McLaren opened its first two showrooms in Germany on 20th July 2011 with the Düsseldorf and Hamburg outlets both opening in time for the 2011 Formula 1 German Grand Prix which will take place at the Nürburgring this weekend.
A total of four German dealers have been appointed by McLaren to offer sales and service for a range of McLaren cars, beginning with the MP4-12C. The remaining two dealers in Frankfurt and Munich will open in autumn this year.
The release of the MP4-12C supercar has meant that McLaren need to rapidly expand their dealer network to cope with the unprecedented demand, with over 2,700 potential customers already expressing a ‘serious intention to buy’. As a result McLaren have invested nearly £800 million ($1,275 million, €940 million) since 2005 and will have 35 retail outlets in 19 countries by the end of 2011.
Every McLaren showroom will exhibit a race car to emphasis McLaren’s racing heritage. Customers in Düsseldorf can see the MP4/5 which took Alain Prost to a world championship title in 1989, while Hamburg’s car enthusiasts can look at the MP4/6, the car in which Ayrton Senna won his third, and last championship title, in 1991.
The MP4-12C is only the first in a range of high-performance, carbon-fibre based sports cars that are planned, and costs £168,500 ($270,000, €200,000), with a ready-to-race version, the MP4-12C GT3, available for £310,000 ($500,000, €365,000).
All future McLaren sports cars will be built in the new £40m McLaren Production Centre in Woking, England. Up to 1,000 MP4-12C cars will be built there annually initially before production increases to 4,000 cars a year by the middle of the decade when the new model line-up is complete.
