Ride is over as Nissan of Thousand Oaks shuts down





Nissan of Thousand Oaks shuttered its showroom earlier this month after more than four decades in the city.

Silver Star Automotive Group, which took over the Nissan dealership from Al Piano in 1992, closed the doors of the local franchise Oct. 2 due to declining sales. Nissan has been in the city since the 1970s.

“Nissan hasn’t been a profitable franchise in this area for quite some time,” said Susan Murata, vice president of Silver Star. “We were selling some cars and doing some service work, but we were not making any money.”

Silver Star, which owns 10 of the 24 other dealerships in the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall, plans to move its Lexus showroom, which is currently at 3601 Auto Mall Drive, to the former Nissan building at 3755 Auto Mall Drive.

Murata said closing the Nissan dealership was a “very difficult decision to make” for the Silver Star board.

“The Anderson family (who owns Silver Star) are buyers, not sellers,” she said. “They don’t usually just close up a business. But we needed a larger piece of property for Lexus.

“Lexus is a very successful franchise here and there is no more available land in the auto mall.”

According to Murata, the auto group plans to combine its Jaguar and Land Rover showrooms, and extend them into the old Lexus building once Lexus moves into the new facility.

“Right now, Land Rover is behind Lexus in a very tiny showroom,” she said.

Silver Star tentatively plans to begin construction and relocation in January, Murata said.

Haider Alawami, T.O. economic development officer, said city officials are concerned about losing the franchise, particularly because Nissan of Thousand Oaks has been one of the city’s top 20 sales tax generators.

“Of course we are concerned about losing anybody,” he said. “So we will work with other local dealerships and anybody else who may be interested in buying the franchise and keeping it here in Thousand Oaks.”

Alawami said another local dealership group is currently in negotiations with Nissan Corporate to buy the franchise and potentially construct a new building to house it.

“I’m not at liberty to say who that is yet, since a deal has not been finalized,” he said. “But we’re optimistic that we’ll be able to keep Nissan here.”



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