Greetings, Kessler has a car I'm interested in, and a search of the archives popped up very little info? Anybody have any experience good/bad indifferent, or anything else I should be aware of before I leap? (An independent PPI is a must in any case). PM is fine. Thanks
All I do know is it is owned by Steve Kessler. He used to own an authorized Ferrari dealership in the northeast, and for some reason lost it. He then came down to Florida and started wholesaling cars. He tried to buy my 98 355 Spider back in 2000. Soon after that he opened up a used exotic car dealership and it later went out of business. I believe that this new one he opened up again in the last 12 - 24 months. My dealings with him, he seemed decent and fair. I did not sell him my 355 as I got a retail buyer willing to pay more. Good Luck with your search.
When I was shopping last year, I had an opportunity to visit his store and talk to him on several occasions about a couple of cars. I generally found that his cars lacked complete service histories and were not in as good a shape (in my opinion) as he stated in his ads. The couple of cars that I went to see, where advertised as "showroom" and "best you can find" but they were in pretty average condition at best. In particular I went to see a 348 that had dried leather, tears behind the seat and incomplete service history. When I asked to drive it, he said we first had to agree on a price. I said thank you and left. Later he had a yellow 355 that he advertised as fresh service and once again great condition. I called him and found out he had no records of the service but was trying to obtain them. He then went on to tell me that records were meaningless because anyone can just make them up. Because I was in the market for a car with records, I once again thanked him for his time and looked elsewhere. He seemed like a straight shooter but as I mentioned above, he seemed to always have cars with limited records in average condition despite the advertising claims. Which if you see enough of his ads, you get the feeling he just cuts and pastes his standard ad for all the cars. With all that said, if you are considering a car that he has, I would be happy to drive up there and get you pictures.
