He owns two Chevy dealerships, North Dakota and Montana. Lives in Boseman presently and has amassed quite a 'Vette collection. Not to mention $$$ - the way he spends money on cars you would think he is the only Chevy dealer in those parts. He must either have a killer business going or he made great investments along the way. Or both.

As for auctions, the one car that really steamed me was a Placer Gold '71 Z-28 (no split bumper RS option, which is more coveted) without its original engine (but had a block that was stamped period correct and looked the part), but only 20K or so original miles, and it hammered at $100K. OMG! $100K for a non-matching numbers, non RS 2nd gen Z? Now every huckleberry with a 2nd gen Camaro is going to add $20K to their car. Sad, just sad.

-Dean

Al, I think he owns a Chevy store, not sure where. He's been a fixture at BJ for years, his claim to fame is wearing a blazer of the same color as the Vettes he buys and sells; just like he did lastnight, when he put on the blazer matching the color of the new ZR-1. He enjoys his 15 minutes of fame every year; at 1 mill that's pretty expensive advertising air time!

Hate to be the next customer at his dealership and have to pay for all his toys LOL

Ron: I was cringing while John Schnieder was standing on the roof of the General Lee! When the camera was looking down and the lights were just right you could see the car roof "Oil Canning" as John moved around while singing the song. They should'a had a hot babe in some Daisy Dukes.

:)

Rick,

Gotta agree with you. Though he did a good job on the song, Daisy would have looked a lot better and probably did less damage to the roof of the car. I was reading an article some time back in Motor Trend I think it was that listed a bunch of cars that got people started being interested in the car hobby and # 1 on their list was The General Lee. I would have bet it was a Shelby until I read that.

Ron :)

from a Google search on Dave Ressler :

taken form a North Dakota Newspaper story :

Subject: dave ressler



Ressler Inspired by Father Destined for Auto Business

Dave Ressler of Ressler Chevrolet of Mandan, North Dakota was destined to
be in the automotive sales business.

"You can say I was inspired because of my dad who was a car salesman for 25
years," said Ressler of his dad, Chris, who died in 1977 and worked at Bob
Chase Chevrolet. "From the day that my dad passed away, Bob kept calling and
wanting to hire me."

He eventually did.

In 1972, Chase moved into the facility Ressler now occupies. It was Mandan's
only Chevrolet dealership at that time - a distinction it still holds today
and is home to 21 employees. In 1980, Chase sold to Ivan Gandrud, who held
the store until 1988. Thirty people were working for Chase when the business
changed hands. And in 1988, Ressler bought the dealership and hasn't looked
back.

Ivan started with 30 employees and took it up to roughly 55 when he sold.

With Ressler it went from 55 to over 130 employees.

Ressler is pretty proud of the growth of his business. He's proud, and
justifiably so, of a lot of things.

"I'm probably the youngest car dealer in the two towns," he said. "I started
when I was 32. I work hard at what I do. I'm a workaholic. I really don't
know how I got that way. Maybe I got it from my dad."

The hard work has paid off.

Ressler said his dealership has received eight Customer Choice Awards over
the lasts 6 years. He said this is an accomplishment achieved by no other
Chevrolet Dealership anywhere.

"The awards are based on customer satisfaction," he said. "We do not get any
extra money for this. It's a 'wow' effect, I guess. It tells us we're all
doing a good job."

Ressler said he expects a lot of himself and the same from his employees.

"We have a mission statement that we all work by," he said. "There are five
critical areas that we focus on everyday."

They are:

Customer Satisfaction
Employee Enthusiasm
Market Leadership
Ongoing Improvement
Financial Performance
"If we work hard at these five things everyday, we know that we're doing a
good job," he said. "It's important to have our employees focused on the
right things."

Ressler said he's a hands-on employer - he can't help himself being the
workaholic that he is - and enjoys being involved in the daily activities.
But there certainly must be a point when he has to slow down, take a break
and say "enough already."

But, that's not going to happen anytime soon. In March of 1999, Ressler
moved to Bozeman, MT. and acquired a Chevrolet-Oldsmobile-Cadillac-Toyota
dealership. "I'm back in the day-to-day," says Ressler, spending about half
his time in Bozeman, and the other half in Mandan.

The Bozeman store, which employs 85 people, believes in the same values as
the Mandan store. Because of this, it enjoys being the leader in the
Gallatin Valley with more new/used car sales, service, parts sales and body
shop service than any other dealer in the valley.

"Selling BEST PRICE has been well accepted, along with Saturday service and
parts sales," says Ressler. "I'm having a blast and business is great at
both stores. Enough isn't enough, I guess. I'm not going to stop. I'm
chasing to be the best of the best!"


A winner without winning
By CRYSTALR. REID
Bismarck Tribune
He may not have walked away with the prize, but Dave Ressler still feels
like a winner.

Ressler, who owns Ressler Chevrolet and Subaru in Mandan and another
dealership in Bozeman, Mont., got himself caught up in a $1 million auction
for charity, for a Hummer used by CNNto cover the war in Iraq.

The bidding started off slow, until it moved into the $300,000 range.

"At $300,000, I thought, 'This is way too good of a foundation to not get
the money,'"Ressler said, speaking of the Fisher House Foundation, which
helps wounded and injured service members and their families.

So Ressler decided to push the bidding higher, and jumped his bid from the
$300,000 range to about $600,000.

But another bidder held his ground, and eventually, the two high bidders
were standing onstage in a bidding war that would end with both sides
satisfied, Ressler said.

Ressler didn't win the Hummer. He wanted it, but said he also realized the
money to the charity was just as important. More important, even, than
adding to his world-class car collection.

"Iwent up to the gentleman and said, 'Are you going to bid $1 million?'"
Ressler recalled of the auction, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., by
Barrett-Jackson Co.

The gentleman, who happened to be Dave Liniger, founder of Re/Max
International Inc., nodded and said "Yes, I am."

And Ressler told Liniger to do it, to bid it up above the million-dollar
mark, to take the Hummer. So Liniger did, and Ressler threw in $250,000 for
the charity on top of it, for good measure.

"He won it, but Ifeel like Iwon, too,"Ressler said.

Jim Weiskopf, vice president of communications for Fisher House Foundation,
said they never expected the bidding to get to the seven-figure mark.

"We had no idea what to expect. Ithink we were thinking six
figures,"Weiskopf said.

One of the last few cars on the block at BJ was a yellow SPF with a Roush 427. Car was new with 234 miles and sold for $70K. Varsha called it well bought...not so sure about that. %/

Barrett-Jackson - The World's Greatest Collector Car Events™

yep , saw that too ...yellow/white stripes :

and, don't forget to add the 10% commission ...so in reality the buyer paid $77K for the car .

same thing happened a few years ago, a guy paid several thousand more for a used one than the same car duplicated would sell for new ! great for the seller and tough for the buyer as when buyer sells he will take a bigger bath.

Bill

I believe the seller pays his 10% also, so he only walked with 63K. Seems like everyone takes it in the shorts except BJ.

:)

I believe the person selling the car pays 8% and a fixed fee to have them auction it. Either way, B.J. comes away with a good chunk of the money. Plus you have to add what they charge for a bidding pass and I am not sure what that is any more.

Ron ;)

This years sales - 80 million. BJ's share - 14.4 million plus all the other fees (general admission tickets, bidders passes, and sellers registration).

This year BJ got 10% from both sides of the fence.

;)

Ok Doug, I stand corrected. I thought that I heard them say the seller paid 8% and the buyer 10%. I figured that was because the seller has to pay a fee just to have them auction the car, but the buyer also pays a fee for a bidding pass so it would make sense to have them pay the same percentage. Either way, I don't think the buyer should have to pay 10% on top of what they bid as they also have all the registration, taxes, and other fees to pay plus arranging to have the car hauled home. We used to have a man that had his office about a mile from my house that hauled cars and he was at that auction every year. When he had anything that was going through here he would call me to come over and see them. That was the only way I could ever afford to look at the high end cars they sold there. :LOL:

Ron :)

either way we're in the wrong business ;)

you pay 100 on the hammer, 10% to BJ, transport home then you get to pay TTL on the 110k ...... fun all around. :rolleyes:

Quick question for those that were there. On one of my Mustang boards, someone posted a picture of a red coupe that supposedly was there, claiming it to be an original. I looked at the list of cars, and it was not on the list. Can anyone confirm if there was a red coupe there? I would think that an original would pull a lot of attention.

Seller - 8%, Buyer 10%. Seller also pays a fee based on the day and time of day that the car goes through the auction.

Sales were down 20% over last year.

I thought that the sales were down quite a bit from last year as they had more than one car last year that went for over $1 million. I only saw one this year top that mark, but may have missed some.

Ron :)