JEFF STERNS CONNECTED THROUGH CARS

JEFF STERNS CONNECTED THROUGH CARS

5:55 I wanted to be a professional pool player when I was 15. So I would sneak into the pool hall looking much older than I did. I never went to high school. I think I had the maximum number of days off that you could have in the state of Michigan, and actually passed into the next grade. 7:59 I went down to GM, in interviewed, never thinking that a guy with a D average in high school, General Motors is ever going to hire. But I went because I promised him that I'd go. Interviewed for a level one male boy position $495.50 a month 10:27 I beat Minnesota Fats12:12 I went to school at night with my wife raised two kids at the time 13:18 the president of the company, or john DeLorean, who was you know, the hot shot of the company 15:12 how would you like to be an analyst? 16:17 gaining momentum inside the company. And the chief engineer at the time was a fella by the name of Bob Stempel, who ultimately became the president of General Motors. This is night, it was 1974 or '75 biggest snowstorm in the history of Detroit 28 inches. Bob said "clear the snow." Nobody said a word and it was done with industrial snow blowers in time for a 6.30am meeting. 18:21 General Motors had about 48% of the market. 21:05 Ward's at the time, they wanted to get into the publishing business in electronics. 23:12 he said, Just do me a favor. The next time you come back to Nissan, we don't compare ourselves to Chrysler. Come back and show me a comparison versus Toyota, or Honda, because that's who we care about. 24:29 He said, I was fired. 27:29 All I'm thinking about is what I'm going to tell Janet, what am I going to tell my three kids? And he said, No, no, no, no, we want you to run the business. So you're in charge now? You mean, you're not firing me? No, no, you're in charge. 34:08 I'm not going to write a check for Brazil, you got to go down there and fix it yourself. And the only role that I played was given the latitude by Wagner 35:47 Culture was the first thing so the culture in Brazil was already there. In terms of a work ethic. You know, maybe people think that Latin America is kind of a, mañana worry about it tomorrow. That's not the culture that was there, you had to be sure that you were picking the right products for the market, you can have a turnaround strategy. And if you have the wrong product for what the customer could afford, or what the customer wanted, didn't matter, that whether you had the right culture or not. 36:19 So Wagner decided that we were going to be up to date with all the cars that came out of Opel, and we would be current with all of the trucks that came out in North America. So when I arrived, we had a Chevette a 1982 thing called a Monza, which was a Cavalier, this is 1991. By the way, I got if I want to get the right date sequence here, a 1967 full size pickup truck. And the thing called an Opel record, which was kind of like a full size car. That was the product lineup generating $110 billion dollar loss. 37:45 when I got there inflation was 30-40% a month 38:39 You guys dropped off the car for me, but it won't start. What's going on here? He said, did you pull out the choke? 44:30 on Ignacio Lopez 47:55 I went to Poland to work, it was dark Warsaw, if you draw a direct line is in the middle of Hudson Bay in Canada, you're up there. 56:00 So off to Germany. 56:49 I'm a gringo. They're making fun. And I let them go for a while. And I'm pretending like I have no idea what they're doing. And they're done. And in fluent Portuguese. I said to them..., 57:37 Wagner comes into me, he said, I need to move. I need somebody to go to Russia. And I said, Why are you talking to me? He said, Russia is complex, and I need somebody who I can trust. And that's you. 59:14 I guess we can make an exception. And it was the best job I ever had. I had a full time driver, which was fantastic. I had the only white escalate in Russia. And why did I have a white escalate? Because every one of the cops in Moscow. After two months, I knew Oh, that's the guy who's not going to pay us a bribe.

Make sure to listen to part two!!

1:38 story about the important clients that went to Vegas for a Bentley VIP event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway... Continentals or Flying Spurs...while in The Club Room at Dell Frescoes Double Eagle Steakhouse to host a welcome dinner for all of our clients. It was a beautiful room...while the drivers were putting away the cars from today's event, they wrecked all four cars! 5:34 they had a Yokohama truck...could only get through 2 hot laps, before new tires. 5:56 with Derek Bell...going around this road course in a 5500 pound sports car, squealing and humming and he's talking to you, like he's having afternoon tea, "...watch as I go into this corner, we're gonna hit the apex..." It's nothing to him... I'm white knuckled with my hand on the roof. .10:44 Bentley offered to reimburse flight and lodging due to wrecked cars...I don't think they realized how some of these folks traveled.... a trip for a family was north of $70,000. 16:51 when I was a kid, I was an AJ Foyt fan. You know, I watched a little bit of NASCAR. For me, it was the open wheel racers, and AJ Floyd was the guy. I almost got to meet him. I was in line to get him to sign my poster. I was at Pebble Beach at the time... I remember I had to get to SFO to to get out of town. I didn't get my autograph. 17:50 I did a an event one time at Daytona International Speedway, was on their Rolex 24 course 20:41 very first car personally owned... Opel GT. 20:44 I'll share a story with you about a guy that I know. He's a bi-coastal gentlemen got divorced and bought a piece of land, because he wanted to, you know, kind of like, get off the grid a little bit. And he built a I want to think it's like 25 30,000 square foot building. beautifully. Well done. Wood, stone gorgeous. It's got a 20 by 20. Room in it. That's bedroom, kitchen, living room, closet and storage. And the rest of it is garage buyer for cars. He's probably got $40 million of cars.... 23:24 I was a car washer at a lot. We had a line that was called the big line. A line of Fleetwood Broughms that are like 40 feet long. 25:40 "...he looked like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas... his arms hanging out the window...there's no paint on the driver's door where his arms hanging out. Overalls, no shirt..." 27:13 ...the same pickup truck shows up the same father and son with no shirt, wearing overalls walk in. The conversation then turns to how you're going to pay. He says Jr. Go out and get the money". So he goes out into the car gets a grocery bag, and he comes in and it's full of money. And we're now we spend the afternoon counting dollar bills and $5 bills and $10 bills and $20 bills until we come up to his total... 30:39 Jeff: My dad lived in a penthouse in a high rise outside of Detroit. And he was a car dealer. In the underground parking garage, he had three spots...always had some Corvettes, always had a new Lincoln Mark lll and lV. And the '48 Bentley... the apartment number was on the parking spot...he'd just get a knock on his door... it would be a girl wanting to know who lived there and whose cars those were. That was his Tinder at a time. 31:35 Jeff: he let me drive alone at 9 years old, in a 1969 454 automatic Corvette, and all I did was pull myself up by the steering wheel... I never touched the gas, I would just ride the brake. 32:39 he turned 14 I let him start driving to school alone. Jackson Don't tell anyone. 33:02 Chris sold new Lamborghini Maserati... Lamborghini Countach... 140 miles an hour, and I'm just freaking out 38:03 (Maserati Biturbo) He's lays on the gas in the rain, rear wheel drive twin turbo car, the car breaks loose. He breaks into multiple 360s and spins right into the mouth of this carwash. 41:28 This dealership was top customers satisfaction for all Ford and Lincoln mercury stores, which was I think, more than 5000 stores for something like 15 years in a row and had the highest loyalty factor... I just want to let the world know that Chris worked in this. 44:46 Don Naja. He 90ish. He still sells around 20 cars a month. 50:12 Let me defend the car business to the civilian public. The reason we don't like to give a quote, at a time that you're not going to buy, is we don't know where we're going to be in quota, in cash flow in inventory level, in how old or how aged in stock, the one that you're looking at is, the day you're ready, if the salesperson you're dealing with is one unit away from hitting some bonus that we want to help his family pay bills, there's all these things that we look at. 50:42 why dealers can be afraid to throw a number out: if it's too high, and "safe", meaning safety margin, you probably won't come back, but it's safe and doable in the unlikely event that you would return. Yet if it's too low, meaning we could do it now because (eg.) we're one unit away from a factory bonus, and we're gonna do it. But we don't know if we'll be in that position in three day and then we can't do it anymore. Then you think we made up a number and we were lying. So we don't know which number to hit you. Easily honored and too high for you to return or to the bone at the moment and most likely not possible later! 51:35 if your excuse to leave is that your wife's in the hospital, what are you stopping test driving and asking for an appraisal on your appraisal and your trading and whatever? MY WIFE HAS CANCER! I don't understand you people! (What would that do to my payment?!?) 56:08 I'm holding a cup of coffee and I come through the other side and I spill hit them right here. A cup of coffee on Jay Leno. 1:01:57 (Pilot Frank) And I opened up the door and here's this man on top of the covers in his tighty whities face down snow snoring 1:03:40 it's a Challenger jet. Invited us to Bahamas to gamble one night and invited my father. We're at Atlantis playing blackjack. The casino accommodated us and gave us a $10 to $10,000 limit special table so we can all sit together. I remember being at that card table and saying to him, you know, I got to be at work in the morning. It's like 11 o'clock at night. And you know, here you are in Bahamas, you got to be working in the morning like eight o'clock, right? And it's 11 is it Okay, then let's go. And he calls the pilot. So the pilot knew we were coming. We took a taxi or a hotel limo or something to the plane from saying I need to leave at 11 to being in my bed. IN CLEARWATER, FLORIDA from the Bahamas, was about an hour and 15 minute I said I am playing cards at 11. At 12:15 I'm in bed. 1:12:39 The Ferrari 599 bumper: A Honda Accord, pulls in. The building's under construction. We had this 599 that was backed into a parking spot across from the garage Bay. This little Honda comes in and is, you know, doing a U turn. But he doesn't have enough room to make the turn. So he throws the car in reverse. And he actually backs into this brand new 599 which nobody's seen yet. 1:18:05 "Let's go take a ride" and they drive me into this warehouse and we're in the back of like a Lincoln Town Car. I'm in the back and we're driving further and further into this dark warehouse and I'm actually thinking "they're gonna' get rid of me! I was selling too many Ferrari's into their territory!!" 1:19:21 founder of Wikipedia: he's got a Ferrari that he wants us to service that he says hasn't run in a long time. Can you come get it? Next to his house, is this Ferrari not parked in a garage, that someone's been mowing the grass around it for, I don't know 10 years and there's a tree growing underneath the car through the motor cover that is now creating shade. 1:24:16 lo and behold, you turn left at Fort Myers on I don't even know what the road number is the route number. Going over to Lake Okeechobee. And on the side of the road, with the key in it is this Spyker. He had jumped something with the car and the suspension was like pushed up into the nose of the car. 1:34:21 Chris explains how leasing works and why the wealthy who are very capable of paying cash, choose it. 1:42:37 so you're in a normal parking lot in Miami at a Dunkin Donuts and a brown Pagani pulls in next to me. I'm on my phone doing something else and I'm like, but it's nonsensical. 1:44:44 you drop the hammer on this motor. Well, this seat rips from the floor. And I almost fly out the complete back of the boat and crack my head on the transom of the boat. You didn't even blink an eye. "Don't sue me. I have no insurance!" 1:45:26 we're trudging through Charlotte Harbor, which is a very large body of water. And in this in your 19 foot boat. Next thing, you know, one of these Popeye's offshore racers goes flying across our bow. And then we look to our port side or starboard side, and there's a bunch of them coming in.

3:25 Wagner comes into me, he said, I need to move I need somebody to go to Russia. And I said, Well, why are you talking to me? He said, Russia is complex. And I need somebody who I can trust. 4:20 I had the only white escalate in Russia. And why did I have a white escalate? Because every one of the cops in Moscow, after two months knew... that's the guy who's not gonna pay us a bribe. 5:08 Russians were very, very jealous of the Chinese in terms of their industrial expansion, the size of their economy, etc. 13:11 The vice governor actually had the office that was Lennon's and Putin's. 14:57 she said, "Mr. Brown Welcome to St. Petersburg. I just have one question for you. Do you have the authority to negotiate the deal for this plant?"15:24 I said, "Governor, I am General Motors in Russia." 21:59How a bribe could be structured... 22:01 My name is Oleg Deripaska. And I want to build a car with General Motors. 27:43 about two minutes into the chairman of Coke's opening, he starts to coug and he's kind of choking and the cough is getting worse. And the head of Pepsi, Russia is sitting right next to him. He opens a can of Pepsi. And he hands it to Neville. And Neville says, I'd rather die from choking. 28:06 You're moving to Switzerland. 31:35 I land in Zurich, and I don't have a job. I'm the "executive director of new business development"... and screen door repair. 34:40 I call the embassy in Moscow and said you need to hook me with the charge the affairs and commercial attache in Ankara. I need to go and find out who in Turkey's got money, land and who would like to be a partner with General Motors. 35:31 This is but here's your guy right here. He's in Istanbul. He's desperate to get into the car business and he's got money. And we'll set the dinner up for you. I flew from Ankara to Istanbul. Do you want to be in the car business? Well, without being too personal, does $100 million dollars scare you? 40:29 So what am I gonna do? I'm gonna walk through the lobby every morning with my golf clubs. 40:40 here's your assignment. We gave away the distribution for Cadillac Corvette and Hummer in Europe to a distributor, that distributor is going to go broke. And we need to get that distribution contract back. Your job, fly to Amsterdam, and negotiate back what we gave away, which was the distribution rights for Corvette Cadillac and Hummer...all of Europe. 42:23 you could smoke all the marijuana you want in here. But we don't allow cigar smoke in this place. 43:46 And me being directly involved in managing the cash, only to find out good after I retired three months after I retired General Motors went broke.

45:02 Bob Lutz, because I was in the room when it happened...we presented to Jim a five year forecast that said General Motors was going to be a 36% company before the mid 90s...market share at the time 43. 45:48 Jeff: 1 point could cost shut down a plant, 46:19 Lexus wasn't here. Infinity wasn't here. Acura wasn't here yet. 47:10 we told the GM, that the Japanese are going to build luxury cars 52:24 I retired, I bought a 2009 Malibu out of California. 59:01 I don't even think Janet knows. I'm visiting my one of my brothers grave for the first time. Something like both folks never ever, ever talked about 1:01:29 being a better father at 69 than I was at 29 if I come close to accomplishing that at all. That's enough of a bucket list for me

I'm a television producer. I came up in the world of Motorsports working for NASCAR and I was with them for about five years, three seasons on the road with the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. I've got two sports Emmy wins for the 100,000 cameras documentary series. I like to cook I'm pretty good at barbecue. You know, maybe that's what you think is most interesting because you're not interested at all at cars, which would be ironic. 0:46 I went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018. I went to rennsport with Porsche, Porsche and rennsport with Michelin and then also went to the mall with Michelin. And then I did a year of a show called THE TORQUE SHOW with Justin Bell and Tommy Kendall. 1:40 the number one thing right now is the documentary that we just put out. I produced my first feature length documentary last year, it was about cars and car culture, It's called BEST IN CLASS, the making of a concour d'Elegance. And it's available on any digital video or content rental platform, it's available for rent, I think it's 10 to buy it. It's a great story. 3:33 the audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, Rhode Island. (where film was made) 8:17 Speaking of millennials, I actually have a millennial anti theft device in my Honda Accord sport. yeah, I was in not just the French guy who raised Ricky Bobby. 9:03 I was wanting to be a chef owner. And I was working through the restaurant industry. 11:18 nobodies. In fact. I mean, there I worked for a chef in Orlando, that my paycheck stopped cashing. 14:44 Valencia Community College had an incredible film program, I had to make a reel to present as part of my application. 19:04 I had taken a job shooting nightclubs, I was shooting like family photos. I was shooting wedding videos, I stumbled upon the opportunity to do West Walker's wedding video and Aspen which was a felt like a really big deal at the time. And I mean, it's a celebrity thing, whatever it was, but it was still a wedding video. 26:09 You know, you've honored and mentioned your dad and mom a number of times in this video, which just makes me love you more. 26:57 I remember Ferrari and Range Rover and Land Rover and then Bentley you had that big release party with the Continental GT. So you were very much in the luxury and sports car game. What I do remember specifically is maybe like once a month or so here comes a Ferrari 360 Modena and Jeff's like, hey, let's go for a ride. 28:44 my mom and I came over to the dealership and you took us for a ride on the the Range Rover proving ground. 30:34 What are these Porsches? Oh, those are GT3 cup cars.... 31:06I Brett: "...I watch Formula One IndyCar NASCAR lower series, NASCAR dirt track modifieds. I go to my local short track here in Tampa, I really don't think that there's anything that beats the competition of sports car racing. So as a racing fan, and as a producer working on that series...you look at the Ferrari 488 GTLM car, the full factory spec racecar, and you go that is the sexiest thing I have ever seen. How do people not want to watch this? it's gonna go out and bang doors with a Porsche 911 RSR. 33:42 Jeff talks about NASCAR with the actual cars that you drove on Monday. 35:08 Jeff talks about selling "used" Ferraris into the Tampa Bay market that may have had an impact on Ferrari opening a dealrership there. 38:49 Brett: "...did a lot of work with Michelin... went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed... went to Rennsport with... Porsche and rennsport... LeMans with Michelin...I did a show called THE TORQUE SHOW with Justin Bell and Tommy Kendall 39:28 Brett goes into what goes into being a TV producer. 42:21 Brett talks about BEST IN CLASS and the concour world. 44:41 Brett talks about why people are into cars. 45:31 Brett on places/events like: Monterey, Big Sur,Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Audrain Museum. Casa Ferrari. Rennsport. LeMans, World Endurance Championship , NASCAR. 52:54 What's in Brett's garage? 55:00 regarding manual trannys 57:00 Brett on some new cars available now. 1:02:03 I've met a lot of people through the sport. Tommy Kendall, Mark Martin, Justin Bell, Jay Leno 1:16:36 Brett's dream car: 82 or a 90 air cooled Targa top 911 like an SC 1:18:49 On being scared of Andy Ramker

Jeff Sterns, I'm connected through cars with my good friend Alan Moore, and I'm really looking forward to this episode. I hope you enjoy it. Alan had an illustrious career from selling German imports and Ferrari before joining DuPont registry, and then running Boulevard customs customization for exotics for celebrities, including some world known pieces in SEMA. And finally at the Tampa Bay auto museum. He's got a fabulous history, United States, France. Take a look, I hope you enjoy. 3:47 Alan went to France as a kid and was mesmerized. 5:23 So like I drew a bunch of 911 turbos, so 911 turbos with that big whale tail. You know, the 930s like the 76. 6:35 I realized there was a lot of a lot of innovation that occurred. And you know, even in the early early 1900s, late 1800s, early 1900s in France, of course, Germany as well.

8:33 Citroen two CV, which is the French version of the Volkswagen, ....it was an air cooled two cylinder horizontally opposed front wheel drive car, with just tons of room. You can seat five or six people in it, and get 40 to 50 miles per gallon and they never broke. There's no coolant. There's, there's really it's such a simple car. So they made you know, 9-10 million of those cars. 9:23 Alan as a young man was general manager of a fast food restaurant. The owner and general manager of actually at the time, came in and recruited him to sell Honda. 12:15 Alan moves to Mercedes for the next eight years. 14:30 Alan's love of the car helped him sell the remaining Peugeots after the brand left the USA. 14:30 Alan also sold Ferrari. it was a 2.0 or 3.0 Testarossa Correct, i12:15 Ferrari 456 looked like a Ford Probe. 18:28 Dealer gives up the Ferrari dealership due to Ferrari's pressure to get into teh Challenge racing program. 19:46 Ferrari salespeople! Listen to this in case you ever have to go back to selling to get models out the door! 22:00 Jeff and Alan discuss the ethics and dynamics of "above MSRP" sellers and buyers. 28:10 Jeff proves that his 27 years in dealerships and eight years as a consultant to the business knows everything about cars... (nothing) 28:16 Alan left the retail carbon assignment to work for DuPont publishing and DuPont registry. 32:06 Carrera GT, which were the V 10, carbon fiber, mid engine, Porsche, they listed like $450,000, sticker price.

38:12 (Porsche Cararra GT customer: "How do I get out of this car, I'm gonna kill myself in this car." .38:54 Jeff: I've called surgeons, and they said, Doctor, whoever's in surgery, and I've said oh, you know, I'm just the car guy with this turbo or he was looking for, oh, he said, If you call to interrupt them. I know you've been there. I mean, I can ask any guy and and, and I'm like, Well, I hope it wasn't a heart transplant. You know, he's doing yours and the guy would just come on for a minute.

43:16 Good job getting 100 grand deposit from the European on the super America. That's not a deal. And good job getting the $550k or whatever we got for the Daytona that's not a deal even though the car is shipped already. And we got the money already. 50:06 let me let me get dealers off the hook around the world that customers get frustrated about shipping. (Jeff tells some crazy transport stories)

55:41 Audience! with Alan you've got a guy in a museum for the same reasons that he got into the business you love. 56:22 Well, so the the finance manager needs to take your car deal. And find a lender, whether it's the manufacturer or a bank, that will agree to the interest rate and terms necessary to make your deal work at the numbers that you've agreed to with the customer. 1:00:48 you and I met through DuPont registry. Right, who's gonna look at the web, 1:07:53 (origin of cars and coffee) Tom duPont came back from California. And he was out there at some event that he said, Hey, I was stopped into Starbucks on the way to the airport Saturday morning and they're having a car show out there in the parking lot of Starbucks, like Lamborghinis and Ferraris and muscle cars and all kinds of cool stuff. And apparently they do this every week. 1:08:36 Vinnie (Russo/from another episode), you know, we were doing events. And then he was running our most of our events at that point. And so we all sat down and came up with this idea for this cars and coffee and came up with a logo This was oh five june of Oh, five. I think I think you were there. That one or one of the first? 1:09:25 Jeff: I was there early. 1:11:45 "Floridians and weather" 1:12:26 Jeff: I probably even brought my 31 Ford hot rod (to cars and coffee) 1:13:08 we had one car that that left the road and bent itself. a really nice restored 440 charger, that when he left and he jumped on it got a little sideways, he overcorrected, and nosed it into the ditch and bent it 1:18:38 I have a little Smithsonian Museum of my past cell phones. 1:26:43 a museum. And I walked in there and I'm thinking, this is just incredible. You know, these, this, this is right here in Pinellas Park. There's, I don't know that there's another museum like it anywhere that has the kind of innovation that they're that they're so enthusiastic about right here in front of us. Yeah, the Honorable disco bar scene. 1:29:09 why would you want your dad to bring home a 38 Oakland for the kids to look at at night when you could bring, you know a waitress in cocaine? 1:30:41 the most interesting car we just got. You will appreciate is a 1913 wait for it. Sterns, knight, 1:34:07 Roy Jones, a fighter Phantom when that car came out. And he couldn't take delivery of it until we put the televisions in it we used to send a lot of stuff to Boulevard. Shaq with the Superman. . 1:35:33 SEMA tuner challenge 1:38:40 one of the great projects was a company called Davidoff of Geneva. And they wanted to have a mobile cigar lounge 1:41:40 26 inch wheel... $40,000 in stereo 1:46:01 Johnnie Cochran 1:48:27 Billy Mays So you get a million bucks. For would you get Stinger Porsche? 1:56:15 the Porsche Carrera GT, F 40, an Enzo McLaren f1 1:59:07 Alan, you're a legend. am really honored. I appreciate it. I think it was a great conversation. 1:59:40 I appreciate you saying that I'm I'm not a legend. The nice of you to say that it. I am a car guy like so many others.

https://www.instagram.com/wearecurated/?hl=en

0:41 Vinny ran events at duPont Registry 1:56 buy a used car from Jeff Sterns, you get amazing resale! :) 2:25 Jeff: Well, my divorce was a little less amicable little, but quoting the great Tosh.0, "my ex took half my money. So I had to marry a girl half her age!" I 6:16 Vinny's dad was a was a mechanic for General Motors brands 7:44 Vinny's 1ft car: 79 Oldsmobile omega

0:10:15 Vinny meets Tom duPont and Steve Chapman at Amelia Island Concour and a career path change... 0:11:58 Vinny got to know his next team from Spyker. 12:55 Vinny compliments Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker and talks about the car and it's background and history. 12:56 on the open linkage in the Spyker 17:13 Vinny meets the Lamborghini people 19:30 Vinny talks about how he made calls as a warranty administrator on what to cover (warranty in effect or not). 21:33 should you "upgrade" or customize your car? ...SEMA 26:22 V 12. world, it could easily be a $100,000 repair. Jeff 26:25 these trade ins I used to get, that would have the 10 to 20 to 30 to 40 grand worth of upgrades. And, of course, the customer, God bless their soul would be proud of that, and expect more for their car because they've really improved it. And we don't have to reduce its value to put it back to original. 31:28 ("upgrades") Not only are you probably not going to get a dime back. Yeah. But you might even reduce the value.... it doesn't mean that you don't have good taste. 31:28You know, my personal 65 Cadillac coupe is completely different than what I'm surrounded by at work, you know, we're, you know, every day, but it's but to me that, if I want to feel that way, behind the wheel, there is no other vehicle that I can find that's going to make me feel that way. . 38:11 Jeff's Dad -would restore model A's. Oh, wow. And the guy Model A George had in his garage, the mohair interior stuff and could paint and how to start it with the spark advance on the steering wheel and all of that business. And my dad would retail these cars restored for $1295. He felt guilty because he was making $400 a car guy and he could barely look anyone in the eye. Because he was making $100-200 a car on a $599 traded in Chevelle. 41:00 Vinny goes to Maserati 43:21 Vinny left Maserati due to health issues and last year went to Hennessey and then to WE ARE CURATED. 43:50 Vinny saw 212 MPH as a passenger... 44:24 Vinny: "you hear 200 miles an hour, you know, and it's funny being car guys, you know, what we watch the police chases on TV, and they're like, they reach speeds up to 100 miles an hour. It's like I did that on my way to work." 44:50 200 miles an hour is a football field every second. 48:33 "The $10k Viper. Road track did an article on it"

52:57 Vinny: We Are Curated. We specialize in vintage supercars 54:05 Gemballa Avalanch 930 Turbo p 54:40 we sold these cars, there wasn't anywhere to get them serviced. 55:30 yellow Mura here in the shop right now that the the gentleman flew to us from Mexico. 56:09 FOR AUDIO- here is a piece that you might want to switch to YouTube for. 57:04 blue 74 Ferrari Daytona - only one ever made in that color. 550 Barchetta....it actually doesn't even have a top, you drive it completely open top. This one is a is a manual and it's actually serial number 01 out of the series of 448 they ever made. 57:52 Diablo VT 6.0 carbon body....Merci coupe. But it's manual transmission, very low miles...purple Diablo, it's a very unique color. ...Ferrari F40 which is the the pinnacle in the early 90s Ferrari supercar....White Countach... Mersi logo that's directly below me here is the only one ever painted in this color. It's a non metallic orange, also manual transmission. '59 Mercedes 300 Sl. 1:00 "how far up can a restoration run?" millions of dollars 1:01:33 I was working on a lotus a 180... It was one of the last Lotus Elise is a factory racecar and the fuel pump went out...shared the same fuel pump components as a Chevy Blazer. 1:04:08 I manage the service restoration department so I handled the whole the whole back of house 1:05:45 Bugatti Eb 110. Countach. Jaguar XJ 220s, they held the top speed for a short while of 217 miles an hour. 1:09:12 it's a labor of love, and I was lucky enough to find a path that led me to be able to be around this stuff without having to just come out of pocket for everything.

0:20 there's a VHS tape here, that you may not be aware of, let's see if you're aware of it. A buddy of mine got it in the mid 80s. And it was called in car 956. Yeah, I'm pretty much aware of it. Yeah. Okay. Got it written down to her. Motor books International. That's right. Yeah. And, and he still has a VHS player. Yeah, only for that. Amazing. When we talk about that, it was the biggest seller ever of that time, for years. And it during that during the time of Porsche, because we did it during that good year of 1983, or 84. And ever, every, every event I go to, I would say, in the world, wherever I go, I will sign it. At least one copy of that even today. Even today, people come up there in the other end DVDs now. I mean, so when I, you know, I watched that. I mean, I couldn't know this friend of mine named Don, I couldn't. You can't be friends with him without watching it more than once. And your first gear, second gear, you know, you're, you're talking during this whole thing. And I'm watching the tape. And I'm actually like, shitting myself a little bit. Imagine I'm imagining being in the passenger seat. There were a few. I couldn't even imagine. It was. Well, I did I never sat in the fastest seat either. So I guess so remember, I did the voiceover live except for the Nurburgring. Because I couldn't remember the names of the corners. Obviously, there's 170 corners. And they're all in German, when you get lost 160 970.

6:15 No, I'm purely. I'm a (dealer) partner. And in Bentley, Naples, Bentley, and which is fantastic. And we have Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin Rolls Royce

9:08 Italian Grand Prix in 19 1959

15:00 Derek talks about his fortune and gratitude.

18:33 And he (Jim Russell) sort of picked one day just picked me out and said, who was driving that car and I went, "Oh, Lord, he's gonna give me a shout at me". And so he said, you know, and he took me to pull me out away from the other eight, all the other drivers. So they were still listening, though right beside us, and you think you're gonna get removed or something? I thought it was gonna get a bullocking or something.

22:05 I was out winning races all over Europe in my third year. And that was at Ferrari my fourth. 

23:08 there were a lot of people getting killed back then. Oh, yeah. 30% of the drivers died. Yeah. Did you think ever think about those statistics or, or not when you were there? Every night? Yeah. Oh, every night, the night before the race? Oh, yeah. I mean, you didn't know you didn't know whether you would make it back after the weekend. It sounds stupid. Because I'm not one of those sort of be. I'm not a daredevil. I'm not a guy that climb a tree or leap off of top board at the swimming pool. Oh, let somebody else do it first and see if it was safe before I did it. maybe that's why I became a good endurance driver because I calculated more.

27:54 Why can't he drive a stick shift?

31:14 I talk to everybody, not anybody. I mean, I talk to everybody if I can, if I can, if I got time, or they got time, or they want to.

36:11 Festival of Speed. Also. Yeah, I've done it every year. Yeah, man. I'm doing it this year. The Duke ...he wrote to me the other day and we have a speak on the phone every month or so. He's a good friend of mine. He lives at Goodwill. I live near it.

36:08 69 was the last year they ran. It was the year that Jackie  walked across the track, got in his car last and won the race ...on the last lap.

39:03 (about races) "I certainly don't sit and watch it."

40:36 you should go to the US Open, you should go to Wimbledon, you should go to all the one off special events, because you don't have to like it. You just have to suck up that atmosphere. And LeMans certainly has something terribly unique about it. 

42:30 Derek talks about setting the world speed record in a Bentley on a frozen lake between Sweden and Finland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhE8w8oC-Y

 JEFF STERNS CONNECTED THROUGH CARS Jeff and Jay jam about the car business, reminisce about arguing with Grant Cardone at a conference, Jay's serial entrepreneurship and well....cars!

00:11 This is how Jay smithwick arrives to the Jeff Sterns podcast.

Jeff Sterns  01:22And when you said to me, would you pay $500 a month for you to have all of your inventory on the internet so they can see it instantly. So if Jay can put all my cars on the website, I still have to FedEx some because not everyone has internet yet

Jeff Sterns  05:02 So I was one that I remember one time, I don't remember the struggle that you and I were having. I don't remember what it was, but I remember that it was the first time I ever thought of calling somebody's wife.

Jay  08:39 I was trying to get out of the car business because it was just beating me up and I still was having issues personally with myself. answered an ad went to a company that had the big brick cell phone wired cars RVs and that if you push the button, it called rural Metro … It was the OnStar before OnStar  

Jay  11:22  you forgot surf bike. I don't even remember surf, though. There was an ad in a newspaper about a marketing representative. And because I've served, I gravitated to this 12 foot long PVC board with a bike seat and bike pedal. And I marketed it for I think I took the job of $500 a week and I drove around Florida and inevitably realized that to put a bike that rode in on the water you don't do it in Florida, why 10 months of outdoor activity, alligators and freshwater with lily pads to get tangled  

Jeff Sterns  12:20We we bought the Rolls-Royce franchise… it was the strangest thing. It was a Buy Here Pay it was Bennett auto sales

Jay  14:34 now understand for the audience. For Carlisle Lincoln mercury in 1994 we attend a Grant Cardone motivational car knowledge  conference with 200 salespeople in the Tampa Bay area. Yeah, and I actually forgot that I actually go with Jeff Sterns, we're gonna go see Grant Cardone, you know, salesman, we're bored. He comes another rah rah blah, blah, blah. In the front row, we have to sit. …

Jeff Sterns  15:47only one topic that we argued about, obviously, I'm not the one with the private jets and the 10,000 square foot condo.  

Jeff Sterns  17:11 And in the end, we ended up being number one in certified Pre Owned rolls and Bentley in the nation. We ended up being number one in Rolls Royce east of the Mississippi. So I'm sure people in California or Vegas or Arizona or someone beat us. We were number one are tied for number one customer satisfaction for a number of years with a Houston dealer. awesome guy there. And then when the Bentley Continental GT came out, we had the second largest waiting list on the car after Palm Springs, and people converting from a reservation to a real 20 grand deposit or really ordering the car. We had the highest conversion to really getting a car. So for an area that nobody drove these cars

Jay  18:29

Now let's fast forward. I start AutoExact data photo collection back then 98

Jay  18:55   I said, Jeff, you need to embrace this internet. He goes, No, no, we take photos. And he pulls out stacks of Polaroids. He goes, No, I don't need photos. We just send 2030 Polaroids in an envelope.

Jeff Sterns  19:16 Every time a car came in, right? I take it under the tree so there wasn't glare on the grass, take a few pictures, run it to the drugstore at the corner and get five developed. So when I get phone calls about them, we could FedEx and when you said to me, would you pay $500 a month

Jeff Sterns  19:39 I'm thinking well Geez, we're only a few years from having a website and barely anyone even knows.  

Jeff Sterns  21:30 And you're shooting pictures for six or 700 stores now. Yeah.

Jay  22:01 dealer mouth.

Jeff Sterns  22:03Okay. Do we have to talk about the failed business?

Jay  22:07Hey, if you ain't throwing shit up against the wall, you ain't trying. That's right.

Jeff Sterns  23:08 So 11 years ago. 360 booth well, so this is an environment.

Or you would want to own? Even though it was you've never really owned the supercar right.

Jeff Sterns  27:15 But my favorite car at the time, was, Well, you know what? I didn't I didn't have it. So I mean, the car I really wanted at the time was a Ferrari F 40.

Jay  28:33

FF which looks like you know the golf or stationwagon Ferrari. Right? Because of the long wheelbase and the touring in. It's a 12 cylinder. But once again, that's a car that you would love to own. But I wouldn't feel comfortable driving the perception of the Ferrari and the half million dollar car even though it's not but it's not my DNA.

Jeff Sterns  32:00 Well, I mean, I'm sober also about 25 years. I I'd have to look it look up the exact date.

Jay  32:05 Right. Me too.

Jeff Sterns  32:06

I agree that so the reason that we use those of us attics is we're not really looking for a feeling we're usually avoiding. Correct some feeling. And then we later learned that the best way to the other side of the problem is not around, not under it, but just you got to go right through it. Right. And the beautiful thing about getting everything is you get everything. So I love what you just said that about feeling the bad stuff? Because it really does it really well. First of all, when I went sober, and then there you know, one of the steps of sobriety is you got to find make your list of people that  you own amends to.

Jay  32:48

I never got that call, by the way!!

Jeff Sterns  32:53

I've been waiting myself, okay. So you can always you always know friendships on the rocks when they're scorekeeping. So, when you make your list of a men's people, you own a men's two and you go make your men's.  

Jeff Sterns  37:30

So you pulled up in a beautiful gt3. Correct. I do remember a Hummer H one.

37:37

Yes.

Jay  37:39 H2s came out. I was surfing pretty regularly at the time. And this is 2006 and I was driving from Tampa to Cocoa Beach and chasing tropical storms and hurricanes before they hit. And then after they left. And I convinced my wife that I needed a like surfing Safari vehicle. And I dreamt one up and I found that Reeves imports. Great people have had a h1, it had us and braid like Sedona, Arizona has landscape on it. But it was brown and had all the big. Everything you wanted in a convertible h1 it was a showcard had like 4000 miles it was more 2000 miles on it bought it for $37,000.

Jeff Sterns  38:25 What are those worth now?

Jay  38:26 over 100?  

Jeff Sterns  42:33 well, and cars have a great way of doing that. I mean, you see you get behind the wheel of that car. You're 16 every time reminds you Yeah. And yeah, most of the cars I've chased have been cars that I grew up in that my dad had

Jay  44:30

we're done with the RS. all four wheels turn. So I mean, you want to do a U turn. You just break everybody's neck and just pull it is crazy. is crazy.

Jeff Sterns  44:41

Now the car I heard you talk most about absolutely was the Infinity q45.

Jay  44:47

I thought because that thing had 345 horsepower. Now we're going back to 1993 92 white leather or so it had leather but it was the sedan that had horsepower. It was like, attainable. You talked about it so much. I really did. I really I didn't see it. I never owned

Jay  45:08

the 900 tops Saab turbos in the late

 .

Jeff Sterns  45:56

How about when you were selling cars? I mean, you've been in a lot of businesses since do you bring forward? I mean, was that any education for you? Now without doubt,

Jay  46:03

any salesperson needs to go sell cars first. Now back in the day, you didn't sell a car you didn't eat. I mean, there was a draw. But minimum wage, minimum wage, it was a couple 100 bucks. And I remember, and I probably could find it, I've literally got a two week check for like a buck and a half, right? Because

Jeff Sterns  46:21

they take the draw back. When you add more to that to your drug dealer.

Jay  46:26

You make like a $2,000, check and get $1 50 back because they have taken all the draw because you didn't sell anything because you were pretty occupied doing whatever the hell you're doing. Okay. But that truly made me who I was the desire was there. But now the car business gave me the hunger. So when you did work in the car business, you made money.

Jeff Sterns  46:45

You know, Jay, I always said that. Everybody, when they get out of school should go to Europe for one or two or three months see the military, right? And needs to sell cars for a year? Absolutely. I think you learn more about the human condition, telling people what their trading is worth, and having to nurse them through that thing. Correct.

Jay  47:06

You just got your head ripped off, you owe five grand more than it's worth. And now I get to bury that equity into your car and add to it just it's brutal.

Jeff Sterns  47:19

Right, but it's there's a lot of life skills in there. And it's funny the guys I've talked to already on these shows, or talked to about going on the show that are highly successful, interesting people. You know, we talked about Billy, I hear if they've sold cars I hear over and over again, everything that I ever I was able to pull everything forward for my car selling experience

Jay  47:40

in my industry in the same respect to though back when we were selling cars. 1% of the people lasted a year.

Jeff Sterns  47:47

Right? There's a little bit of turnover

Jay  47:49

was a lot of turnover, because you either had to sell or you starve. And then you had a lot that made me who I am. And every day even though I can probably pay my bills for a solid six months, I still get out and think I'm broke and it's time to go to work.

Jeff Sterns  48:06

Now you've never acted comfortable. No,

Jay  48:08

I know. If you're comfortable. You're in trouble. So where have you been?

Jeff Sterns  48:13

What countries

Jay  48:14

you've been everywhere to Desert Storm Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, northern Iraq, Spain, Northern Africa. And then with 360 booths 3040 days and five trips to New Zealand greatest place ever put it on the bucket list. Australia is great, but it's very similar to Walt Disney World, Orlando. It's very condensed and beautiful in in a small area and then three miles out you're in pasture. In Australia, you're out in the outback. Very cool experience. Guam, Hawaii, Canada, Vancouver's beautiful Anchorage, Alaska. We have a studio that was amazing. you'd hold up your cell phone and you throw away the picture because you just couldn't get the scale. Right of Alaska. You just can't do it. God bless you when you shoot a photo that looks great in Alaska. So to date today, this year during COVID and since the January of last year, I've traveled 6.6 and a half times around the Earth in airline miles. I've got 900 cities, I'm from May I got 141 flights and love every minute of it.

Jeff Sterns  49:30

You are amazing, you know from an energy level from adapting. And what I mean from adapting is, I know that when you make a flight, you sometimes need to get up at two in the morning or 10 in the morning or time zones or going overseas to go or be okay

Jay  49:46

I leave San Jose adapting that was a great because I was like boy, I must have really done well. I would have jumped out of the plane. However late leaving Dallas closes the airport get to the tarmac. You're sitting there for an hour. 45 minutes, get out of the plane, go to the rental car agency, you're there another two hours, my plane was supposed to leave its land at 730. I left the airport and rental it 15 minutes after midnight. So with no hairy carry events, but you love it. I

Jeff Sterns  50:17

mean, you know, I mean, being on the road isn't as sexy. Now, it's cracked up to be for now for some people. But for you, it's amazing to me, and I don't want to put this wrong. Like, you don't necessarily need the next sale like, and I'm kind of the same. I come to work every day like my lights are gonna go out if I don't sell something, right. And I think you do the same thing. Absolutely. Yeah. And the way that you travel, but you put yourself into these situations that are uncomfortable and you adapt, adapt, adapt, and you're still socially posting for your business and personally, and it's upbeat messages and it's positive

Jay  50:53

and it's business now borderlines a little crazy. So I'll fly to New Zealand on a one way ticket. Okay, like, Who does that? My wife says where you stand, I'll find a place when I land. You can't book travel, and hope that that schedule goes, it's way too stressful. It's far less stressful, a little more costly to book as you travel through. So when I start my week, I'll make my appointments. And then I'll just book tickets an hour before the plane leaves. So you couldn't take an average person and ride shotgun with me because you would be into some type of panic shingles attack within about six hours.

Jeff Sterns  51:35

But is it more costly? Or is it cheaper to book an hour before?

Jay  51:40

And I would say 75% of the time, we have COVID extremely cheap, right? Because now they just need to fill a seat. Right? Like one of my guys are going to Vancouver Monday. It's $129. Right?

51:53

nuts.

Jay  51:53

The Vancouver from Tampa. It's not correct. It's one stop. But you know, I was just telling my wife, I got home, I was tired. And I said, Boy, if the traveling doesn't humble, humble you because right now they're in COVID, you go to California, the restaurants are angry. They literally made him take all the furniture out of the restaurant so you can sit down. Then you go to Florida, where you're wearing masks inside. But everything is open and we're going to town. I'll sit at a restaurant in Dallas and I don't want to wait for a seat. So I sit at the bar and I'm elbow to elbow with somebody else. And that experience of being able to do those things. Like I was in Dallas, it was 39 degrees of rain and took a picture of the dash on the highway. And then I took one here in Tampa Three hours later, and it's 84 and sunny. It's very humbling to do that. I call it time traveling, right? I'm not gonna have anybody beat me either, where the others are doing zoom calls and hoping for the best my asses in the seat making should happen. And it's not always a winner. There's not always a winner.

Jeff Sterns  53:00

So you travel the way you travel. You've been You've done enough airline miles to do three and a half times around the Earth already discounting. Excuse me six and a half this year. You and your wife ever want to take a vacation is that.

Jay  53:15

So early days? Well, we didn't do vacations for 10 years starting a business. And then I really love Laguna as you can tell, but we would rent a little house for 10 days prior to season. So like 10 days for three grand versus eight grand a week. In June, we'd go to Laguna and but now we have an elderly dog. We now have 360 booths. She'll do 14 hours a day, six, seven days a week. Just trying to keep up with the taxes the influx employees out of three auto exact AI team in 360 booths phenomenal I get to pick from auto exact for the guys. vacation. No we have no desire to go to Mexico or to the beaches. I think we're all in the Clearwater Tampa Bay area at the poor man's Bahamas. So why go to the Bahamas. I would like to take her to Laguna and go back to her house again. I would love to take her up to Lake Tahoe. I was there during COVID I mean go to like Tao. It's gorgeous. We haven't 19 year old dog death. It's her baby. Our baby but she so right now you can't fly. So it's been two years since she's flown.

Jeff Sterns  54:27

Now. How about your own bucket list? I mean, God forbid you mentioned this aneurism. Right and you're diagnosed with this aneurysm. There's nothing you can do nothing.

Jay  54:37

You hope it does and six months to a year. You hope it doesn't grow. You try to eat right stay away from sugars. You basically and I bet a bet. After diagnose I just start to play with your head sure that you're a ticking time bomb. So I went up to Cleveland Clinic, schedule appointment. Linux great. I felt like a VIP guests there. But it cost me dearly for going out of going out of

55:08

pocket of your engineers who I know. But

Jay  55:13

yes, you do not stay healthy and don't hold your breath and lift something heavy is basically what they say.

Jeff Sterns  55:19

But changing your diet impacts the possibility of this thing. No,

Jay  55:23

nothing's gonna grow. It'll only make it worse. So you can't like shrink it. Okay. Yeah, you know, it's there. Like, COVID I'm gonna live my life. I'm gonna wash my hands, put my mask on and do everything possible not to get sick. Not because of the aneurysm because I don't be sick, right? Um, so live your life and you go on. I can't live in a closet.

Jeff Sterns  55:46

But it seems like you're doing everything you want to do. Is it possible that you could have a bucket list? Is there anything you want to do? You haven't done?

Jay  55:53

You know, it's crazy. I never really I tried to see as much as I can. When I travel. My last time to Australia, I decided, well, I'm going to do something. So I hit Great White, and I actually found one of two places in the world, South Australia. Lincoln, Port Lincoln, you bought a boat at 6am. It's a little fishing village, surf village in South Australia. You bought a boat and you go out through a past where you get two hours of 10 foot waves. But when you get out to the grounds, there's seals clean for dear life and great whites, they drop a cage off the back of the boat. And on a ventilator you jump into like 47 degree water. And you see great whites. And that was not necessarily buckless I never even thought that was humanly possible. It was a National Geographics thing, right? And when you first see it, and you're in the cage, right, isn't there wasn't there for me it was like I'm seeing Bigfoot, because you only see that on TV. But boy, incredible. Wasn't a bucket list. I don't really have a bucket list. I really, you know, I saw my first wife die of melanoma cancer. So you can't live with regrets. So I tried to live now bucket lists or bucket lists for me it was not 100 foot yacht or private plane or things like that. But it's definitely to, you know, do what you can to have this experience called life.

Jeff Sterns  57:23

Well, Jay, I think we might be at an hour. Oh, we're waiting. And I know you're at your limit and an hour. The reason I wanted to have you first of all appreciate the friendship, I appreciate you. You're in town just a few days and you came out to the Jeff Sterns Studio solely took your time New Year, I

Jay  57:38

thought it was a Saturday, it's a Friday. So New Year's Day, by the way, right.

Jeff Sterns  57:43

And the reason I wanted to have you on here, the value I wanted to give to the listener, whether they're in the car business or not in the car business, is you weren't a particularly phenomenal student and you went into the military, trying to give yourself a little discipline, right? You've got your demons, like a lot of us do with

Jay  58:01

if you don't

Jeff Sterns  58:02

have one, you're kidding yourself that whatever. You're a lowly car salesman, lonely, you tried a few entrepreneurial,

58:11

had two things add to

Jeff Sterns  58:14

and you know, you've done you deserve all of your success with your 607 whatever. You have car dealers that you're taking upon the hour of the day. Yeah, do they come and go? I understand.

58:25

How many staff do you have?

Jay  58:27

I think there's just over 50 or 60. Right now. I actually Marcus runs it. So unless there's issues, I've watched everybody's emails, it runs pretty smooth. And Marcus, he's phenomenal.

Jeff Sterns  58:40

Now, Marcus, you're not here to defend yourself. So

58:41

I'll just say it,

Jeff Sterns  58:42

I showed you how to take a picture of a car under the tree without the glare on it. There's nothing you can do. I'll make that a promo clip. I'll just pull that out for 30 seconds, that'll be Marcus's clip, but I appreciate it. I hope that the listener or the viewer, got a little inspiration about what can be done by anybody. I mean, I think statistically, I mean, I don't take anything away from you. Right, but I think if you look back on yourself, statistically,

 JEFF STERNS CONNECTED THROUGH CARS

1:17 And he was offered the opportunity to be the first auctioneer to sell military Humvees to the public. Okay. I went to that auction because he invited me and I thought they brought too much money. So I didn't buy a single one. And about a month and a half later, he says, Hey, we didn't sell enough of those Humvees and you wouldn't even sell enough. Well, the Marine Corps that wanted to be able to create enough dollars in the sale of these Humvees to acquire more equipment. And so I said, Okay, he's bottom line is we need to sell 300 more Humvees and I've been allowed to sell 100 at a time to three people do you want to buy 100 Humvees? I mean that my dad taught me I will tell you the driving force of me playing with specialty stuff you know offshore championship boats and cranes and bulldozers and buses and planes. He taught me a really simple process of valuing used assets and you would be shocked how often it works. And it's just is this this simple.

2:20  Anything that is like new and is serviceable is worth half of new to an end user. Okay, so what we would do or I, I took that on the next step, and I said, Okay, well if $100,000 brand new piece, according to his philosophy is worth 50,000 as long as you still buy parts and service it and it looks like new, then I need to buy it for less than 50. So this to be safe, the more obscure and weird it is, I'll just do half of half. So if I was buying $100,000 piece for 25 grand, it was like new and serviceable. I should be able to sell it for 50.

Scott Ales  3:08  Deborah, and I drove from Clinton, Iowa, to this little ramshackle house overlooking a lake. And I'm not kidding you, Jeff 20 or 30 of the coolest cars that you could have met pontoon Fender Ferraris Testarossa, like crazy cool cars.

Jeff Sterns  3:59  car dealer, truck driver, collector of every odd engine boat truck, this that special relationship with bring-a-trailer we'll have to talk about that involved with Mecum. You bought tha list and you bought my Flathead car. politician, banker, semi pastor or real one. Maybe you just come across that way. Are you official? Scott Ales  4:33  Yeah.

Jeff Sterns  5:16 Scott Ailes, no matter who I talked to about Scott Ailes, I could never get anyone to say, look, I could get him to say, I wish he paid me more for this. Or he'd beat me out on buying that, or they can get mad about that. But I never heard an integrity or character problem ever. And I think I've known your name. God, I'm not sure but at least 20 years, it might be 25.

Jeff Sterns  6:37   I don't know if our audience our car people. When you say, the wholesale car business, do you mind breaking that down a little bit?

Scott Ales  8:27  Yeah, I mean that consequences the key word, the phrase I heard years ago from someone else's. You can choose to do anything you want, but you cannot choose the consequences of your choices.

Jeff Sterns  8:42  Now this this Brooklands behind you on your screen there this is your favorite touring it is your favorite touring car.

Scott Ales  10:07  Yeah, it's the ultimate sleeper. I mean, it's just so big and heavy. It's a lumbering thing. And it just goes.

Jeff Sterns  10:14 

They do what they're supposed to do.

Scott Ales  10:15  Yes, sir. Anyway, no, it wasn't the greatest time we started our bank. We got approval from the FDIC to open the bank in December 23 2008. You remember what was going on in

 Scott Ales  14:09  It was Deborah my wife of 40 years said to me in 2010 and Dana Mecum the collector car auctioneer, who I met at his first auction.  

  Scott Ales  17:44   it's fun. I mean, that my dad taught me I will tell you the driving force of me playing with specialty stuff, you know, offshore championship boats and cranes and bulldozers and buses and planes.  

 Scott Ales  22:31  right? Yeah. What's going on here? And then it's a crop duster. Like, oh my gosh, he's gonna he sprayed poison on the military base and I'm sitting in the parking lot. It's anthrax. I'm in the wrong spot. And then over the radio, oh, FAA releases the ban on flying. So this guy is just out trying to make a living for the first time in months. Right? There's just elements of things you like, no, this is how I'm going to go. I'm gonna get cropped Dustin in the parking lot. Already. military base.

Jeff Sterns  23:40  for the for the non car dealer public…. Scott on top of someone who sells a lot online and in person. He's also what's known as a wholesaler. So when we in a dealership, get a car that we're not going to keep or don't we want to keep it but we don't know what it's worth. We'll call someone like Scott. And say I have this factory five Ford GT 40. I think of odd cars when I think of course, it could be any car. I've got this Buick. And either I can't sell it to you. But can you give me an idea what it's  

 Jeff Sterns  24:52  you talk about being only as good as your word.  

Scott Ales  25:41 

Yeah, it's cheesy. I like it. In 1988, a guy came in my office in Clinton, Iowa, he put an 86 speed processor computer on my desk, and plugged it into the telephone line and made crazy noises. And I was instantly connected to 65 other dealers like me in the country, and we started reputation trading back and forth.  

Jeff Sterns  27:16 

But what happens is, sometimes, and this is for, like, let's say the viewing public with zero car experience, this is where the consumer, sometimes the dealer, I'll ask you, if I give you enough for your trade, will you make a deal with me? And the consumer gets frustrated? Because they think, Why do I have to tell you, I'm gonna buy from you for you to give me your best price.

  Jeff Sterns  31:20  you actually helped me on a deal through the list. I don't know if you remember, I had a Ferrari ordered for a customer, I want to say 360 Spyder, I want to say could have been the next one, I gave that dealer a $10,000 deposit for the customer that I was representing . In the end, they sold me out and gave my order slot probably to someone that would pay more, even though they've committed to me. And I actually called you directly in you advise before we got the list. Panel involved tribunal. Yeah. To go up against this DMV bond. You gave me that advice? Yeah. And I did make that phone call. And it did clear it up. Very quickly.

Scott Ales  33:36 You want to know what life is all about? The next birthday or Christmas? Christmas, especially. Everybody distribute the gifts that they're getting? Go into separate rooms, close the doors and open the gifts and tell me how much fun that is. Right? It's not fun because you don't get to see you're not giving you don't get to see the reaction when you are giving to someone else. That's the essence of fulfillment in life.  

Jeff Sterns  34:07  we know that biblically, if you're ever down, just go help someone with something. Yeah. And you'll be up and then I'm a recovery guy. I've been sober 25 years. And you know, we we have a saying Call, call one, help two. So sometimes, like you think, oh, I don't want to be a pain and call the guy. But the guy taking your call and ministering advice or helping is helping himself to of course.  

Scott Ales  35:29  I just love it and, and, you know, it's it. You're at the start. I mean, I had this ridiculous first I started mowing the grass at six years old on a six horsepower mower. I have a picture of me on the mower in the back here. I drove my first vehicle was a 74 Ford F 250 highboy, which is all the rage now. Right? My dad bought it. And I drove back in 1973. So I was 11. And then I drove my first semi Kenworth truck we had at 14 using a school permit.  

Scott Ales  37:49  I had a years of hauling heavy equipment. I I lost one piece I had a crane I was loading one day that fell off the trailer while I was in it. That was exciting. do certain things and as the moment pass I'm like oh, that was really stupid. Oh my god. But yeah, so am I my dad. Oh, it's so cool. I mean, my dad was such a character. He bought two new Kenworth trucks in 1976. Right. Okay, so and they were polished out chrome black, white stripes and all this stuff. So they went to pick them up at the dealership, Quad City Kenworth in the Midwest, and he doesn't come home for a while. So my mom goes looking for him. Well, so he thought might be fun to go around bar hopping and you know, show off his new choice.

Scott Ales  40:38  my dad gave me the keys to a 74 mark for and let me go on a date. When I was in Hang on a second. seventh grade. how old you are in seventh grade?

Scott Ales  40:57  I didn't have my school permit yet. So I showed up at my then girlfriend's house. Got out of this black Lincoln mark for walked up to the door like this ain't gonna work. Yeah. You can be dead dad comes to door. Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you, Scott. I'm here to pick up your daughter Karen. Okay. looks out the car. And he didn't say a word

Jeff Sterns  41:32   1969 Lincoln Mark lll.

Scott Ales  42:02  he got his first Lincoln in 1970 of our town car coupe. And then he bought a mark in 73 or four and my dad was like a classic entrepreneur. He bought and sold cranes and bulldozers mostly cranes them and end loaders do but it was like this. It was like he'd be on top of the world. You know?  The propane ran out for heat on the farmhouse, you know, we came home from dinner. Can no propane. The propane delivery guy use I'm not coming out. You didn't pay your bill last month. So guys, so what does my mom do? She goes in the closet and covers all the street kids up with her fur coats.  

Scott Ales  44:17 I bought an XJ6 1977 coupe.  . My dealer and I call, our trucking company went broke. And you know, I appreciate you selling me the car. I need a job  And I did. I went up and trained and I was selling dotson's and jaguars and Mercedes within a week.

Scott Ales  46:46   The 97 offshore championship boat with triple 1500 horsepower, supercharged motors.  

 Scott Ales  49:43   I bought a one year old, Primo marathon  .

Scott Ales  51:16  No, you know what, it's just you've seen the buy real estate, no money down. infomercials, right? Yes. Yeah. So that's what I did in 1987. I went to the Sheraton in, in Davenport, Iowa on the river. And I went to the mike and Irene Mullin, buy real estate, no money down seminar, I bought the package. I had no money, I use my credit card. I went home, I read the thing cover to cover. And one thing that clicked with me read the Wall Street Journal, for notices of distress assets. And the next day, I found an apartment complex in Clinton, Iowa being sold at sheriffs auctions and auction in two weeks. And so I got no money, no money, no job. My wife is cutting hair supporting us. And I call this attorney like, I'm a millionaire. Yeah, tell me about the property. You know, like, Can you send me a package? Yeah, sure.   ever a hurricane, we should go buy those boats. So fast forward Three years later, the day before Hurricane Andrew hits, he calls me says, Hey, I got two tickets. Like I'm in the middle of my, you know, thought process about living in Iowa and managing of complex that we're both at what do you talk to? Where are we going? Florida? It's gonna be hurricane. We're gonna go buy some of those boats.

 Scott Ales  59:58  it's a 17 foot century, beautiful.  

Jeff Sterns  1:01:58   you bought my 31 Ford which was a nod to a 32 B model Ford highboy Flathead.  

Scott Ales  1:03:41  But I love flatheads my first vehicle was off was a 42 Ford pickup that my dad gave me that he bought in North Dakota for 500 bucks.  

Jeff Sterns  1:06:11  you met Dana Mecum 30 years before that. Yeah. How did you meet he said at his first auction.

Scott Ales  1:06:18  I consigned an 84 Corvette to his first auction.  

Scott Ales  1:14:25  I think, for some people, they're so suspicious and concerned about being taken advantage of, if you go to an auction and resolve a value that you want to buy a vehicle for, or even more critically and difficult. Determine what you will sell your vehicle for. Like that's the hardest thing for people, right?  

Jeff Sterns  1:18:37 

I think where no reserve wins is it brings more competitors, it brings more people bidding against each other. They say to themselves, there's no way I'm gonna let this thing sell for 20 grand, I think it's worth 50 grand, it's at 20 grand. So I'm gonna start bidding on it. I'm gonna get involved.

Scott Ales  1:19:11  I am bought and sold a lot of vehicles at auction. And it's probably since the The first thing I ever bought at an auction was night teen 75 a set of bull horns at a farm auction, right. And whatever my heart rate was doing that day when I really wanted those and I got them for 20 bucks.    

Jeff Sterns  1:29:30 

bring a trailer is famous for not accepting. Yeah, every entry even when the seller is certain that they've got the coolest low mile interesting equipment.

Jeff Sterns  1:29:49 

I haven't. I don't spend night and day analyzing but I haven't figured out their algorithm or is I've heard about some cars they turned down that surprised me.

Scott Ales  1:30:00  Yeah, well, it to their credit, I believe that one of the most valuable aspects of their business model is to Don't be predictable

Scott Ales  1:35:42 

So like the first boat should have brought three or 4000 He goes, Okay boys, you know, what do you want to pay? You know, who paid $10,000 to pay? 5000? You know, he start high and they come down. How about How about $500? Guy raises his hand for $500? He goes so $500. And the crowds like… what??

Scott Ales  1:42:49… the most visceral car that I ever was behind the wheel of was a street rod built by Tom Coyote. It was a 14 150 horsepower. Alcohol injected Pontiac.    ……

Jeff Sterns  1:52:04  And you have a cleaning process, Dryce dry ice. It's not making contact with the material, but turning into a gas that's cleaning, if I recall you explaining I've watched a few of your videos, but it removes everything that wasn't originally there and leave everything that was originally there, whether it be metal, leather, whatever.

Scott Ales  1:52:29  Yeah, the shortest version of explanation is this. can dry ice upon impact when accelerated against a substrate or surface converts from a solid to a gas. And that's a thermal reaction.

Scott Ales  1:54:19 

Yeah. So the number one thing that I would say about buying at auction is seek and find someone that is experienced. And then just ask them to hold your hand a little bit. It's it doesn't have to be me. There's plenty of people that have been doing it for decades.  

Scott Ales  2:01:02  

I don't know when you love what you do. And you're passionate about it. And you like people and I do. You know, the only the only challenge for me has been being fair to my only child and my wife of 40 years. And, and to their credit, they have been an amazingly tolerant of, you know, my career path.  

Jeff Sterns  2:02:08 

Well, that's beautiful. And that's you know, a wonderful thing about you one of the things that make you legendary I mean you're you're putting you're dodging compliments, you're putting the credit where it belongs, you're honoring your wife, you're, you love your son, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. And I want to thank you, man