Q & A: Carmine Grassi, Infiniti of Cool Springs

Carmine Grassi of Infiniti of Cool Springs

Today, May 19th marks the 6th anniversary of Carmine Grassi purchasing Infiniti of Cool Springs. In that six-year span, he’s expanded the showroom (June 2013), expanded the service department (April 2016), and now is set to open a new off-site support facility by the end of June (near the corner of Liberty Pike and Carothers Parkway) that will expand the capacity of Middle Tennessee’s exclusive Infiniti dealership even further. We sat down with Carmine to learn about his time in Williamson County and what’s in store for Infiniti of Cool Springs.

Q: How long have you been in Williamson County now?

A: Six years. We came from Phoenix, where we had been for over 20 years. I wanted to be part of this community, and I couldn’t imagine a better opportunity than to be the Infiniti dealer just 2 miles away from the US headquarters of the brand. We love it here. Our youngest daughter just started at Page High School.

Q: What are the biggest changes you’ve seen since your arrival?

A: TRAFFIC! The growth has been tremendous. And my commute to Cool Springs has gone from 12 minutes to about 23 minutes (on a good day).

Q: Rate your growth expectations on a scale of 1-5 (1 = Significant Contraction, 5 = Significant Growth)

A: 5+

Q: Rate your growth expectations for additional employment on a scale of 1-5 (1 = Significant Contraction, 5 = Significant Growth)

A: 4, only because we’re limited on space.

Q: What are your biggest challenges?

A: Space. We’re land-locked. So we’re storing cars all over town, and we’re building an off-site support facility to move activities that don’t involve customers away from the actual dealership. That way, we can keep growing and maintain our #1-rated customer service at the same high standards.

Q: Any passion projects you’re supporting?

A: We have a good friend with a downs-syndrome child, so we’ve been supporting Gigi’s Playhouse.

Q: Tell us a little about the new support facility

A: It allows us to move any activity that doesn’t directly involve customers away from the dealership and make room for all the growth we’re experiencing in new/used car sales and our recently-expanded service department. Customers won’t ever go there, but we’ll have the capability to receive car deliveries there (instead of the dealership), do all of our inspections, and detail the cars before they come over to the dealership. We’ll also do all of our re-conditioning for Certified Pre-Owned Infiniti cars. The building mainly consists of a 10-bay garage for service and detailing and a LOT of additional parking that will help us stage cars in a more orderly way.