The Dealer: How One California Dealership Fueled the Rise of Ferrari Cars in America

by Jim Ciardella

Overview

When Ferrari of Los Gatos opened, few people could afford an expensive sports car. In 1976, the average annual income was $12,686, and a new home cost about $48,000. Motorists in California could only buy gas on odd or even-numbered days based on the last digit of their license plate, due to the global oil crisis. Times were tough, and people were hesitant to take chances, especially with a car that cost more than a house.

At the same time, Brian Burnett and his friend Richard Rivoir had the idea of starting a Ferrari dealership. The Dealer is the story of how one dealership, Ferrari of Los Gatos, fueled the rise of the iconic Italian sports car in the U.S. market on its way to becoming the number one Ferrari dealer in North America. Even Enzo Ferrari himself took notice, flying Burnett and the other dealers to Italy to show his appreciation for their success. Customers included movie stars, sports celebrities, entertainers, and some with unusual sources of income and a strong desire for a low profile. Along the way, Burnett made friends, enemies, and millions of dollars, only to lose everything in the blink of an eye.

Author Jim Ciardella shows readers a part of Ferrari that no one has even seen, with behind-the-scenes stories as told to him by Richard Rivoir and Brian Burnett, their customers and employees, and other North American dealers who all rode high and eventually burned out on selling fast cars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633887558
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/15/2022
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.43(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Jim Ciardella is a storyteller, Ferrari enthusiast, and native Californian. At one point, Ciardella met Brian Burnett, owner of Ferrari of Los Gatos, who over the years told him numerous stories about Ferrari of Los Gatos and finished each tale with: “And someone ought to write a book about it.” One night, after many stories and Brian’s predictable conclusion, Ciardella told him, “I’ll do it. I’ll write the book.” Ciardella still lives in Northern California near his two daughters and four grandchildren.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Preface xi

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Brian's Long Ride (1995) 1

Chapter 2 Passion for the Car (1954) 3

Chapter 3 Persistence and a Dream (1975) 15

Chapter 4 Gentlemen, Start Your Engines (1976) 29

Chapter 5 Building a Business (1976-1977) 39

Chapter 6 I'm Back (1981) 49

Chapter 7 A Road Warrior (1982) 53

Chapter 8 Cut from the Same Cloth (1971) 61

Chapter 9 Five Bags (1988) 75

Chapter 10 Maranello (1982-1987) 85

Chapter 11 Customers (1976-1993) 99

Chapter 12 The Stone (1992) 121

Chapter 13 Treachery Is Everywhere (1991) 133

Chapter 14 The New Regime (1993) 141

Chapter 15 I'm Back-All Over Again (1993) 153

Chapter 16 The Aftermath (1994) 159

Chapter 17 Life without Ferrari (1995-2000) 165

Epilogue: The Next 20 Years 177

Acknowledgments 183

Editorial Reviews

"This is a captivating story of fascinating personalities, unexpected deals, colorful clients, and unforeseen experiences. A story well told, it's a book that, once started, is hard to put down." — Ferrari Club of America Magazine

“As a former long-time resident of the Los Gatos area I spent a lot of time hanging out at Ferrari of Los Gatos and I even bought and sold a few cars there. This terrific book provides the fascinating history that I did not know behind the legendary dealership in a very entertaining way.” – Mike Gulett, founder of My Car Quest

“I knew Richard Rivoir and Brian Burnett over the years and their story is worthy of sharing.”–Bruce Meyer, The Car Guy's Car Guy

NetGalley Review: 4 stars

Last updated on 08 Jun 2022

""The Dealer: How One California Dealership Fueled The Rise of Ferrari's Cars In America" is a slim and quick read written by Jim Ciardella to be published under the Prometheus imprint. I am most grateful to the publishers for providing me with an ARC for review. I found this book charming, taken on its own terms. The subject is a famously successful Ferrari franchise in the United States and its twenty year history of successful innovation. The narrative is anecdotal in nature, but the author achieves his purpose principally through his access to the colorful characters who populated this story. Everything from entrepreneurs and eccentric clients to Enzo Ferrari himself keep things moving along. I have a very personal reason for being drawn to this tale, and that is that my father was a successful car salesman for most of his life, and as a consequence of this I grew up around the colorful characters that populated many of the dealerships my father worked at. Nothing in this book surprised me, but much of it delighted me in that the tale (tragic in some ways) is told with humor, compassion and an understanding that most people are not immersed in the inner workings of automobile dealerships as they existed pre-Covid. Nonetheless, the author is skilled at drawing his tale out without submersing us in unintelligible economic or mechanical details. This is a story of wheelers and dealers at a boom time in the history of the internal combustion engine. Many of us lived this on the periphery as we grew up and became fascinated with cars. This book is a sort of loving homage to them."—William Harris, consumer reviewer

From the Publisher