Calling all luxury car enthusiasts! Get yourself comfortable as we take a drive with Richard Weisman, the owner of Atlantis Motor Group, as he shares tales from his 25-year love affair with some of the world’s most exotic cars. From a stunning 1997 Porsche Turbo S to the vibrant yellow Ferrari F50 once owned by Ralph Lauren, Richard has had the pleasure of handling these and many other jaw-dropping vehicles.
Richard offers valuable insights into the unique world of luxury car dealership, dispelling common myths about the car buying process. Ever wonder why paying cash doesn't always get the best deal? Richard clues us in. He also gets personal, sharing how he chills out with golf and cigars amid the high-stakes world of luxury cars. So buckle up, listeners, for a journey into the fast lane with Richard Weisman of Atlantis Motor Group. Contact: www.AtlantisMotorGroup.com 561-760-9000
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast! Go to www.locallivingpodcast.com for all of the info.
Calling all luxury car enthusiasts! Get yourself comfortable as we take a drive with Richard Weisman, the owner of Atlantis Motor Group, as he shares tales from his 25-year love affair with some of the world’s most exotic cars. From a stunning 1997 Porsche Turbo S to the vibrant yellow Ferrari F50 once owned by Ralph Lauren, Richard has had the pleasure of handling these and many other jaw-dropping vehicles.
Richard offers valuable insights into the unique world of luxury car dealership, dispelling common myths about the car buying process. Ever wonder why paying cash doesn't always get the best deal? Richard clues us in. He also gets personal, sharing how he chills out with golf and cigars amid the high-stakes world of luxury cars. So buckle up, listeners, for a journey into the fast lane with Richard Weisman of Atlantis Motor Group. Contact: www.AtlantisMotorGroup.com 561-760-9000
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast! Go to www.locallivingpodcast.com for all of the info.
Speaker 1:
Welcome, welcome everyone, to Local Living, a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, your host for today's episode, and if you like nice cars and I mean ultra high end exotic type vehicles we've got a great show for you. Our guest today is Richard Weissman. He's the owner over at Atlantis Motor Group. Richard, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, thanks for having me Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:
My pleasure. I was looking forward to it. So let's just kick it off. Tell us a little bit more about Atlantis Motor Group.
Speaker 2:
Well, we are located on Yamada Road between Federal and Dixie Highways, and we sell exotic cars and highline cars and luxury cars. We do a lot of Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, some higher end Mercedes and we sell race cars and we do this for a long time. We've been doing it for over 25 years and we're hopefully the local neighborhood Boca dealership.
Speaker 1:
And so you've been in a long time. You got 25 years in the industry. So how did you get into it? Were you always a car guy? Were you a luxury guy? A little of both. How did this all get started?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so always a car guy. I grew up with the posters on my wall. In my day the hot cars when I was a kid was the Countach and the Testerosa and the older cars like that. And in the early 1990s I owned a television production company here in Boca and at that time I bought my first exotic, which was a Porsche 930 Turbo Slantnose. And then about three months later I bought my first Ferrari and I got hooked and then I sold that company and wasn't doing anything for a little while and my wife was working for an exotic car dealership in their title department and I used to go down there to pick her up from work In the Ferrari and the owner would see me and we got to be friends and he knew that my background was marketing and sales and he asked me how can I sell more cars?
Speaker 2:
And I said why don't you have a sale? Nobody ever has a sale in Ferrari. And he said I can't do that, I have to have my gross margins whatever. But it got stuck in my head. So in 1997, I started a dealership called Exotic Cars Whole Sale.
Speaker 1:
And that was here in Boca no that was actually in Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 2:
Ok, I was living in Boca, but I started the dealership down there and the website at the time was exoticsforlesscom. I wish I would have kept that website this many years later, but I didn't.
Speaker 1:
I've got a few of those myself.
Speaker 2:
And so that was how I got into the exotic car business.
Speaker 1:
So not to put you on the spot, but you've come across a lot of ultra exotic vehicles. Is there one that you had your hands on for a while or that came onto your lot? Is there one that stands up above all the rest? Your favorite?
Speaker 2:
Well, that's an interesting question. So you know, to be in this business, you have to look at it as a business. So now, when you know, when somebody says to me what's your favorite car, my answer always is it's. Whatever the last one I sold, that's my favorite. Yeah, it's business, it's a business. But to answer your question question is really there's two answers. One would be a car that I was absolutely in love with, which would have been a 1997 Porsche Turbo S. Special wishes, one of two in the world that if I was going to add a car to my collection, that one would have been it. But you know, from a financial standpoint, you know because the markets just got crazy In 2003, I bought Ralph Laurence yellow Ferrari F50 from him and I paid $575,000 for it in 2003.
Speaker 2:
Today that car is worth close to $5 million Incredible. In 2007, I bought a Ferrari F40 and a 280 GTO as a pair that each had only 500 miles on them. I paid a million dollars for the pair and today those two cars together are worth 7 million. Wow. And in 2007, I didn't buy, but I sold, acted as a middleman on a 250 GTO for our 250 GTO, and it was $16 million at the time, everybody thought it was nuts for somebody to pay 16 million for the car. And today and that's only 2007. It's not that long ago the car is worth $100 million today. Oh my God. Yeah, that's incredible. I'd like to have held on to some of those cars.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that would instantly become my favorite vehicle, just so you know. So any myths or misconceptions people have about your industry in general when they come in on the lot or when you talk to them, is there something that they really don't understand about the industry?
Speaker 2:
There's a lot of things. I haven't published them yet, but I did a series of YouTube videos specifically talking about the myths and the tips and the things to get a better deal and to understand about the exotic car industry. One of them is that people think that they're going to get a better deal if I've had the car for a while.
Speaker 2:
Sure Just like a house, right Right, but it's actually the opposite. There's a philosophy in the car business that I adhere to called velocity, and velocity is basically that I know that if I can sell a car quicker for a lower profit and turn that money again and again, then I can make more money in the long run than if I hold out for a bigger profit for a longer time. And I know there are a lot of dealers like me. In my case, if you call me the day I get the car, you're gonna get a better deal than you are in two months. The other reason is that I've got costs involved in that. For me to hold that car, it cost me money. Sure Right, money costs money. So every day I know it cost me X amount of dollars to hold that car, plus insurance, plus, plus, plus. So if I can turn it quickly, I'm actually gonna give you a better deal. So it's the opposite of what people think.
Speaker 1:
And that's called velocity. You said velocity.
Speaker 2:
The theory is velocity, which is I can sell a car. If I can sell a car and make a $5,000 profit in 30 days or a $10,000 profit in 90 days, If I sell it for 5,000 30 days, then I could do that three times in 90 days and make 15,000 versus the 10,000 in 90 days. So I'm actually making more money by taking a smaller profit and turning the car faster.
Speaker 1:
Sure, makes sense.
Speaker 2:
So I know you're all about cars, I'm gonna give you one more myth, just so you know, thank you. People think that they come in and they say they're gonna get a better deal if they pay cash. They go cash price how much? But I'm gonna pay cash and we actually make more money if you finance it. So if you're paying cash it's not a benefit. So anyway that was a lot.
Speaker 1:
Note to self do not use that line ever again when going on to a dealership, Exactly so. When you're not there, when you're not buying, selling cars, what do you do for fun? What do you like to do? I play golf.
Speaker 2:
I'm an addicted golfer.
Speaker 1:
So I play golf and that's pretty much it. So if you're not doing this, you're playing golf or with your family, right?
Speaker 2:
My family, but my kids are all in college. I have three kids and they're all in college and grown and so they're not home so I can't hang out with them. And my wife and I go to dinner and movies and stuff like that, but and I hang out, I smoke cigars. So I hang out with my friends at cigar bar and but my they asked me what my go-to thing to do is it's play golf.
Speaker 1:
Favorite course.
Speaker 2:
If you have to pick one, you have to pick one. Wow, I'm a member of Boko Lago so I guess that have to be my favorite course, but I like to play everywhere I enjoy doing that.
Speaker 1:
So obviously there's a lot of places our listeners can go, a lot of options out there. What would you say makes Atlantis Motor Group a little different from the rest?
Speaker 2:
I think that it's because you know our philosophy here is that we're not trying to sell you a car, we're trying to help you buy a car that you want. You know a lot of people when they go to use car dealership and it's a little less so with exotics, but you know certainly they have a wall up because they don't want to be taken advantage of, because car dealers typically, you know, are there sell, sell, sell. And you know regular car dealers like Toyota dealers and Ford dealers are in the need business People go there because they need transportation. I'm in the want business People come here because they want a toy. Nobody needs a Ferrari, right?
Speaker 2:
And so our entire way that we approach our sales process is we're here to help you buy. We're never going to hard sell, never going to sell you a car that isn't right for you. In fact, I've had people come in and want to buy a car and I've told them it's not the right car for you. You shouldn't buy this car. I'll be the first one to tell them that the car they founded and other dealers the better car, because we put our customers' needs ahead of our own and if we do that in the end we end up with friends and long-term customers and repeat customers. You know, if you sincerely, you know, put other people's needs in front of yourself, it works out in the long run. So that's the philosophy of the way we do business. We're also, we stand behind everything that we sell and we take care of people.
Speaker 1:
Richard, that's an awesome answer. You've been a great guest. A lot of actually interesting things you've shared with us today. Give us a location, go ahead.
Speaker 2:
I could go on for hours, so I'm glad you're cutting me off.
Speaker 1:
I could too. I know you've got things to do today. First off, if they want to stop by, give the location again, and then if they want to reach out to Atlantis Motor Group, what's the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 2:
Okay, so we are located at 351 East Umato Road. It's Umato Road between Federal Highway and Dixie Highway on the north side of the road. The website is Atlantis, like the lost city AtlantisMotorGroupcom. Anybody can email me directly at rwatatlantismotorgroupcom and we're on Instagram at Atlantis Motor Group, and the phone number is 561-760-9000.
Speaker 1:
Richard, I really appreciate you coming on today.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for having me Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:
And folks. We thank you for listening and look forward to having you back to Local Living, a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Kahn, your host, and we will see you soon.
