Matt O'Connor - Young Motorcars

Hey everyone, on this episode of Hard Parking, I hit the road again, this time to Scottsdale Young Motor Cars to sit down with Matt O'Connor, the Director of Operations.

This is Hard Parking brought to you by Right Hunt and Right Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ. I'm your host, Jay Finning.

In just a few moments we are going to get to our interview with Mr. Matt O'Connor. But first some reads.

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All right, so before we get going, a little episode note.

When I traveled to Scottsdale, I bought some new equipment.

I brought it all with me with the microphones, the lighting, the cameras. And Speaking of the cameras,

there's a little issue in this episode where it kind of loses focus back and forth on me or or Matt, but there's a little piece that I forgot that mounts the microphone stand on top of the tripod. And so in this video, you're

going to see us holding these microphones.

And normally you may not even know that, but these are definitely not the type of microphones that you hold.

They're the type of microphones that are held by other equipment. But hope you enjoy this

interview. If this is what you like, make

sure you hit subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube or subscribe wherever you're listening to this on podcast form and audio. And let's get going guys.

We are at Young Motor Cars with my friend Matt O'Connor, who is also the director of operations. Matt.

I've known you for a while. This is my 11th year living

here. I've probably known you at least

ten of those years loosely. But First off, welcome to the

podcast. Well.

Thank you very much, Jay, for having me.

It's it's been a pleasure and it's been great knowing you for the many years and I'm excited to be here.

Thank you. I think we hung out maybe once,

maybe the maybe a cruise, and now it's pretty much it like we've done other cruises. And I'm going to talk about

those because things were a lot different in 2014 fifteen than they are now around here. And you've always kind of been

mixed up in what I consider anything that's really important that surrounds really expensive cars and some of the big events you've always had a hand in. But I don't really know much

about you. So I would assume that most

people don't know that much about you.

So tell us a little bit more about who you are.

Well, I guess they kind of throw me in the deep end here.

So I'm born and raised here in in Scottsdale, AZ, just got raised here. I actually wasn't grown in it

wasn't grown in a, in a family that really enjoyed cars.

So I kind of had to find that passionate, you know, myself and just coming into my teens, I really got to see the cars.

I did a funny enough, I did a presentation in middle school on some Italian, just Italy in general, and then just moved into the cars and moved and everything.

And it really found my way to really enjoying the car, really starting with the with the McLaren F1 and Pagani was really starting to become a company in that time and.

Just it was. It was.

Just a blast and I just just. So, you know, fed, you know,

just head over heels into that and, and from there it just kind of went from there and just kind of, you know, got to meet you as well as many other people into the community and really loved the events and she kind of went from there.

But as far as me, you know, just.

Yeah. This is your second location for

this company. This is our only location.

Only location. We just had a, we had a previous

location of 20, about 2500 square feet and then we just moved into this. This is our only location at

12,500 Square. Feet and that was right around

auction week. Yes Sir, it was maybe let off

auction week. Yes, it was the Friday that that

led into auction week here in here in Arizona.

You know, could you ever imagine yourself being where you're at right now? Definitely my teenager self

would not have realized this is where I'd be in 10-15 years.

This is an absolute dream come true in more ways than one.

Not just the cars, but truly for me, it's the people.

The, the cars is definitely what got me started within the community. But the reason I've stayed is

the people and just the incredibly amazing, generous and kind people that I've stayed for and just being in this community and not only with young motor cars, but with the cars and people that we work with. I I love coming to work every

day. So you're a really nice guy.

I don't know if there's a harmful bone in your body then there could be. But if there is, you've never

really said anything even in private about people negatively.

So I don't know if you've learned that through the years to where there's no, I don't know where does that come from?

Because you have to have people that drive you crazy, especially in the world that you work in. But you also have.

I saw that. Yeah.

That's, that's that's the truth. Like, you've always been

incredibly kind to me, and I've always appreciated that.

Like where does that come from? Honestly, yeah, I you're

definitely correct. There are definitely people that

definitely can drive me up the wall or you don't get a little annoying, a little frustrating, but I really just try to say, hey, you know, there's only so many things I can do.

It doesn't it? It doesn't hurt to be kind.

It really doesn't. And as bad as it sounds, maybe

not bad, but both my parents are attorneys.

So I, I was raised in a family of attorneys and you know, it's.

Starting to make sense? Exactly.

It kind of goes both ways. It's a blessing and a curse.

But you know. I do love my parents and

they've. Really come to the to the

conclusion of that we really just need to be kind to people.

Doesn't matter the situation, bad, good, you know, middle, middle ground or anything like that.

But just kind of put yourself in someone else's shoes.

And, you know, we've, we've all gone through a lot and I don't know everybody's story and what everybody's going through.

I've had enough going in my life, you know, friends lives, family's lives. So the least you can do is be

kind to everybody around you. You're a big dog lover.

Absolutely, especially the golden retrievers.

But I'll take any kind of dog for sure.

How do you do the golden retriever thing?

Because how many have you had? How long have you?

Is it something you've grown up? Was it like the family dog?

Funny enough, so the month I was born, my mom got our first dog.

It was a golden retriever. Her name was Jordan, absolutely

Angel of the dog. And just from there, we just

stick with our golden retrievers.

My, my parents are on number four and five dogs, and I actually just got my own first dog, Maverick, about two years ago. So between my parents, 2 and

mine, we have the three together and my girlfriend's got two dogs that are not Goldens, but we've kind of, you know, a little family out of it. Do you treat them the same?

I I try to. Are they like the red headed

stepchild? They can be a little bit my SO.

My girlfriend's got two dogs and one's a Pitbull and one's a boxer lab mix. They are absolutely amazing.

They're a. Little.

Older, they're both 7 and while Maverick is, he's will be 3 later this year. So there's a little bit of a, a

energy, you know, difference between the, between the three dogs. Whose dog is Bo?

That is my mom's dog who I've considered to be kind of my dog.

I remember one of my favorite photos of Bo was when we had in front of your old NSX and got to bring it out to pavilions and Bo is just he's. So my mom has him right now and

he he's well, we consider, we consider him to be FOMO dog.

He is absolutely a fear of missing out in any capacity.

Speaking of the Pavs, I stopped by there on the way here many hours ago at this point and I forgot that they're they're setting up that that is crazy because the time was around noon and it's not even a big weekend. Like there's nothing going on

around here and you're from here, you know.

What are some of your memories of maybe that event?

And you know, what are your thoughts on how it still has managed to keep going? Because I think during 2020 it

was down and there was thoughts that it was never going to come back. And it's very much part of this

car culture around here. Absolutely.

You know, Pavilions was never the car show that I always attended, but it was always something that we could attend if there was something that we wanted to do for Saturday evening. Growing up and going to car

shows, you know, earlier on and you know, high school, even college days, I would go to Pavilions.

It was, we always knew it was like the evening event.

We wouldn't really want to go in till about 5:00 PM or later.

I did know that there were a lot of people that went, you know, towards like the 1:00 to 2:00, you know, the older people that wanted to bring out their classic cars, their Bel Airs, their Camaros and stuff like that.

But we all knew it as the evening event that we'd ride into, you know, into 8-9, even 10:00 at night.

And definitely, like you said, it was interesting to watch, you know, coming through the pandemic and would pavilions prevail, so to speak? And I'm really glad that they've

really come back. Now I know that the ownership of

McDonald's there has changed hands and just coming back, it was a bit of a fight in terms of the the reservation, but it's great that the community is still strong.

Love seeing that just stand around.

I think one of the challenges it's had is, and this is what all the car events say, like when you're leaving behave.

And so there's always people who are not going to behave when they're leaving. Is that the guy who ran into the

tree, the guy who a couple guys that ran out out and hit other cars and then the event was threatened?

I think now I think it's done at like 8:30 at night, at least last time I went there because before I moved here or when I first moved here, it's like you don't go to like you said, 9:00, ten. It's done at like 11:30, you

know, but with you being involved with so many different car events around here, organized, I would, I would say not to say that McDonald's car show isn't, but I think a lot of people don't realize that the McDonald's Rock'n'roll car show is the vent, the Pavs is the area, Scottsdale Pavilions.

And so I think it gets mixed. But that first part of it is

very organized, whereas the second part of it are people like you and you and me rolling up there later on and kind of doing our own thing. But how have you been able to

kind of navigate through the years in, in and out of each different group and still kind of maintain your level of not only, I wouldn't say self respect, but people, no one's ever had anything bad to say about you.

Well. Thank you.

So a big thing on my part is I just love the people and I really try to form relationships with people that you know that I can help with or I can you know, I can assist and stuff like that. Like for example, IA number of

the car shows that I've helped run.

I just, I don't necessarily run them myself.

I just kind of like an assistant to or, or helping or bringing in people that I other people that I know to kind of either expand the show or kind of make it a different capacity, different brand or anything like that. And been very fortunate to know

a A. A number of people in different,

different communities, so to speak.

And that's exactly what I like doing.

I, I mean, I have, I like, you know, having one group of people that I'm, I'm in a clique with, so to speak, but I love having feet in different, in different communities to really, they're all the cars that I enjoy or all the people I, I really enjoy being with. I I would say you're a really

good networker, but I think other people see that in you because it's easy, especially in Scottsdale, especially with the amount of cars that you've been around the Ferrari Club, you know, Fountain Hills, We're going to talk about that where we're literally sitting in this showroom.

We're off the top of your head, what do you think the value is of the cars that are in this part of the showroom?

I. Mean.

Tell us what we're looking at. Well, I got right behind me here

with the camera. I've got a Ferrari, la Ferrari.

We just got a Mercillago RGT, serial number 001.

To my left. I do have an Aston Martin, one

of 107 speed V12 Vantage S Behind J we have a was that a 2009? A 2010 Aston Martin Zagato TZ,

three straight Alpha. Yeah.

So it's a built on a 2010 Dodge Viper chassis.

Wow. That Alfa Romeo and Zagato put

together, and it's really quite cool conglomeration.

One of nine ever built and then there is a a 914 six and incredible in its own right. And then we do have a 25th

anniversary contache. Really a beautiful car and.

That really a nice interior. That's nice.

And then behind the 914, got a Porsche Speedster 2019, very cool spec in the paint, a sample Brewster Green.

And then on the other side of that we do have a full carbon bodied Challenger that is really quite amazing build I might have to say. But in here, I mean with a

couple of these cars, I mean we're got to be getting pretty close to about 10, ten, $12 million in this showroom alone and. Then, because we're taking up

this space, there's a car right outside these doors and what are we looking at out there? So we right outside these doors,

we do have a Bugatti Chiron. It's a full blue carbon body

car. Really, really impressive car.

And yeah, so we kind of just kicked it out of here to be able to have our little podcast here. What?

Does it all mean to you when you see these cars?

Does it mean anything at this point?

I mean, I know it's business. I know you like them, but being

from here, was there ever anything you saw that just really excited you or were you just so used to seeing everything? You know what, for about 10

years, you know, honestly, I, I get that.

I take that back. Up until the time I went to

Monterey Car Week in 2011, my first time going, I was excited about anything and everything I saw, even in being in Scottsdale, even being in the early 2000s before 2, you know about 2010. I'd be happy seeing a Bentley

con LGT. It was it was amazing.

I really enjoyed every piece. I just enjoyed the cars.

I love that I love seeing anything on the street, even if at car shows. But you know, I will say I, I,

I'm not gonna lie, I've gotten slightly jaded over the years being. You know, having all these kind

of cars in my own showroom, but at the same time, I'm still excited. I like seeing the new things.

Like, this is the first time I've ever seen an RGT, not only in my showroom but in our own personal life.

But up until Monterey Car Week, it was like, OK.

And since then I'm just like, you know what?

It's a Bugatti. It's a la Ferrari I still get.

Excited, but it's a different level of excitement.

Right. It doesn't, it's not a

referendum on the cars, right. I mean, this is a that that,

well, you just pointed out there that Mercy I think is a perfect example. People don't see Mercy Lagos

sometimes ever. When they see him, they're like,

oh wow, it's Batman's car. But when you're in it,

especially having going to Monterey Car Week, it takes something like that where it's like, whoa.

It definitely may not even be anywhere.

I mean it's it's expensive, don't get me wrong, but it's nowhere near the most expensive thing in here.

But it's just a cool piece of history that I really get to enjoy. And I've really come to find

that the historic vehicles are the things that I enjoy, you know, learning more about like, for example, the 914 six.

I haven't, you know, haven't gotten into the history on it, but I'm sure it's got a beautiful racing history that I'd like to find out one first in XYZ race or whatever the case may be. That's this, that's that's the

stuff I liked about the cars these days.

What are some what are some of the things you've done over the past 10 years that I've known you here in the car community?

Ben I've been very fortunate to be able to put on a a handful of car shows between monthly car shows, the Skid Row SW group.

I've helped with Ferrari Club doing a number of events, you know, through either Scots of Ferrari or you know, other events. I've been incredibly fortunate

to do a couple charity charity events, including being a part of the committee of Concourse in the Hills.

It's been truly amazing to be able to give back to the community in that. Way I've had personal family

things with me and just, I've been very fortunate in more ways than one that, you know, if there's a way that I can give back, you know, particularly in these charity events, I really try to take it up as as much as I can.

How, how did it all start? Because since I've known you, I

think the first time I've met you was maybe at one of the supercar runs that used to happen here and you were one of the organizers. And you're, you're not getting

into a Ferrari or a Lamborghini either.

You're just a regular guy with a regular car without an attitude.

But yet you find yourself involved in these groups and these very high dollar machines with these very high dollar people. You know, some of them are

really nice, some people aren't that nice, but that's just anybody. Like what?

What was that moment? What was that event like?

How did you get into it to be the guy?

Oh, absolutely. I appreciate you bringing that

up So. It was a very.

Specific moment for me in terms of I, so at one point, like when I started going to car shows, I didn't have my driver's license.

I wasn't even 16 at the time. I had to literally beg my

parents to take me to car shows on a Saturday morning, that they'd rather be doing something else.

And I would attend these car shows.

I tried to be there, you know, as early as I could be to see the cars, meet the people and everything.

And so until I was about 18, give or take.

And at that point, of course, I had my license and some of the owners of the vehicles had started recognizing me in terms of, oh, he's coming. He's coming frequently.

He comes almost every month. And he must be.

He wants to be involved in some capacity and a mentor of mine.

This these days, he was the one that actually came up to me.

It's like I see you every month. Let me introduce myself to you.

Is it something that you'd be interested in helping us out help these events? And I, that was the fastest,

yes, in my, in my life. I was like, what do you want me

to do? I am more than happy to help in

any way I can. And really meaning that one

person makes the biggest difference in the world.

Meaning that one person got to meet two, got to meet three, got to meet 10, to the point that I've gotten to know the whole clubs and they're like, yeah, that's the guy, let's just let him run the show and we can just be lazy, wake up later and show up to the car events later. I think because of that, you

didn't probably screw anybody over, which is a big deal.

And after a while you just become like the man, right, 'cause I have AI, have a friend that runs a yacht company.

And it's not that he does anything different, it's just he's very low maintenance when it comes to his clients.

So it's like, OK, well, we got Matt here and OK, we need someone to put on this event or help organize.

Just saying. Well, look, I got a guy, his

name's Matt. No problem.

He gets it done. Never had an issue with anybody,

you know, runs smoothly here. Give him a call, right?

And I think that that's the way that a lot of these networking things happen. Be kind, don't screw people

over, and you never know where you're going to find yourself.

Do you think that's kind of accurate?

Oh, 100% I, I really try to make it a big thing not to screw people over and you know, I hate saying no to people.

I, I truly hate it. It's.

My hate to a fault, anything to a fault at times.

Almost to a fault, but I've really come to find that sometimes just saying no only helps me.

But as you said, I screwing people over is the last thing I ever want to do. I mean, will I fall short in

some things? Absolutely.

I We all have our faults, but at the same.

Time like, you know, there's only, there's only so many things I can do in a day, but I like, I really try to make sure that, you know, I spend the time to get things done and not screw people over and at least say what I do and do what I say.

What was the time where you first got into something and you were like, I can't believe I'm here because earlier you were backing some of these cars up and driving around and at this point, I mean, it's what you do. But when you get in something

like, what was that first time? You're like, holy shit, I'm

like, I can't believe I'm behind the wheel of blah, blah blah.

If I have a very specific memory of that, but I know one of the first cars that I got to drive was an Aston Martin DB9.

It was, I mean, done wrong. It was a, it was 100 and 2000

and $50,000 car at the time. And it was, it was definitely

slightly nerve racking. It was interesting.

I remember driving through Old Town Scottsdale and I had many, many cars behind me. I was like, Oh my God, what is

this? What is this?

And I think at that point I was like, I'm actually driving something that people are turning their heads, they're pulling out their phones. They're like.

There's a car. In front of us that we care

about. And I remember that I was like.

I have to realize I'm not in a Ford or I'm not in a Chevy or something like that. I'm in an Aston Martin.

And until then, it's just been, I've been, I've been very fortunate to be in a lot of cars and just been a lot of practice.

It's different, all right? It's different when you're

driving a car and and you can feel the eyes on you.

So different and I see why leaving car shows people feel like there is an obligation to maybe take off or squeal or do a slight burnout. It's just temptation though, but

I see it. You have so many eyes on you.

Doesn't matter, you don't. Know where they're coming from.

They could be around the corner and they can still see you.

It's like you kind of want to, like there's a part of you that wants to kind of do something fun and cool for them.

You know, it's like, yeah, it's almost like the guy who does the flip off the diving board versus just jumps in.

You know, no one, no one flips if there's no one else standing around. Absolutely.

You know, but unfortunately I just made that up too, by the way. But but you know, that urge,

like I got pulled over once when I was leaving the PAVS in the old car and I didn't even do anything crazy.

Everybody on their phones out, there's a car coming.

I speed up to get in front of the car so I can get on the highway and the cop pulls me over, you know, exhibition of speed, all that dumb shit, you know, but could I have been a little more patient, you know, and like, I didn't think I was even showing out, to be honest with you.

But you know, those, some of these cars that first to second gear, that second to third gear, it sounds a lot crazier than it is and it's going to turn a lot more heads.

And I think that's what the case was there.

So I understand that temptation. What's, what's some of the

things around here that that you see that kind of drive you crazy in the car community? Well, for me.

I mean, kind of going back to, you know, being extremely fortunate to host events, but the people that really my pet peeve are the people that don't really honor and really help the car show get better. They you know, they're peeling

out excessively. I mean, I get the, you know, the

the small little peel out and have a little bit of fun.

OK, fine, you're zero to 30 and then you slow down to the next light. But the people that really drive

me nuts, so the people that are really trying to show off to the point that there's a true exhibition of speed and really looking like someone can get hurt.

We've had a couple scenarios at a number of our car shows that we've had to actually shut down car shows at certain locations because of people. It could just be one person.

It honestly could be one person that can make a big difference and getting a car show taken down.

And it's happened more than once, unfortunately.

So those people just drive me nuts, unfortunately.

What's your favorite event around here to do that's not something you're personally involved in?

Not that I'm personally involved in in Arizona.

I know there's not a lot that you're not personally involved in, but. You know what I actually really

enjoy going to those car shows. I can kind of go under the

radar. Honestly.

I really enjoy the vault events. I, I just the people.

The people there and Ron over there typically does a lot of things for charity. He's great, isn't he?

I, I love the guy. He runs great.

I would do just about anything for him and anything he calls me to do, I'd love to do anything to help him out.

I bring cars over or whatever. I just, I just love that event.

He's got a beautiful facility and it's just got a beautiful setup. You know, I guess a lot of run

on my shows 424 yes. You know, it's, it's easy to get

to from my house in Gilbert. It's low key, it feels and that

maybe it's kind of getting a little away from that now, but it just feels kind of like a, a old school sort of cars and coffee, almost like Alpios. You know, I went to is it Alpios

or Alpios? I've been there I think once and

that was kind of like this nice vintage you feel.

But if people say Jay, I'm coming into town and I want to see something really cool. I'm like what's come on the 1st

work weekend and I'll take you up to Highline, you know, 'cause that's where all this stuff typically is.

Oh, absolutely. Love LP OS and next time you go

to LP OS or next time you want to go to LP OS, let me know.

I'd be happy to join you. Love LPO here again, another

great location. You get a different feel in

terms of cars. You get a lot of people that own

the cars up that direction in the Troon area that don't typically come in into the Valley or come in come to other shows down here. So I enjoy going to that show as

well as typically different cars.

Funny you mentioned four to four.

I know you, I know you go to four to four often.

Four to four is actually a show that I don't go to often and something I'd actually really like to attend more.

Unfortunately, it's not terribly far from me, but there's so many events that go through in the Valley every weekend.

It's just it's a choice that we all have to make.

And to be honest, lately, the last year or so, I haven't gone to a whole. Lot of car shows that I really

should be attending. What's your favorite thing to do

when you're not messing with all the car stuff?

Like what does Matt do? It's been time with my

girlfriend and our three dogs that we have together.

We've been doing a lot of house projects as of late and just again, just trying to keep to myself, I guess.

I mean, I love grabbing a beer with friends and stuff like that, but every once in a while I just sit on the couch, relax, and hang out with the dogs. So what kind of house projects

do you guys do? So you guys like, do you watch

HGTV? Do you go to straight to

YouTube? Or you're saying hey, look at

this thing on TikTok, you know, you can do this in 5 minutes.

This one my wife does, she puts some shit in front of me.

It's like look, this lady said she built this thing and it only cost $36. I'm like that's bullshit.

And next thing you know I'm building it.

I'm $140.00 into it and it doesn't look any good.

Well, we've got a lot, you know, ideas and law things.

So my girlfriend's actually in construction management.

So she has a really good idea of how things go together.

So ultimately what she says goes.

We actually did some gardening beds and relocated them into a different part of the the backyard and we're actually talking about getting like a pergola.

So we can get, we have like a ice, ice batch, whatever thing and a sauna in the corner. So it kind of gets some extra

shade in there. But we're always doing something

one way or another. How long have you been involved

with the commercialized business of what we're doing right now?

Because I've known you obviously as someone who helps make, you know, make events happen, but not always someone who's managing a business and you may have been doing it in the background. Maybe I just never knew about

it. So I've been in dealerships

specifically for, let's see, just a hair over probably about 10 years. So I've had a an interesting

rise up to where I'm at. Tell us so I started really

being the photographer for a number of smaller.

Dealerships and at that point it was just a matter of meeting people and. It was all through the car

shows, not necessarily hosting, but just the owners of dealerships or your general managers were like, oh, you know, some people, you've got great photos, etcetera, etcetera. And just got to the point that I

was doing a. Photography for a number of

dealerships, at which point I'm like, OK, I need to branch up, whatever. So I ended up working over at

Penske at that N location over here at the One O 1 in Scottsville Rd. And I actually was their

photographer for, let's see, about two years.

And I did all the inventory photos for all of their 14 plus dealerships they have there. And which point that I decided

to move up and I went into really what they call like their wholesale to retail division. So we did have a division that

would buy cars and then I was in charge of basically reconning all the cars to get ready for retail.

And that was a, that was a blast.

Really, really enjoyed doing that in terms of getting to know people at Penske. And not just that, but also

doing the Recon and how it all works together.

And that meeting all the general managers and GSMS and even the the vice president over there, just, it was an incredible process. I did leave there.

Let's see 2022 and very fortunate, Mark Hubbard over at Hubbard Auto Center asked me to do some inventory management and sales. And that's really where my sales

career has started. And I cannot thank Mark enough.

He has been a true mentor and a true person that I, I just, I owe, I owe a lot to. And at which point I just got

the, I got the call to come over here at Young Motor Cars to be the director of operations and I just like to keep moving forward. And this has just been an

amazing place to be. So what does that entail being

the director of operations of? I mean, how different is it, if

at all, from and maybe working at, I don't know, Tempe Ford, Director of Operations. So I mean, I try to keep my

hands in everything that we do here, whether it be marketing.

We do have our a truly amazing creative director who does photography and marketing, but I assist him in those matters.

I assist with the sales, the purchasing, the Recon.

I really try to be a part of every part of the process.

And we're really a small dealership of four people and just kind of get things up and there's there's something for everybody to do, right. And it's, it's one of those

things like I love Penske, don't get me wrong, but there was a very small window of things that I could do as far as the operation. Here.

In a small, small dealership like this, we all work together as a team to get things done and I really enjoy that, just being a part of everything. Which one of these cars is the

biggest pain in the ass to drive a maneuver to?

Drive. And then what are you?

Have you ever been sitting behind the wheel of something you're absolutely terrified of? The countach.

The countach you. Knew that answer quick.

It is not very comfortable. I mean, it's an absolute marvel

to look at, don't get me wrong, but it's, it's a little ornery, that's for sure. The seating position, the, the,

the pedals are slightly off center.

It's it's really wide. You can't see out the side of

your mirrors. You have no rearview mirror

view, right? I mean, I enjoy looking at it

every single day I I truly do. But just driving it can get a

little get a little nerve wracking at times.

And they despite, I mean that that kind of encompasses what an exotic sports car is, especially from its time to where you're not. It's not supposed to be

comfortable. It's not supposed to be

reliable. And that's exactly what this

thing is. It's uncomfortable apparently,

right? It's definitely unreliable from

what I understand. When I was living in Michigan,

there's a guy who would drive one down from Traverse City and he would say that he would have to stop multiple times to fix random stuff on every trip. Things like the spark plug

covers popping off. Have you seen any crazy stuff

like that with the cars that you guys run through?

Fortunately, I have not. I will say we don't typically

drive them extensively. So we.

Don't need to. But I have heard that, I've

heard many of those stories with many of our clients.

And it's, it's definitely I, I love stories.

You know, I, I love when a client comes in, yeah, not only to buy or not to buy, but just gives the story of why they like What Car they want to buy or what, you know, whether it was their dad that had this, whether it was their grandfather that owned a, you know, 1950s car. I just love those stories.

But of those stories, you hear all these things of what these what thing can happen to these cars?

What kind of clientele you typically have here?

Are they generationally? Are they first timers?

You know, I'm sure it's a mixed bag.

Are they the Bitcoin millionaires?

You know crypto millionaires. Honestly, I mean, like you said,

it's really a mixed bag. You know, we can get everything.

And I think the biggest thing for us, though, is we can't judge a book by its cover. I have sold cars to people who

literally walk in with ragged needle jeans, maybe just a Hawaiian shirt. They might have a Rolex on or

not. But at this point anyone who's

you know anyone that has a Rolex?

Our friend Jason, who looks like he's from the Fat Albert Show with that big pink thing on his head, you know?

Right. But I mean, I've sold cars to

those people all day long and it's remarkable to think that you walk and disgust, you know, and not necessarily disgust furry, but any Ferrari dealership in the country and like, yeah, just you can keep browsing.

Like you can't judge a book by its cover.

You just can't. They could just be an undercover

guy that just wants to have a good time just wearing his jeans on and buy the next car. I mean, we've sold, you know, 7

figure cars to those kind of people and it's remarkable to see and. Really it it varies from

everybody that we saw, whether it's just the person that's just buying their first portion, they're just so thrilled to a person that's buying a la Ferrari.

What makes you guys different? Right?

So you see it and you're very customer service oriented.

I mean you give someone the shirt off your back, like you're very generous with your time, with your temperament and everything. You know what makes you

different from going into? I would say I'm not picking on

Penske at all, but that's just the name that we rent.

You going into Penske or you going to some of these other dealerships that may be really high dollar, high end clientele, high end people working there, maybe they're dressed to the nines because they have to be, you know, why would somebody want to come here? Well, I think you said it.

I mean, I really try to make sure that our customer service is barred on the best. It's really a backbone of what

we have. We do here at the Young Motor

Cars with the owner here, Michael Young and myself, we've really come together and make sure that we're on the same page as that. We really try to make sure that

not only is the customer get everything that they want in terms of what they're buying, that the car is as represented.

We make sure that everything is noted on the car.

If there's a scratch on it in any way, if there's anything that needs to be fixed, that we fix it.

Even if it comes out of our dime, it needs to be done.

And one thing that we really, really try to stand behind is we try to say any car that leaves this building in any capacity whatsoever, we try to be with the life of the.

Car a client of ours calls, calls us a year down the road.

It's like, look, this has happened, this has happened.

How can you help me? We try to be on it.

We really try to be. I can't promise that we'll fix

it, but we will do our best to make sure that the client is happy in any regard. We want to make sure that the

client's in the right car for the right reasons and there's, you know, no question about it. Which is great if I, if I were

in the market, which I'm not, well, anytime we're, if I were in the market, I already know that honestly, I could be like, hey, Matt, I'm looking for this car, this car.

And you would now I just did a, a rant about a, a friend of mine, you know, and people are hitting me up and say, Hey, who's Timothy? I'm like, hey, he's actually a

friend of mine, but he's like, Jay, I need this car.

OK, Jay, another car who can transport this, who can do this, who can do that? You know, do you have people

that because you're so damn dependable, and maybe that's the good part of it, but you have people that are just constantly, they basically want you to go around the checklist for them.

Absolutely no, I, I definitely do.

And it's always an interesting, you know, seeing who the people are that reach out to me. But you know, I, I, I watched a

little bit of that clip that you did and it's, it's, it's always interesting. Like I, I'll even have some

friends from high school, you know, from, from college, like, hey, I, I know you're into cars. Can you give me a couple

pointers? I'm happy to give you.

A It's funny too, isn't it? It's.

Funny, like, you know, the people that are in the car scene, like they know what they're looking for.

I mean, they know what they want, a Ferrari or a Porsche.

I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty black and white at that point, but it's like, Oh yeah, I'm thinking about an F150 and a Ram. I'm like, those are two very

different cars you just going to have to test drive.

I mean, I, I wish I could tell you what my, I mean, I can tell you my opinions, but I can't tell you what to buy.

I guess I should probably ask you about EVs and hybrids and all that kind of stuff. I mean, do you have a preference

and then you you have to kind of read the market, know where the world is going to. EV market's definitely an

interesting market. That's for.

Sure, it is very interesting. In more ways than one.

I mean, I, I wish I could just boil it down, but I mean, I'm not against EVs by any means. I think that they will have a a

strong impact no matter what they do.

There's definitely a place. Absolutely.

If you were to ask me personally about it, like I'm all for having the EV, but I'm I'm the kind of guy that I would never have the EV as my only vehicle. There you go.

Yeah. I would have it as the community

car from point A to point B, whether it be work to home, to your friend's house, whatever that I would do that whether you want to do the Prius, you want to do a Tesla, a Rivian, I mean, fantastic, grab it. I not against it by any means

whatsoever, as long as you understand what you're getting yourself into. Now you get to, you know, for

me, I do a lot of long distance driving.

So I go between Phoenix and and San Diego quite often.

So the EV thing doesn't work well for me.

Does the Tesla make it to San Diego?

Absolutely. But I don't want to stop three

times to charge. I just don't, right?

And it just gets annoying at that time.

But people like their EVs. I'm not going to take it away

from, nor will I intend to, but it's definitely an interesting market. But, and I'm never saying I'll

never own one, I might own one just as a commuter car, right?

And then so I think hybrid's probably the way to go.

I think that most people kind of agree to that.

You know, it's funny as you're talking about EV being the commuter, because I agree they're transportation vehicles.

They're not car people vehicles. And you could be a car person

and just want to get somewhere. And I, I thought about the golf

course. I'm not a golfer, but I'm very

observant. So you put a gas golf cart,

which I'm sure they used to be, they do, and the electric golf cart, which most of them probably are.

And most people are going to grab the electric golf cart because it's going to get them from hole to hole.

It's going to be more quiet. They don't smell like gas.

And that's the your average commuter person.

Oh, absolutely. So yeah, it's it's at the end of

the day, it's just that simple. Yeah, absolutely.

And I, I couldn't agree more. I mean, they're great cars for

what they are. I mean, there's no doubt about

it. I mean, you can have an opinion

either way. But for me, I wouldn't mind

having something from point A to point B.

And it's cheap for what it is, especially with the the prices of, you know, the Model 3 is coming down so heavily.

I mean, almost speeding up. You'd be stupid not to pick one

up just to, you know, just to have something from point A to point B. You don't have to put the miles

on, you know, any other car that you have and just put it on the EV car. Speaking of point A to point B,

what's your commuter car? So I actually just purchased

about two weeks ago a 2023 Lexus IS300.

OK all. Right.

There's worse commuter cars. Yeah, so I, I love it.

It's been great. I was just looking for a, for a

car that I could just grab the wheels off of and I'd be more than happy to throw my dog in it or all three dogs in it and drive to San Diego any time that I wanted to.

Before that, I had a, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which I absolutely loved. But you know, once I rolled it

over 100,000 miles, it's like, yeah, this one should probably go. Right now you had was it the FRS

or BRZ? I had the FRS.

Right. Did you miss that car?

Did you like that car? I.

Miss it in a lot of ways, but I am kind of glad I don't have it anymore, right? For the first 2-3 years that I

owned that car, I kept in stock and you know, it was fun, it was great. But then when I bought a truck

to kind of have it as my daily I, my FRS definitely got a good amount of love in terms of modifications.

And I got up to the point that I was like, OK, I should.

I had a little bit of fun with it, let's put it that way.

It. Was on the track a handful of

times. I got to do plenty of drives

down to Tortilla flats and I had plenty of fun with those, including getting around and driving around some Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Out into tortilla.

Flats and definitely had a couple of laughs.

Over that do. You even have a dream car at

this point because again, look at where we're at.

Look what we were driving and and and back and around.

It's funny you mention that. So I just saw a clip from, what

was it Chris Harris when he was here in in in the city for car week. And it's like every day is

different, right? Yeah, every every day is

different. When you get come to a dream

car, like it changes every day, but as far as the most consistent dream car that I've got is, it's actually a a Mercy Lago, an LP 640 Mercy Lago in 6 speed.

Why? I don't know, I just, I just

love the rawness of that car. It's got the manual to go with

it. It's just a, it's just a wild

car. It's something that I wouldn't

necessarily drive every day. It's something I could hop in on

a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and just absolutely go for the mountains, go to enjoy it and just relax.

Just have a blast and I I just love the looks on it.

It's just so timeless in my opinion.

What did you want when you were a little kid?

I wanted the McLaren F1. That was the car.

Like everyone, right? That was the car that got me

started and enjoying the cars more than anything.

And I, I it's. It's almost unobtainable at this

point. Yeah, it's got it has to be for

sale. And it's, it's one of those

deals where you can have all the money in the world, but availability is a big thing, you know, and if, if no one wants to sell it, you could say everything has a price.

And I guess to a point, everything maybe does, but it's unobtainium, you know, all the money's not going to get it to you unless someone's wanting to sell it.

Oh, absolutely. And with only 106 of them ever

made, I mean the ones that go for sale, I mean they go for astronomical numbers. And even then it's like there's

not a whole lot of them that go up there.

They just stay in collections or families and generations.

It's it's quite an incredible. Car though.

Do you know how many are left? I know it's a good amount.

I know when the when a McLaren F1 gets totalled or gets destroyed, most of them go back to the factory to get rebuilt.

And it's one of the only. Cars that the factory will

actually stand behind its product in terms of rebuilding the car and re putting back a vent on the car.

Like for example Elon Musk F1 that caught on fire a number of years ago. It was rebuilt and it's actually

a castle car. Is that the silver one?

It is a silver one. Yes, we have two silver ones

here in Arizona. Oh that makes sense.

Do they look identical or does one have kind of some body molding? Slightly different they they

look quite identical until you get.

Closer to them. How'd you get involved in

Fountain Hills? So I actually attended Fountain

Hills when they first knew that they had it.

It was like, I want to say it was 20/13/2014 and I just kept attending on everything like that.

And I got to really have the great pleasure of meeting Peter Volney, who is a, a, a true mentor, just a person I really look, look up to here in the valley and in the car scene.

And at just one point he actually helped a lot with the Skuderia SW club that I help put on the shows.

And Peter, just just like, you know, hey, you do you do a lot of this stuff, can you help me? And I was like, absolutely, what

can I do? And it's just a big thing for

me. I, you know, I try not to take

the ownership on it, but I just say, hey, what can I do to help?

I, I try to be helpful. And Peter has been nothing but

amazing in my life and more ways than one.

And I've just been very happy to be even remotely part of Concord in the house. Where do you think that show is

going to go? Because it hasn't been here

forever. I think people love looking

forward to it. I know there's been some changes

recently, but we still have the show.

In fact, it's coming up April 19th.

That is correct. April 19th, Unfortunately we had

to postpone it due to some rain and unfortunately the the Fountain Hills area where we have our show is, is all grass.

So that rain gets, you know, collected very in, in areas that we can't have rain. Even the threat of rain, you

have to make serious considerations.

Oh, absolutely. I mean it's really the safety

about the cars and people for that matter.

I mean, it's a, you know, it can get a little slippy there, you know, at times. So we did have to postpone it to

April 19th. And I know people have been

asking me literally since the day that we postponed it, in terms of why did you postpone it to that day?

Unfortunately, Fountain Hills had an event every single weekend until April 19th. It was, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

but it just got to the point that was the literally the next day that was available. Well, people are asking me like,

I'm on the freaking committee or something.

I'm like, I don't know, but there's probably something going on every weekend for them to push.

Yeah, OK. Absolutely.

I mean, what I wish that we could have it say this weekend.

I mean, it was raining a little bit this week, but I mean, still, it's like, I wish I could have had it this weekend, but just unfortunate that we had to push it all the way to April 19.

But if we wanna show to really support Phoenix Children's Hospital, which is really what the ultimate goal is of that show and that we push that down and.

We'll still look forward to having people then.

Has there been a lot of attrition because of the dates?

Absolutely. I While there has been a lot of

attrition, there's been a lot of other people that can come now.

Like couldn't come before. Even out in the general scheme

of things. So I'm, I'm still looking

forward to it may be a little warm, don't get me wrong, but we'll, we'll, we'll still have a great and fantastic show with incredible cars coming out. Yeah, I've been able to threaten

more NSX owners around here to get registered.

Well, I appreciate it. No, I appreciate it because you

know, you got us set up with the car club and I've told the, and this is one thing that people have to understand when they're watching this or listen to this is it's not always what can you do for me? It's what can I help do, you

know, for the event, what can I do for you?

And there's been times in the past, and I've gone to a few of these where there's no NS XS there, there might be 1 NSX and they wonder why we're way in the back.

I go, guys, you have to show up. Oh, absolutely.

If you don't show up, you're not going to get parking, you're not going to get this. And that's with anything in

life. You know, you have to show up

because your opportunities have come because you were showing up and people noticed you there and you were really cool about it.

You were respectful about it. You get these opportunities.

And now I'm sitting in front of the director, you know, of operations at this dealership. No, absolutely.

And it's a big part of just I'm, I'm a big proponent and say, Hey, how can I help you? You know, I mean, there may not

be anything, but just, it's just a question.

Hey, you know what, what can we do?

How can we make this happen? I mean, it could be an initial

impossible, but with teamwork I mean there's not much you can't do. What are the misconceptions that

come with doing what you do? There has to be some, and I

don't know if you hear them, but you there's got to be people that feel comfortable enough to come up to you and say certain things like maybe I know you can hook me up with this car or I know you can do this. Or can you get me into Monterey?

Can you get me into Pebble Beach?

And you know, can you get me into Barry Jackson thing?

You know, maybe some of the stuff you maybe have nothing to do with to begin with. But you know, how often does

that happen? And do people get nasty if you

can't give them what they want? I, I hate to say it never

happens, but it, it happens really quite frequently and, and not necessarily by any bad intentions, many of them have good intentions. I mean, sometimes it's like, you

know, a friend coming, coming in from out of town and say, Hey, how can you help me out? You know, can we, can we do this

XYZ, whatever. And I've got a number of friends

from, you know, my high school and, you know, college days.

Hey, you know, love to go to Barrett Jackson.

Can you give me tickets? I'm like, I'm not part of the

Bear Jackson, but you know, should be able to get a handful of tickets and see what we can. Do.

I'll see. I'll talk to some people and see

if I can get something, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I try not to say no, but I mean, if there's something I can't do, then I can't do it. But I'm always, you know,

willing to look into something. And you know, as far as

Monterey, I mean Monterey is kind of an open place to go.

And for anyone that hasn't gone to Monterey, I highly recommend it. It's.

Can be very expensive. It's gotten expensive.

I will say it's gotten expensive, but you know, there are ways of reducing those costs, whether you don't go to any specific shows and you just use the entire peninsula as a show, like if you just stay on Ocean Blvd.

In in Carmel. It's a video game.

It's literally a video game because you tell people that I'm like, I can't explain this to you more.

You're sitting in traffic and there's 3 Ferrari F fifties right in front of you. There's some other hyper car

next to you and then there's like 15 different Porsches.

Is this is literally test drive unlimited too?

Absolutely, I mean, you couldn't have said better than I could.

It's it's it's a video game and one year I think I was, you know, running on fumes and I we literally stayed, you know, 45 minutes N almost in Santa. Cruz.

Didn't think we might have gone to one show, but otherwise it was just like just being there meant the world to me.

Just being there just meant the world.

You didn't have to go to Quail. You didn't have to go to Pebble

Beach. You didn't have to go to, you

know, go to the track necessarily.

But just, you know, everybody's going to be driving around somewhere. So just being in Carmel by the

CEO, just being in the area, I mean, it's the place to be.

You know, it's funny, there's so many other things going on there other than Quail. And I usually when I go

fortunately through Acura, sometimes we get, you know, passes for that through the through the club.

But I think the last time I went, we went to four or five events and I didn't even know it even existed because we're too busy spending all Saturday or Friday or Friday at the Quail and Saturday at the exotics or at the track.

And there's there's something for everyone there.

Oh, it truly is. I mean, you get into the BMW's

motor works, there's all, all the other stuff too.

So it's really quite incredible the amount of cars you can really pack that in Peninsula with and it's.

There's something for everybody, I mean.

For everybody, truly. I think they're trying to.

There's always the residents of those big events that are trying to get rid of it. And it's like, I'm pretty sure

this brings money to your economy.

I'm sure you have to put up with some hyper cars and people like revving their engines, but that's one week of the year, yeah. So it'll be very interesting to

see the future of Monterey car weekend.

I mean, love to for it to stay there, but you know, God only knows at this point. And I mean, it's just a

beautiful area. I just, even outside the cars I

just go to just enjoy going to Monterey and it's just.

It's a beautiful area. Out there and you know, I'm in a

past life, I guess I was a golfer, so I love seeing the all the all the golf courses out there.

It's just really cool and it it's just a beautiful area to be. I mean, even if you don't that's

not your scene. Got the aquarium, you got

Cannery Rd., you got, you know it's.

The beach the the beach. There, I mean, it's, it's a

beautiful area. So this past year or this year

here, did you notice they started labeling it as Auction week, Arizona Auction Week? I.

Wonder if that's going to be a thing in the future.

It'd be kind of cool, especially with all the stuff that you guys are, you know, you specifically have your hands in.

But I could see, you know, young motor cars maybe doing some stuff because the event you guys put on here, classy event.

And the fact that you reached out said, hey, Jay, you know, if you could, I'd love if you came to the event.

I'm like, say less. And, you know, Yvette finally

actually wanted to come out to one of these events, and she had a great time. Well, I'm so happy not only that

you guys came, but you brought your wife and it was a, it was an absolute pleasure having you guys here and it really got to really got to bring people together.

I mean, that's really real. I'm all about trying to bring

people together and had an absolute blast.

I really appreciate you for coming out for that.

I mean, we try not to bother you, but you, you being you, you will find everybody that you know and walk up to them and say thank you for being here. And, and, and it doesn't seem

like something that's canned. It feels genuine, like you

really mean it when you say it. It's not like, hey guys, thanks

for coming. Thanks for coming, thanks for

coming. Almost like a wedding, I don't

know, a wedding celebration to where you're not going to remember anything that happened, you know, except for like maybe four things, but your memory and your hospitality has been second to none. We really appreciate it and

that's really what we try to do. And again, I just love bringing

people together. And again, it's a it's been a

pleasure to be able to bring people together like that.

So what can people do? Let's get a hold of young motor

cars first and foremost. They want to come out and check

out the showroom. They want to follow what's going

on on social medias and then yourself.

We're we're open pretty much Monday to Friday.

I'd love to show anybody the showroom, not just the showroom, but we also have a about a 10,000 square foot warehouse and back with some additional cars. Got our social media, Ryan Jan,

our social media guy and creative director as runs our social media accounts, young motor cars on on on plenty of different platforms and that try to do as many shows.

I mean, we've got a couple shows that we all try to attend and bring a handful of different cars out, whether it be, you know, my shows, Scuderia SW or Concord in the hills or any other events that we have in town.

Tell me about Scuderia Southwest.

So I've been part of Scuderia Southwest.

Oh goodness, since about 2010, 2011 really.

That's that's the club that I just was attending since I was about, you know, 1516 and I get to the point that they just asked me is that, hey, would you be interested in helping us out?

I'm like, absolutely. So really got to help out at

skidder SW. We put a a monthly car show.

So at the time we were over at Gainey Ranch on I.

Remember that when I first moved here.

Our original location so they had been there since 2001 when they started at the at the bean coffee bean, excuse me, the coffee bean and then they kind of just.

Took over that lot, at which point we had subsequently moved to a new location at Mayo. Discussed.

Through to Mayo just off of the 101, that was a great location.

We really were able to get almost almost 1200 cars in there if we really wanted to grow that big, which in a couple of events we did and. What happened with that?

Was it some riffraff? Was it the local companies or

businesses in the strip mall complaining?

So it was. A number of things.

It LED up to the pandemic, so we kind of left with the pandemic.

It's kind of getting a little hairy and people are unaware of all the new rules and everything going on.

But we did have a couple of businesses that were like, oh, we don't like you here Saturday mornings.

And we, we try to be as accompanied as we could.

But unfortunately with that many people, it's really hard to hurt the crowd. And we left.

We were there for about two years and it's just, you know, it was a, it worked out either way.

And then we are, we've gotten to the point that we've now into a like an intimate car show. We're up at, let's see, Market

Street at DC Ranch at Pinnacle Peak and Thompson Peak area.

There's that in the corner is like a Grimaldis and everything.

It's a really cool space. We can fit about 200 cars in

there. And, and generally speaking, we

do. It's just a car show for members

of the club that and, and, or invited guests that we that we can invite anytime and but it's publicly available for any spectators. What what about your Instagram

people can follow your life with the dogs and everything.

So I've got my Instagram's MO Connor 21.

Please follow me. I'd love to follow you back,

show you all the dogs and all the cars that I play with.

It's funny, we got people pulling up and and posing next to the Bugatti out here. I used to do that way back in

the day, 1718. I'd call my buddies up and we

would go and we would just pose next to cars at dealerships at night. Absolutely.

And it was funny because. We had maybe, I don't know, 10

kids here yesterday, just playing around, just poking around and, you know, dunking around.

We were having a little bit of a laugh in the back.

It's like all these kids, all the, I mean, they must have been 12/13/14 years old again. You know, I, I get it.

They're all doing their selfies with the cars.

I'm like, you know, what? If we had the phones, if we had

this, this is exactly what we were.

Doing yeah, and we did it to A to.

A to a Yep, that's what we were doing.

Yeah, that was the. And, you know, just, I just, I

just love seeing the passion coming from the next generation of, of car enthusiasts. I mean whether it be just

enthusiasts. Or owners and it's just a it's

just a cool feeling to see the next passion, next group of people that are gonna enjoy the cars and just more peoples that we can include to the group. All right, well, we're gonna get

out of here. I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna

drive that Bugatti, then that LA Ferrari that's behind him, and I'm gonna do a blindfolded. But if you guys want to check

that out, then make sure you watch the video for extended footage. Just kidding.

Well, we'll make it happen though.

Thanks, Matt. Absolutely, Jay, I appreciate

you. Hey guys, I want to thank you

for stopping by the podcast. If you like what you saw today,

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Week. Now it's stripping time.

Ain't nobody got time for that. Shut up.