California car dealer brings in exotic, off-brand cars to boost inventory, sales

For luxury-brand dealerships already limited in volume, finding ways to fill emptied lots amid an ongoing chip shortage can require a bit of courage, curiosity and risk.

At least that was the case for Alfa Romeo and Maserati of Ontario in California, which, like many U.S. dealerships, has been grappling with lower-than-normal levels of new-vehicle inventory as the chip shortage continues to disrupt global auto production.

"Just being … the limited-volume brands that they are, you don't really have a whole lot of access to used cars," said Brandon Goodermont, the store's director of operations. "The used cars have been really, really minimal."

In 2021, the dealership — part of Oremor Automotive Group — sold 158 new and 42 used vehicles.

Although it took a bit longer for the inventory shortage to affect the store, Goodermont said it was around June or July when he realized the two luxury brands' inventories were going to become a feast-or-famine type model.

"All of a sudden 40 cars will show up, and we're covered for the next 60 to 75 days," he told Automotive News.

"And then all of a sudden, we've sold down to five or six, and we'll sit on those until the next 45 show up."

To supplement for periods of "famine," the store last year started bringing in exotic and off-brand vehicles — a strategy that has stirred up excitement in the showroom, attracted car enthusiasts and led to top-dollar vehicle sales.

"We recognized a hole in our market where we're located in Southern California, as one of the exotics retailers struggled through COVID," Goodermont explained. "It opened up an opportunity for us and, in recognizing that, we made a move into the space just to see if there was an opportunity to take advantage of and supplement some sales with some higher margin."

The store has brought in everything from used Porsches and Lamborghinis to older classic Maseratis — "anything really in that super-high-line world," he noted.

That includes a 1963 Maserati 3500 GT Sebring, a 2016 Bentley Mulsanne Speed and a 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder, which sold for more than $1.5 million via an online auction.

"Once you start to make contacts with that exotics world, you create and find more contacts … that ultimately end up finding us and seeing us as a player in that world," Goodermont said. "We've actually found ourselves recently in a position where customers are reaching out to us, asking if we're interested in buying their vehicle … because they've seen that we've started to sell and turn these things."

Since implementing the strategy, Goodermont said the popularity and demand for Lamborghinis has surprised him the most, adding that the exotic sports car brand is probably its "highest-volume turner."

The strategy also has helped the store's bottom line.

"There's considerable margin when it comes to vehicles in this type of price range," Goodermont said.

Beyond profit, the unique inventory selection also has brought more activity to the store's website and showroom and has enabled sales staff to learn more about a particular market.

"It can definitely be scary when you have that much cash wrapped up in very, very few cars or very few assets, so it takes some courage to jump into the market," Goodermont said. "We tiptoed our way in before really kind of diving in the rest of the way, and it's just been a really fun adventure … for us as a company to jump into that space and expand our horizons."