Like many of its luxury car-buying customers, Faulkner BMW is eagerly waiting to upgrade to a newer, sleeker and more efficient model that hasn't even been built yet.

But at least the job is under way and the delivery date is set — June 2011.

The lengthy process of relocating to 1530 Manheim Pike, formerly the home of Saturn of Lancaster, began Tuesday when work crews started demolishing the vacant 19-year-old Saturn facility.

It will be the second move in 10 years for the BMW dealership, which purchased the Saturn property in December for $3.8 million, according to county records.

"We weren't happy about having to tear the building down," Ricky Wood, Faulkner BMW general manager, said.

"We could have just done a facelift on the building, but BMW has specific premium standards that require brand materials."

Wood declined to disclose the cost of constructing and equipping the new BMW store.

Faulkner BMW's roots in Lancaster date to the early 1980s when the then-boxy sports cars were sold off the Faulkner Oldsmobile lot at Route 30 and Rohrerstown Road.

While Saturn and Olds have gone the way of the woolly mammoth, the BMW brand has become an auto-industry gem.

And as gems go, the new Faulkner BMW store will be a highly polished one.

Wood said the new site will "mirror and mimic" BMW's marketing tag line as the "ultimate driving machine."

The new, 33,000-square-foot glitz-and-glass facility — featuring metallic gray trim and sky blue, black and white BMW logos — will combine new and pre-owned car sales with a beefed-up service department.

The new, more visible site will replace its 17,000-square-foot store around the corner at 121 Granite Run Drive, its home since 2001.

Faulkner BMW's plans to move to the former Saturn site were first reported last November, but details of the project had yet to be determined.

The new facility, on 4.5 acres, will be built by Landisville-based Professional Design and Construction.

Because the new facility will be about twice the size of the current store, Faulkner BMW will be able to have 21 work-bay stations, up from the current 11.

Wood expects to need them.

BMW's "no cost maintenance warranty," which provides customers free maintenance — including everything from brake pads and brake rotors to windshield-wiper fluid — for 50,000 miles or four years, assures that service workers will remain busy.

The dealership will add employees when it moves, Wood said.

It now employs 65 in its service, sales, parts and collision departments, he said. It added four employees over the past two years.

"We have been blessed the last few years, withstanding this recession that everyone has felt," Wood said.

"While a lot of stores are going through a bit of a pullback, we've actually expanded both years."

Wood said Faulkner BMW sales increased 25 percent last year and are up 40 percent so far in 2010.

The new store will spur another jump, he said.

With the larger space, Faulkner BMW will boost its inventory from 100 new cars to 150.

Wood predicted that sales of new and used cars will increase to 110 vehicles a month, up from the current 67, and repair orders from 1,000 a month to 1,500.