The Cerritos Auto Square is an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and th ...

center located in the city of

Cerritos, California Cerritos (Spanish for "Little hills") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and is one of several cities that constitute the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. It was incorporated on April 24, 1956. As of 20 ...

. Cerritos Auto Square states that it is the largest

auto mall An auto row or auto mall is a business cluster with multiple car dealerships in a single neighborhood or road. Auto rows are distinct from car supermarkets which are a single, large dealership. Economics Auto rows, like mall food courts, are an ...

in the world with 29 import and domestic marques.

History

In 1979, the Cerritos Redevelopment Agency began work on the improvement of Studebaker Road, and in October of that year, S & J Chevrolet broke ground for the first auto dealership in the Cerritos Auto Square, directly west of Interstate 605 and the

Los Cerritos Center The Los Cerritos Center is a super regional shopping mall located in Cerritos, California. Since September 1971, the Los Cerritos Center has been an integral part of the city of Cerritos' tax revenue. The mall is the city's largest revenue sour ...

, between 183rd and South streets. Eventually it would be joined by other dealerships in buildings that featured a distinctive "

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One of the first business locations in Cerritos was the General Telephone Company's service yard, replacing a turkey ranch on the northwest corner of Studebaker Road and 183rd Street. In 1988, the Los Cerritos Redevelopment Agency purchased the and made $1.2 million in improvements, including road improvements, landscaped medians and parkways, rocky waterfalls, and decorative street lights. The site was soon the new home of Moothart Chrysler Corporation, Chrysler-

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

and Victory Pontiac- GMC. A few years later, a

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...

dealer was added to make twenty-two dealer franchises in the Cerritos Auto Square

It started in 1995 Today, the Cerritos Auto Square provides the city of Cerritos with approximately $12 million a year in sales tax, and is its single largest source of revenue. In 2006, the Auto Square sold 48,241 automobiles, totaling over $1.1 billion in sales, or half of the total retail sales in the city

Marketing

The Cerritos Auto Square has an aggressive marketing campaign throughout

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

. The Cerritos Auto Square Association advertises collectively via

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

, and signage, as well as individual dealership advertisements through similar media.

Radio

The various advertisements heard throughout Southern California radio is perhaps the most widespread example of the Auto Square's collective advertising. Although no one dealership receives extra air time, the advertisements generally proclaim the low prices, sales, and reputation of the auto mall as the highest volume dealer. The popular jingles, "Take the 605 to South Street, come on, it's all there! Take the 605 to South Street, Cerritos Auto Square!" (Sung to the tune of

The Orlons The Orlons are an American R&B group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that formed in 1960. The group won gold discs for three of their singles. Career The quartet consisted of lead singer Rosetta Hightower (June 23, 1944 – August 2, 2014), ...

" South Street") or "We sell more, so you save more, Cerritos...Auto Square!" are ubiquitous and are good examples of effective advertising strategies using simple, easy-to-remember lyrics.

Television

Local television stations and cable companies throughout the Southland air or insert advertisements for the Cerritos Auto Square collectively or as individual dealerships located within the auto mall. The television advertisements play the same jingle mentioned above and characteristically involve computer animations of non sequitur images or of

Jim Varney James Albert Varney Jr. (June 15, 1949 – February 10, 2000) was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his broadly comedic role as Ernest P. Worrell, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award, as well as appearing in films and n ...

as his popular character

Ernest P. Worrell Ernest P. Worrell is a fictional character portrayed by American actor Jim Varney in a series of television commercials and later in a television series (''Hey Vern, It's Ernest!'') as well as a series of feature films. Ernest was created with ...

, who served as a spokesperson for the Cerritos Auto Square throughout the 1990s. A more recent spokesman for the Cerritos Auto Square was stuntman Super Dave Osborne, and he was featured prominently in the television ads. Since January 2005, the Auto Square has also been launching television spots that depict the "downside to buying in bulk" in order to save money. Clips and the jingle can be found in the Auto Square's web site her

Signage

The Cerritos Auto Square sign overlooking Interstate 605 is perhaps the most well known symbol of the auto mall. It is a tall blue and white sign that states: "Cerritos Auto Square: South Street Exit: World's Largest." It also features a flashing marquee (sign), marquee that is used for individual advertisements for dealers in the Auto Square, as well as for shows at the

Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (or CCPA) is a entertainment and music venue located in the Cerritos Towne Center of Cerritos, California. It is owned and operated by the City of Cerritos and it opened its doors to the public on Jan ...

Future expansion

On February 14, 2006 meeting of the Cerritos Economic Commission, Applied Development Economics discussed and suggested the diversification of the Cerritos Auto Square to possibly include RVs,

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruisin ...

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

s and marine vehicles. The expansion of the nearby

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Calif ...

in the coming years in southeast Los Angeles would provide several opportunities for diversifying the Auto Square's selection. It was also stated in the meeting that more luxury lines were needed to expand the selection and increase Cerritos' lead in the automobile retail sector.

Challenges

"Although the current consensus among economists and automotive experts portends a slight softening of the nationwide demand for cars and trucks, the Auto Square will continue to benefit from its location and reputation," states the Cerritos

City Manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a " Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief ex ...

Complete listing of makes and marques

* Acura *

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

* Chevrolet * Chrysler Corporation, Chrysler *

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

*E-Cite Motors * Ford * GMC *

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai As ...

Infiniti is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Nissan. Infiniti officially started selling vehicles on November 8, 1989, in North America. The marketing network for Infiniti-branded vehicles included dealers in over 50 countries in ...

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

Jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Motors ...

* Kia *

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rove ...

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...

* Lincoln *

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima (town), Fuchū, Hiroshima Prefecture, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, M ...

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 187 ...

* Nissan *

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post ...

References

*Cenovich, Marilyn. "The Story of Cerritos: A History in Progress." City of Cerritos. 1995. The City of Cerritos. 19 Mar. 2006. . *Cenovich, Marilyn. "The Story of Cerritos: A History in Progress." City of Cerritos. 1995. The City of Cerritos. 19 Mar. 2006. . *Gallucci, Arthur. "City Manager's Budget Letter to the City Council." City of Cerritos. 25 May 2005. The City of Cerritos. 19 Mar. 2006. .

External links

City of Cerritos web siteCerritos Auto Square web site
{{coord, 33.86197, N, 118.09972, W, source:placeopedia, display=title Cerritos, California Auto rows