OpenRoad Audi more than just your regular dealership

From its corrugated aluminum façade to the curved “racetrack” wall inside, there’s nothing quite ordinary about one of OpenRoad Auto Group’s newest dealerships, OpenRoad Audi in Burnaby.

First welcoming visitors last May with a grand opening on June 23, the massive store is the second largest in Canada — two-and-a-half times bigger than the former location on Boundary — and was constructed using Audi’s AG’s “terminal” styling concept. Basically, similar techniques applied in automobile design have gone into the building as well.

For instance, there are huge windows several metres tall, aerodynamically shaped and featuring both sharp and soft angles where the edges meet. When the sun is out and things get a little too toasty inside, shades automatically lower down according to the amount of light passing through.

Besides glass, most of the outer shell is composed of countless sheets of perforated aluminum forming a unique and unmistakable mesh pattern, a nod to Audi’s penchant for using the strong and lightweight metal in its automobile construction (cue the 2017 Audi Q7 and its 41 per cent aluminum body).

Inside the doors, the performance-inspired theme continues. There’s a blacktop-covered racetrack, complete with a banking corner and lights representing lane markers, spanning the entire length of the sales floor.

Up above behind the track wall is a quiet customer’s lounge where people waiting can read or work in a quiet, comfortable environment. On the same level in the boardroom, prospective buyers can use an iPad to configure an Audi exactly the way they want it, from wheels to paint colour, and then view their choice on a large high definition monitor.

Other highlights of the facility include an 18-vehicle showroom, compared to 11 previously, a 24-bay drive-through service garage and an indoor used car showroom on the third floor. And those gorgeous shots of the used cars you see on the website? They are taken in an in-house speciality photography studio boasting a turntable, which a vehicle to be slowly spun 360-degrees so every angle can be professionally captured.

OpenRoad Audi is located at 3701 Lougheed Hwy in Burnaby, and is open daily. Visit openroadaudi.com for hours and information.