Marino With the Pitch

Beginning next week, the Maroone dealerships in South Florida will be offering seven-day service and they're going to their favorite quarterback to tell the story.
Dan Marino, old number 13, will be the star of TV spots announcing seven-day service at all of the Maroone/Autonation stores in the area. One of the spots you'll see shows Marino holding a news conference and announcing, in Clark Kent-like style, that he's switching his number to 7 in honor of the new seven-day service.
Okay, so Marino won't be going to Super Bowl Sunday with this ad, but he does a good job of getting the word out about the seven day service.
That in itself might be a story.
With new car sales down, dealerships all over the place are reaching out to service customers, hoping to grab an increased share of the market. Does it make sense? You betcha. Just do the math.
There are more people holding onto their cars in this economy, rather than buying new ones and there are going to be fewer dealerships, especially on the domestic side, as consolidation continues. That means more cars in need of service, fewer dealerships to do it. On top of that, service departments have always been a great money maker for auto dealers.
And see, you thought Marino was just another pretty face. Those folks in the AutoNation building in Fort Lauderdale, they're pretty smart, eh?