Sales of exotic cars portend better days

Economists looking for an easy way to gauge consumer confidence could do worse than calling Dave Asher every few days.

Asher, the sales manager of SportHaus Sales & Leasing in Reno, feels every slight tremor in consumer confidence as he sells sports, luxury and exotic cars.

"These cars are wants.

They're not needs," Asher says.

"The consumer confidence index really shows up in this business."

To be sure, some of the cars at the SportHaus facility along Highway 395 in south Reno are expensive toys.

A 1965 Sunbeam Tiger sports car on the lot a few days ago, for instance, was priced at $199,500.

At the same time, however, the firm's inventory includes used Porsche and Mercedes models priced about the same as a new subcompact.

In recent months, Asher says, he's seen clear signs that consumer confidence is headed up.

Buyers, he says, see increased value in their stock portfolios a key factor for SportHaus because some purchasers use equities as collateral for car loans.

That comes at the same time that record-low interest rates continue to give purchasers more buying power.

And all-cash deals, even for high-end cars such as $389,000 Ferraris or $139,000 Shelby Americans, remain common, Asher says.

The recovery of consumer confidence provides some breathing room for the company.

SportHaus founder John McClure launched the company in Reno 23 years as a parts and service outfit for Porsche, Mercedes and other imports.

After two decades, McClure and his wife, Emilie Oliver-McClure, decided on two big steps to get into the sales business and to construct a showroom along with a service and parts facility in South Meadows.

Their timing couldn't have been worse as they broke ground just days before the terror attacks of Sept.

11 crippled the economy and left consumers shaky.

"We've been able to hang in there," McClure says.

Because SportHaus handles cars on consignment from their owners, the company doesn't have capital tied up in inventory.

And because McClure has a long history in the service business, SportHaus has complete histories on many of the cars it sells even 20-year-old models.

That, he says, is a key selling point with buyers who are plopping down tens of thousands of dollars for a car that's essentially a toy.

Even as the sales side of the business perks up, parts and service still accounts for well over 60 percent of the business at SportHaus.

Because the company has an expertise in preparing sports cars for racing, some of those service customers come from as far as the Bay area.

On the sales side of the business, Asher says one challenge is finding ways to differentiate SportHaus in the highly competitive, highly promoted automotive business in northern Nevada.

SportHaus relies on traditional media newspaper, radio and TV and puts a lot of energy into special events such as parades.What's more natural, Asher asks, than taking a Ferrari to the parade for Reno's Great Italian Festival? Or showing an American-built sports car to a Fourth of July event? The company's high-profile location, meanwhile, is becoming more important, particularly as a large number of its customers live in Incline Village and other Lake Tahoe communities.

The location with its sports cars out front also is becoming a stop for some tourists on their way to the lake, Asher says.

The company takes out-of-town shoppers seriously.

Through its Web site (sporthausinc.com), it's sold cars to customers as far away as Norway and Mexico.

Asher says the company's 15 employees try to remember that they're selling cars that will be used for pleasure.

"We know we're selling toys," he says.

"We have fun selling them.We have fun showing them.We have fun driving them."