Ryan Emrie – Park Place Motorcars – Among Top 40 Mercedes-Benz Stars of Service Champions Nationwide

Ryan Emrie, technician with Park Place Motorcars Dallas, was named among the top 40 Mercedes-Benz Stars of Service Champions nationwide last week. These technicians represent the top one-half percent of eligible participants.

The Mercedes-Benz Stars of Service Championships are a multi-level national competition sponsored by Mercedes-Benz USA to identify the technicians and service advisors best suited to demonstrate world-class knowledge, skills, and teamwork.  The finalists will compete in Jacksonville to determine the 2012 team.

Join us in cheering on Ryan – as he continues his competition. What an exciting accomplishment!

Tags: Accolades, Awards, Mercedes-Benz Stars of Service Champions, Park Place Motorcars, Service

Park Place Service Using RFID Tags and Technology to Enhance Client Experience

By Terry Box, Dallas News

Few cars go unnoticed on the busy service drive at Park Place Motorcars.

A couple of years ago, the Dallas Mercedes-Benz and Porsche dealership began attaching RFID tags, similar to TollTags, to new and used vehicles. Monitors on the service drive read the tags as customers pull in.

“When you arrive, it alerts your service adviser that you are here, tells the adviser what service you’re scheduled for and brings up your service history — all in a few seconds,” said Tony Carimi, director of operations at Park Place Dealerships.

The technology revolution that blew through showrooms more than a decade ago — ushering in Internet car sales — is now roaring through service department back shops.

Service advisors are trading pens and clipboards for iPads, while technicians tune cars with laptops. Devices embedded in service drives check tires on cars entering the dealership for wear and alignment.

Meanwhile, technicians use iPads to photograph worn parts on a vehicle, emailing the pictures to customers so they can decide whether to fix them.

Read the full article on DallasNews.com

Tags: Client Experience, Processes, Service, Technology

Choosing The Right Tire For Your Vehicle

If you go to one of our Mercedes-Benz new car showrooms and inspect the tires on the cars parked there, you will notice the letters “MO” on the sidewall positioned away from the other information about the tire brand, type, size, speed and load rating, etc. For us as a Mercedes-Benz full service dealer, this is probably one of the most important pieces of information on the tires for our cars because it signifies that these tires are the version of the tire that is engineered to exacting Mercedes-Benz specifications. And if you don’t have Mercedes-Benz – yes, there is a way to identify whether your tires are specifically designed for your car. Keep reading….

Both Mercedes-Benz and tire company engineers tell us that these differences in tire versions include tread design, rubber compound, number of plies in the tire’s “carcass” and the strength of the reinforcing elements in the sidewalls. All of these design attributes contribute to the sporty handling of our luxury riding vehicles.

These tires are typically NOT available from the big discount chain stores even though they may offer the same brand, type, size, speed and load rating. This is not to say the “MO” designated tires can’t be purchased at a national discount chain store but they won’t be cheap and they won’t be in stock.

Here’s a good explanation of this from eHow.com after a Google search:

After the “snowflake” icon, you should notice some more letters: These letters or a symbol indicate that this is the auto maker-specified version of a tire that came as a car’s original equipment. These tires can often be a very different blend of rubber compound compared with the off-the-shelf variety of the same tire even though the tread pattern is identical. Examples of OE markings include: General Motors – all have a TPC SPEC number; BMW – most have a five-pointed-star symbol; Mercedes are emblazoned with “MO”; Porsche have the letter “N” followed by a number, i.e., N1, N2, etc.

Read more: How to Read a Tire Sidewall | eHow.com

There’s no doubt about it – we’re the best place to get your tires – to make sure you’re getting the ones that were engineered for your vehicle.

Tags: Service, tires

Park Place Lexus Grapevine Technician Rescues Hawk From Grill Of Lexus SUV

Tags: Careers, Community, Lexus Grapevine, Service