Land Rover, Jaguar dealer in Scottsdale to close

A Land Rover and Jaguar automobile dealership in south Scottsdale will close in early December, the company said Friday.

The dealership - on Scottsdale's venerable but declining Motor Mile on McDowell Road - employs about 50 people, said Tony Pordon, a senior vice president of Michigan-based Penske Automotive Group.

Some of those employees will be transferred to another dealership and some will be laid off, Pordon said. He said he didn't know how many positions would be eliminated.

Pordon cited the general slowing in the economy as the reason for closing.

"We also have a Land Rover and Jaguar dealership in another part of the city, so we don't feel that we need to have two, given the difficulty in the economy today," he said.

Penske, the nation's No. 2 publicly traded auto retailer, owns another Jaguar and Land Rover dealership in north Phoenix, as well as luxury car dealerships in Chandler and north Scottsdale.

The company's dealership is only the most recent local casualty of a car industry struggling in the current economy.

Georgia-based Bill Heard Enterprises, one of the leading Chevrolet sellers in the nation, closed all of its dealerships in September, including one in Scottsdale on McDowell Road where more than 150 employees worked. The company also shuttered a collision, parts and service division in the city.

Desert Kia, a Gilbert car dealership on Country Club Drive south of Baseline Road, has also closed.

Scottsdale's Motor Mile - on McDowell Road between 64th Street and Pima Road - has seen a steady trickle of dealerships closing or leaving the area for higher profile spots along the Valley's freeways.

Other recent closure announcements include Power Pontiac/Buick/GMC, Scottsdale Audi, Scott Toyota and Nissan of Scottsdale and Chapman BMW.

Harold Steward, manager of Scottsdale's Economic Vitality Department, said he doesn't have access to sales tax contributions from individual dealerships including the Jaguar-Land Rover center.

However, like other cities, Scottsdale relies heavily on sales taxes from auto sales.

But he said he won't know the full impact for a couple of months after the dealership closes.

"What we have to do is look at ways, as best we can, to recover some of that sales tax," he said. "It may not (come from) McDowell Road, though."