with multiple brands and locations in both Ontario and B.C.

“We’ve seen our sales and service increase significantly, since moving to this location,” says general manager Jon Fraser. And why not? The place is beautiful. Built to Audi’s latest Terminal image standards for retail locations, the H.J. Pfaff Audi store in Newmarket, Ont. incorporates all the latest amenities but goes above and beyond what’s required.

In many ways it embodies the spirit and mantra of Pfaff Automotive Partners. President Christopher Pfaff, whose father Hans emigrated from Germany and opened his first dealership, a VW store in Newmarket in 1964, says that a lot of what the company has accomplished can be attributed to its great people.

Jon Fraser, General Manager, is a graduate of Northwood University and has been with Pfaff for more than six years

“We’ve been lucky with the people we’ve been able to attract to our company and keep in our company,” he says, as we stand in the imposing showroom. Around us are 14 examples of Audi’s latest cars and SUVs, including a R8 supercar, which has pride of place in the Northwest corner.

Pfaff, who got into the family business in 1985, has been instrumental in growing it from a single location on Yonge Street in Newmarket, to a multi brand, multi-store group, with franchises that include Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche and Toyota, as well as the only McLaren franchise in Canada. And from Newmarket, the company can now count locations as far flung as London, Ont. and Vancouver, B.C.

Nevertheless, Pfaff has strong ties to Newmarket and the Audi dealership on Leslie Street reflects this. In fact, it’s probably symbolic that the store is situated in this particular location. “We lucked out,” says Pfaff. “It is very difficult to find appropriate land for dealerships these days, so you take what you can get. This was the last, undeveloped corner of Newmarket and it worked out well for us.”

Proximity to the 404 Expressway has proved a huge bonus too, while the size of the facility, 70,000 sq.ft. means that Pfaff has been able to address many of the issues it faced when the Audi store was located in the old, somewhat cramped facility, on Yonge Street.

GOING UNDERGROUND
Providing ample parking in the basement level is a good example of efficient space utilization. “It is great to be able to have new and used car parking in the basement,” says Colin Weidelich, vice-president of Gaydon Contractors, the firm tasked with constructing the dealership. “It is ideal for Pfaff to store inventory, especially the higher end vehicles like Audi R8s and especially in the winter.”

A big part of what has helped Pfaff to grow is the people behind the operation, who live and breathe both the company mantra and also the brands it represents

Creating such a vast, useable space in the basement presented some challenges, one of which was to prevent water seeping into the foundations. “This facility was built using what we call a core slab,” says Weidelich, “a steel structure with concrete slabs that make up the floor in pieces. With water being the beast that it is, namely finding any crack and working its way into things — such as these cores, we installed a Schluter-DITRA waterproofing membrane.” This also serves as a crack protection device, especially important as the building settles and the core foundations move in different directions.

Other key features of H.J.Pfaff Audi include the distinctive honeycomb cladding on the outside of the building and the massive expanse of showroom glass. The cladding, made by an Austrian firm called AWS — had never been used for a dealership application in North America before and differs from what Terminal stores in the U.S. originally adopted. “It gives the building an interesting, almost multi-dimensional look,” says Monte Weis of Weis & Associates, the building consulting firm responsible for designing the facility. “It’s almost a double cladding, with a solid layer behind the perforated facade.” Not only does it look striking, it also reduces maintenance requirements, compared with traditional brick or concrete structures.

The glass, which incorporates panels measuring three metres squared, also proved a challenge, since at the time the facility was built, only two locations in the world, one in China, and one in upstate New York, were capable of producing thermal panels this large. “Now there’s a company in Collingwood, Ont. that makes it,” says Colin Weidelich.

The impressive showroom incorporates a dramatic wall, inspired by the old AVUS racing circuit near Berlin

BIG, YET INTIMATE
The showroom itself incorporates some rather interesting features, one of which is the dramatic sloping wall that greets you at the entrance as you walk in. “It’s inspired by the old AVUS banked circuit near Berlin,” says Weis, who notes that the idea is meant to pay homage to the great auto racing battles between Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union (Audi’s predecessor) in the 1930s.

The design of the wall is inherently complex, with a special epoxy finish that Weidelich says required a team from Germany to be flown in to deliver the right result. The curvature is also extremely difficult to execute, though in this case, when Audi’s architect visited from Germany and saw the result, he ranked H.J. Pfaff Motors as among the top five facilities with this feature in the world.

Christopher Pfaff says that while the showroom is big, it also conveys a feeling of intimacy, something that’s appreciated by both customers and staff. In fact, ensuring that staff had all the amenities they needed was a big factor in both design and construction of the facility. There’s an on-site gymnasium, while common lunch/seating areas are designed to foster greater integration between sales and service, instead of resulting in separate silos.

Jon Fraser, General Manager, explains that central to the Pfaff Audi experience is exceeding customer expectations and delivering a premium service. “Anybody can go and test drive a car,” he says, “but it is delivering the wow factor that gets customers to come back that’s important.”

And wow here, is achieved through a number of different avenues. One includes a valet service, which has proved so popular since the store opened, that around 80 per cent of customers now use it. Another is the onsite car wash — a state-of-the-art system that uses ionized water, so once a vehicle has been through and dries, no water spots are left behind.

On the service side, the expansive drive-thru area actually goes above and beyond Audi’s image requirements, in an effort elevate the experience to the next level. Not only does it serve as a point for greeting service customers and putting them back in their vehicles once the work is completed, it also serves to provide an interactive experience, allowing one of Pfaff’s four on-site service advisors to show them what their car needs and why it needs it.

The shop itself, which encompasses an area of 12,000 sq.ft. incorporates 14 individual work stations and one state-of-the-art alignment rack. Each workstation incorporates its own computer terminal and also lines for oil, washer fluid, air and water. “We did this so our techs wouldn’t have to go back and forth, saving time,” says service manager Leo Tantalo.

The on-site car wash uses ionized water for a spot-free clean

The shop also makes extensive use of natural lighting, providing a pleasant working environment for the technicians, while also maximizing energy efficiency. A full length viewing window, also provides customers with the opportunity to see their vehicles receiving attentive care, an aspect that has shown to help foster trust and build retention between them and the dealership.

Although many customers at H.J. Pfaff Motors choose to have their cars picked up and dropped off, for those that come in, complimentary Wi-Fi, luxurious lounges as well as two cafes, (one upstairs, one downstairs) and an Audi boutique, provide plenty of opportunity to get on with their day or pass the time in style.

Even before the new facility officially opened in the fall of 2012, Pfaff Audi Newmarket saw sales and service increase significantly. “I think a big thing has been the investment Pfaff has put back into the company,” says Colin Weidelich. “Business has substantially grown since the investment was made in the new store. I think if you keep up your facility and are constantly showing people you care about the building, that reflects on their impression of your service.”