Costa Mesa’s Ferrari & Maserati of Orange County has moved to the beach with a swanky new dealership, Ferrari & Maserati of Newport Beach, on Pacific Coast Highway.
The dealership, which opened last month, joins a row of luxury dealerships that includes Sterling BMW and Newport Auto Center, which dabbles in Audi, Porsche and Bentley.
Owner Bill Story declined to say how much he invested in the Newport dealership. It was significant by the looks of it.
The dealership doesn’t have a service department,that’s still handled in Costa Mesa at Story’s original Ferrari & Maserati of Orange County. He also owns Ferrari & Maserati of San Diego.
Italy’s Fiat SPA owns Ferrari and Maserati.
Both cars are made by hand in Italy with North American operations in New Jersey. A Ferrari sells in the low $200,000 range. If you’re on a budget, Maseratis average about $100,000.
Maserati is more of a luxurious sports brand associated with kings, queens and movie stars. It comes in a sedan, the Quattroporte. A Lexus or S-Class Mercedes owner also might be a Maserati buyer, according to Story. They typically drive their car daily, he said. The dealership sells more Maseratis, Story said.
Ferraris are more focused on technology and performance and are for outings. About 4,000 Ferraris are made a year. About a fourth of those come to the U.S., Story said.
“When people think about Ferrari, they think about racing,” he said.
The dealership has a team that takes part in races around the world. Customers race their own cars. Dealers prep the cars for the races, Story said.
Story said he or others from the dealership go to about seven races a year. The finals are held in Italy.
Ferrari buyers are mostly repeat buyers, he said.
Story said he became interested in exotic cars at an early age. He grew up as an Army brat in Germany, where his father would take him on outings to the Ferrari factory. Later, he spent 10 years as director of parts and service for Ferrari’s North American operations in New Jersey.
More on Novecento
Melika Towhidian and husband Alex have opened their second store, Novecento For Men, at Crystal Cove Promenade in Newport Beach.
The women who shopped at Novecento For Women,a clothing, shoes, cosmetics and accessories boutique next door,wanted matching clothing for their husbands, Melika said.
Some women who buy a dress for a special occasion want their husbands to have a matching tie, she said.
Melika’s husband has another take: “They don’t want to go home empty handed for the men.”
Sure, Novecento For Men is a guy’s shop. But it’s mostly women who shop there, Melika said.
The Towhidians are securing permits to knock out the wall that now separates the stores.
Most shoppers are local, many from the neighborhoods that sit on the hills above the shopping center, the couple said. In summer, the store gets plenty of tourists, they said. Novecento has been one of the top performing stores since it opened at the center, Melika said.
“People love our service,” she said. “We love to have a glass of wine with them and entertain them.”
Saturdays are big days, thanks in part to the luxury and exotic car show that happens at Crystal Cove early in the morning.
“A lot of guys bring their wives,” Melika said.
The wives have coffee and then go shopping, she said.
Melika opened her first boutique, Lafayette, in Torrance some 20 years ago. She opened another boutique at Westfield MainPlace in Santa Ana. She sold both long ago.
She also spent 17 years at Nordstrom as a buyer, a personal shopper and was one of Nordstrom’s elite million-dollar sales people. Nordstrom boasts about 60 millionaire salespeople, who keep their own client lists and essentially run their own business within Nordstrom.
