Fancy car dealerships in Laguna Beach ended decades ago, moving inland, closer to freeways and shopping malls.
At their height in the 1950s, four dealers occupied downtown Laguna real estate. Cars were sacrosanct. Look at nearly any historical photo of Laguna, and you will see them lining Main Beach willy-nilly – doubtless spilling oil and gas along the way.
Now, you can experience this other-worldly resonance, this striking feeling of déjà vu, by visiting the Polestar electric car showroom, 305 N Coast Hwy, across from the Laguna Art Museum. This small, modern space represents the new customer experience for car shopping.
Get used to it. Rivian is trying to open at the old Laguna South Coast Theatre. Fisker can’t be far behind with its “Ocean” car, which seems a natural backdrop for Laguna’s pristine waters. Already, you can imagine Fisker’s marketing department trying to convince the Coastal Commission that floating a car on the ocean is a good thing.
But don’t call them car dealerships anymore. They are “brand experience centers,” or in the case of Volvo-backed Polestar, they are very minimalist sounding “spaces.”
“This is not a showroom,” says Polestar. “It’s almost like visiting an art gallery where the cars are the exhibits. …Every item is placed with deliberation, so you can geek out over every aspect of it, free from distraction.”
Make no mistake, they are cars, new yet old, defying history. Or are they?
From the beginning of time, philosophers have recognized that historic recurrence explains a lot – from the rise and fall of empires to personal patterns of bad choices.
Here, now, we have cars once again in Laguna. Electric cars, to be sure, but cars still.
So rev your silent engines, dream in kilowatt hours, and prepare for history repeating itself. Car dealers are back to the future in Laguna.
