Bauer Jaguar Moving to Santa Ana Site

Orange County’s only Jaguar dealer is moving from its longtime home in Anaheim to a new facility in the Santa Ana Auto Center.

Bauer Jaguar is making the move because expansion of the Santa Ana Freeway in Anaheim will rob it of its visibility, said operations director Paul Rudin.

The dealership, which also sells Lotus sports cars and Land Rover sports utility vehicles, has been located on a 5-acre lot on Manchester Avenue for more than 10 years.

Rudin said the freeway widening project will elevate a portion of the Santa Ana Freeway, eliminating motorists’ view of the dealership.

The dealership also wanted “to get closer to Newport Beach” and the high-income areas of south Orange County without moving too far from the center of the county, Rudin said.

He said work on the new 3.2-acre dealership in the Santa Ana center is scheduled to begin next month and that Bauer hopes to move its Jaguar and Lotus franchises there by November.

The company hasn’t decided what to do with its Land Rover franchise, Rudin said. Almost all of the 55 people employed at Bauer will transfer to the Santa Ana dealership, he said.

(John O’Dell)