Maserati of Washington
Excellence through Passion - Personified

It is clear that Maserati and a city like Washington, D.C. go hand in hand; elegant, endlessly fascinating with plenty to look at and enjoy, lots to tempt you to linger: in a word, seductive. And in Maserati of Washington the area has a dealership committed to putting across the message that a Maserati is the ideal car for a city where, thanks to being the seat of government and home to embassies of countries around the world, the out-of-the-ordinary can be seen every day.

In Augie Borges and Amir Hadzimehmedovic the dealership has two of the most friendly, entertaining and downright fun salespeople we have ever met. We met them for what was scheduled to be an hour discussing the dealership; we spent almost twice that time talking about all that and more, and the time simply flew by. The following day we were there again to return the Quattroporte they had kindly lent to us. We arrived 15 minutes before the showroom was due to close – we were still there almost an hour later, just chewing the fat with Augie.

What is more, the two of them do not just talk the talk; both of them have owned Maseratis. “Yes, that’s right – I had a 2004 Coupe and Amir had a Spyder,” Augie told us. “And now he’s got his eye on a Quattroporte, a specific one; every time that car comes in for a service, he goes down there and checks it over, making sure the current owner is taking good care of it!” It’s a story that Amir confirms with a laugh. “You could say that we put our money where our mouths are – at least our clients know we genuinely believe in the products. And then my best friend bought Augie’s car, so it’s contagious.”

Amir has a definite opinion on why Maserati has done so well during the current troubled times in the auto industry, when virtually every competitor has seen calamitous falls in their sales. “It is quite simple, this is a product-driven business, and I believe that Maserati has the best products,” he explained. “Think about it – there is no better parts supplier in the world for any car company than Ferrari. Bentley has Volkswagen – we have Ferrari. To my mind, Maserati is the single best combination of the finest the world has to offer: Ferrari engines, ZF transmission, Poltrona Frau leather, Brembo brakes, Bose sound system. The people we deal with can instantly recognize the quality. If a couple comes in here so we can show them the beautiful wood, with a rosewood inlay, that’s something they haven’t seen in decades in a Mercedes or Lexus.”

Of course, even the finest product can be let down by a sub-par sales facility, but this is not a concern for Maserati of Washington. Even though the showroom, in Sterling, VA, had been rearranged for an event the evening before, it was obvious that it was a match for the cars on display. “We had a party here last night, for a product launch, and we invited some customers – it was amazing to see how much they enjoyed it,” Amir said. “It makes it very rewarding for us, it’s really pleasant to work here. We aim to make it like a social club, something that not only parallels but in some ways exceeds what they experience in their country clubs; in fact, it exceeds anything you might expect from a luxury car dealership, it’s on another level.”

We asked what makes Maserati of Washington special, and Augie didn’t hesitate when he told us:
“It’s true passion, and true respect – none of us are actors, we don’t fake our involvement with the cars. And when you speak about it from the heart, then it’s contagious. All the employees have that sense, the sense that this is a family business; when you drive home, sometimes you actually feel like you can’t wait until tomorrow, so you can come back again – now, that is a rare feeling to have about the place you work.” At this point, Augie interrupted to illustrate the point: “Yesterday was my day off, but we had had some tornadoes in the area the night before – so I came in here at 8am, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Everyone feels that level of involvement; as well as that, we are all empowered. When you come here, you won’t get the kind of thing you do at other dealerships – ‘let me talk to my manager’. At this level, people want to be dealing with a decision maker, and we have that power; anything the general manager can decide, we can decide. We aren’t in competition against each other for sales, so we work as a team. We really help each other; we can take time away from the showroom without worrying that someone may be stealing our leads, and if we feel that a client can be handled better by another person, then that’s fine.”

“It really helps develop good relationships with our clients, because they never feel that a salesman is trying to shield them from anything,” Amir continued. “It’s a whole new level of customer satisfaction, where clients feel that we are friends. It’s a club, and our clients are the members. We are here to enhance their experience of owning the finest sports luxury cars. As a salesperson you don’t want to be overpowering people – you see it every time you go to a car show, people being bombarded on every side. Here, we try to slow it down; it’s like going to a high-end jewelry store, they don’t show you a bunch of watches, they show them to you one at a time. It’s all about the image – but it’s a classy image, it’s not loud. In this area people want to have style without being obnoxious; it all works together, and I think it’s a great product for what we are trying to achieve.”

Besides their obvious passion and enthusiasm for Maserati, Augie and Amir are also deeply interested in the technology which underpins the beautiful Pininfarina-styled bodies – and Amir explained that he uses his knowledge and background as an engineer to take a different approach to helping people understand one factor which sets Maserati apart. “We like to do a lot of preparation before taking someone out in the car, so they understand what makes Maserati special,” he explained. “For example I like to pop the hood, and show them where the engine is in relation to the front wheels; they won’t understand at first, but it explains why it handles so well. If they’ve come here in an S-class, or especially an Audi A8, I like to have them do the same, so they can see the difference. Look at Formula One cars – they have the engine at the back, to put more weight on the rear wheels. No one has managed to do that with a four-door luxury sedan – except Maserati. To prove it, I tell them: look how much brake dust you get on your front wheels if you don’t wash your car for three weeks – that’s visual confirmation that their car is just using the front wheels to brake, and the rear wheels aren’t doing much at all. When you hit the brakes there is a transfer of weight forwards; even if there is only a 6% difference in weight distribution between a Maserati and a German car, that becomes huge when the weight transfer takes effect.”

“A lot of our clients truly enjoy the fact that Maseratis are more a driver’s car, they realize that a lot of time, effort and money has been spent on the suspension, the Brembo brakes, the light alloy wheels, the weight distribution being 49% front and 51% rear,” continued Augie. “The engine is mounted behind the front axle, so it’s a front-mounted mid-engined car. They know that this car is a better driving car; a lot of the other cars are better suited to be driven in like a limo, and they act accordingly. It’s important to bear in mind the quality of the engineering that goes into the cars. The engines are assembled by Ferrari – but that doesn’t mean they’re highly stressed, and can’t handle being used daily, or can’t handle being used hard. Sometimes when I take people out, I’ll take the engine up to 6,500rpm or more and just let it sit there, for a mile or more. They start to freak out – until you explain to them the Maserati racing heritage, and that the engines are designed and built to cope with it. That helps them realize that this car is different to the others they might have driven, or might be considering.”

Our conversation covered many more topics, such as the fact that a Maserati V8 is over 100 lbs lighter than the 6-cylinder engines used by Mercedes-Benz and BMW, some of their ‘celebrity’ clients (it seems a number of professional sports stars and a few on the periphery of government in the DC area have become devoted Maserati owners), the enjoyment entire families get out of visiting the showroom and playing around with the car configurator. But eventually it was time for us to leave them to do what they do so well – putting across their passion and enthusiasm for Maserati. We will leave the last word to Augie: “This dealership is ready to grow along with Maserati; it has the staff, the mentality, the willingness and desire to grow. What they are doing this year is huge, with the new 4.7-liter engine. We welcome it – bring it on!”