Indy's Winner: Maserati of Indianapolis
Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday, Relish Every day

Since this is the Month of May, we thought it only appropriate to visit the home of one of the three great races in the world. In Formula One, it is the Monaco Grand Prix; for endurance racing buffs, nothing tops the 24 Hours of Le Mans; and for Indy car fans, it simply has to be the oldest of the three, the grand-daddy of races, The Indianapolis 500. So we headed to the famed site of Wilbur Shaw's double victory in the Maserati 8CTF and visited one of the newest dealers in the Maserati North America network - Maserati of Indianapolis.

In fact, we were a little premature; while the dealership has been in business for a few months, work is still being carried out on the building, and it has yet to hold its Grand Opening. Still, it came as little surprise to learn that the sporting prowess and racing heritage of Maserati are already a hit in Indianapolis, with several cars delivered and more on order. We spoke to General Manager Scott Kenney and Sales Consultant Brad Sandoe, and asked them how their first few months had been.

"Well, we got off to a flying start - our very first sale took literally 90 minutes, from the guy walking in to driving home in his brand new Maserati," laughed Brad. "He'd come out here to look at BMWs - we're pretty far off the beaten track - but then he saw the Maseratis. The test drive took about five minutes - I actually had to persuade him that he should drive the car, as well as riding along - the negotiations took about ten minutes, and the rest of the time was going through the paperwork and doing the handover. I don't expect them all to be that easy, but it was certainly a great start for us."

Even though the dealership is one of the newest Maserati franchises, it already has a lot of history behind it, which explains why their 'impulse buyer' was in the neighborhood. “We are proud to say that we are part of the Dreyer and Reinbold automotive dealership network," Brad explained. "Dreyer and Reinbold has been in Indianapolis for over 40 years, they have a rich racing history - here on the showroom floor we've got a sprint car they built, and now we have Maserati to go along with Infiniti, BMW, MINI, Volkswagen and Subaru."

"Pop Dreyer is the grandfather of the current owner; Pop had some experience working with BMW, and also the racetrack, hence the sprint car," said Scott. "Pop had a lot of experience with BMW motorcycles, he rode those competitively and worked on the preparation of them. So back in 1968, when BMW cars were being introduced to North America, his affiliation with BMW America was instrumental in his daughter Delores and her husband, Dick Reinbold, getting one of the first BMW franchises - I think they were the fifth one in North America. They opened it up in the back of their house on Washington Street in Indianapolis; He did all the pre-delivery work while she did the paperwork - to begin with, they were literally working out of their backyard and garage. In 1989 they became one of the first Infiniti dealerships in the United States, and they've also added MINI, Volkswagen and Subaru - and now they have Maserati."

We wondered about the secret of their success, having been in business for over 40 years - except that it turned out to be not so secret. “In short, we will do whatever it takes; quite frankly, that's our mission statement - whatever it takes," said Brad. "Whomever comes through the door, we expect everyone within the dealership to do whatever it takes to ensure their satisfaction - whether it's a prospective client looking to buy, someone bringing their car in for service or just asking for directions to the rest rooms, I want them to leave here with a good feeling about us. A lot of the clients seek us out, because of the dealership's reputation. They know you're not going to be treated as you normally would at any other facility. The dealership has an excellent reputation, from the top down. In the service department or in the sales department, you're going to be well cared for."

Clearly Maserati is a significant step beyond the other brands in the Dreyer and Reinbold 'family'; we asked about the challenges they face in bringing the thoroughbred Italian marque to Indianapolis. "Because there hasn't been a dealer in this area to tend to their needs, there's not a whole lot of awareness of the Maserati brand," Scott told us. "People in this area definitely don't know enough about the car; they think it's a $300,000 car when it's much more affordable than that. We are doing all we can to address that, by the usual channels such as print, TV and radio advertising and also through events. We're already doing some work, and it's brought us a real gem; there was an article on the dealership in the Indianapolis Business Journal, and as a direct result of that, we're now working on the restoration of a 1967 Maserati Ghibli. It's a one-owner car with 42,000 miles on it; the family put it up for auction in the mid-80s, but it didn't attract a large enough bid, so they drove it home, parked it, put a cover on it - and forgot about it. They had literally forgotten it was there until they saw the article, so now we have it to restore. It's in great condition - the motor was seized from having sat for so long, but the body is in terrific shape."

"That's something important for our clients to know, that we are here to look after their cars, not just to sell them," Brad said. "We don't expect to get too many 40-year-old cars, but we've already had a five-year-old car in for service. We have one of the best mechanics here, and we want people to understand that we've been here for a long time, that we're going to be here, and we will see to it that you're cared for. We're determined that this won't be your only Maserati, that you will come back and buy another - and having driven them, I can't see why you would buy anything else."

"In terms of promoting Maserati and its cars, we're just getting started, but we have lots of ideas," continued Brad. "We participated in an event which was themed as 'Big Toys for Big Boys', where the cars were on show alongside private planes and boats; we're doing events in conjunction with some local jewelers and art galleries, and we're looking at a link-up with one of the principal museums in Indianapolis. Anything which gives us the opportunity to expose potential buyers to these cars, we're interested in. It's not happening fast enough for me, but then I tend to expect everything to happen yesterday! I keep telling people that we're still learning to walk; we may have been a car dealer for over 40 years, but Maserati has taken us to a new level."

Dreyer and Reinbold Racing operates a team which races in the IndyCar Series - it has no fewer than four entries in its 'home' race, the Indianapolis 500. We asked whether the connection to the racing team was an advantage to the dealership. "It's certainly a good fit - the long racing heritage of Maserati, including two wins here in Indianapolis, together with the racing background of Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, all the way back to Pop Dreyer's motorcycle and auto racing beginnings," said Scott. "In addition, a lot of the people involved in racing have the resources to consider buying a Maserati; and we're helped in that because a number of teams in the IndyCar Series have their headquarters here in town, there's a kind of offsite Gasoline Alley."

The connection to the racing team also helped us: through the racing team, the dealership made arrangements with the Speedway for us to take a Quattroporte and GranTurismo to the track, where we shot some photos with the magnificent pagoda in the background. Making a special event even more remarkable, the original Maserati 8CTF used by Wilbur Shaw to win the 1939 and 1940 races was brought out of the Hall of Fame Museum - a true historic racing car posing with two modern classics.

So the racing connection should serve Maserati of Indianapolis well, both because of the location of the dealership less than ten miles from the site of two of Maserati's greatest victories and through Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. Bringing Maserati to the fourteenth largest city in the United States is something that Scott, Brad and all the staff are determined to do with courtesy, professionalism and the same 'whatever it takes' attitude that has served the Dreyer and Reinbold group so well over the past 40 years.