J Star Motors recently opened its second dealership in San Juan Capistrano.
J Star, which has its original location in La Habra, sells “newer” used customized autos.
“Our trucks are lifted,” said owner Jared Merrell.
BMWs have 22-inch wheels. Cars start at $20,000 and go up to $400,000. J Star also sells Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis. But not before accessorizing or customizing them.
“Our lot caters to everybody,” he said. “You can be 16 or 75 and find a car on our lot. I sell cars to professional athletes.”
It just starts with one guy telling another, he said. At its recent grand opening, J Star brought in some of the X-Games athletes. Merrell’s into sports, wrestling and weightlifting.
Merrell got started in the car business in 1999. From a warehouse in La Habra, he bought Toyota pickups for about $4,000. He’d fix them up and sell them.
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J Star Motors: sells “newer” used customized autos |
He moved to a bigger warehouse and finally needed some land,and a dealer’s license. About five years ago, with a small business loan, he bought a half acre in La Habra for $900,000. The land was ready to go with a former Mazda dealer building on it.
Getting the license is a matter of applying with the state and passing a criminal background check, he said. “You can’t have one bit of a criminal record at all,” he said.
The La Habra dealership is one of the top 25 sales tax producers for the city. Last year, on the retail side (autos sold to people), Merrell’s dealership pulled in more than $25 million. J Star also sells wholesale,buying cars from dealers and reselling them to other dealers.
Merrell, who grew up with three brothers and a sister, said he started with nothing. In high school, Merrell bought dirt bikes from ads in the newspaper. He would fix them up and resell them. After high school, Merrell earned money to buy cars by modeling. He did photo shoots for fitness magazines and even did a Versace shoot with famed photographer Bruce Weber.
He likes modeling but just doesn’t have the time for it, he said.
“That business is really time consuming,” he said.
Today, Merrell goes to auto auctions, buys autos, then spruces them up and sells them. The cars have low miles, less than 80,000, he said. He’s got a 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser on the lot with 400 miles. The majority of the cars still are under manufacturers’ warranty, he said. J Star also offers extended warranties and financing.
J Star has $4 million in inventory at any given time.
The dealerships have about 25 workers, including his sister, who is a saleswoman and one of his brothers who helps run the stores.
Merrell also sells cars at the Orange County swap meet every weekend. He takes about 20 cars.
“Sometimes we don’t sell any. Sometimes we sell four or five,” he said.
He also does trade-ins on the spot.
“You actually never have to come to our lot,” he said.
Merrell had been eyeing the San Juan Capistrano location for a while. South Coast Jaguar was there but the space became available when Jaguar moved to a Land Rover site.
“I talked to the owner. He and I worked out a deal that day,” he said.
Merrell intends to open more dealerships or perhaps turn the San Juan Capistrano location into a Porsche franchise.
He’s looking into that but says it’s not easy to be a Porsche dealer.
Cream Puffs
Look out cupcake chains, Japanese cream puffs have arrived in OC.
Beard Papa Sweet Caf & #233;, Japan’s cream puff pastry chain, opened its first 500-square-foot location at the Westfield MainPlace mall in Santa Ana. Angela Yang is the owner. Beard Papa is a fictional grandpa who wears a yellow hat, smokes a pipe and dons a white beard and mustache.
Beard Papa’s cream puff, which costs $1.25 apiece, isn’t quite as pricey as some of the trendy cupcakes going for $3 or so. And from what I hear, they are quite tasty,flaky, light and loaded with cream. The puff’s whipped cream custard also comes in different flavors such as green tea, strawberry, chocolate and pumpkin.
Beard Papa plans an aggressive U.S. rollout during the next two years. Three more will open in OC: one in Irvine in spring 2008, another at the planned San Clemente Marblehead site in summer 2008 and a third in Huntington Beach in winter 2008.
Beard Papa’s parent Muginoho Inc. has 360 stores altogether, 300 of which are in Japan. Muginoho has five other food chains that make cheesecake, curry bread, chicken, Asian sweets and noodles.
