Dealer restarts on Harbor

Paul Clinton

A new exotic auto dealer has zoomed into a Harbor Boulevard showroom

that housed a similar retailer that was shut down by federal drug

enforcement officers in August.

Newport European Motorcars, Ltd. opened its doors earlier this

month at the southern end of the city’s auto-dealers row on Harbor.

The northern end is marked by a Ferrari dealership.

“Now you’ll have two exotic car dealers at bookends of the strip,”

said Ed Fawcett, the president of the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s ideal.”

Desert European Motorcars, a worldwide company based in Rancho

Mirage, has come in as the new operator. The company is run by David

Murphy, who once ran Newport Auto Center and still maintains a home

in Newport Beach.

The new dealer holds exclusive rights to sell Lotus and Rolls

Royce automobiles in Orange County. It’s at 2115 Harbor Blvd.

The Drug Enforcement Agency shut down the Auto Market of Orange

County in August at the same location and seized about 75 Ferrari,

Lamborghini, Porsche and other high-end autos.

“We just want to get away from that stigma,” said Vance Alison,

the manager of the new dealership. “We don’t want to be known as the

people who were closed by the DEA.”

Newport European Motorcars signed a lease with building owner

Nader Armivand, who was arrested in the raid. Armivand still owns the

building and is out of jail. No charges have been filed against him.

The new dealership will offer mostly used cars, with a

specialization in Porsche and Jaguar, Alison said. High-income buyers

can also purchase the limited-edition Lotus Esprit, for about

$92,000, and the upcoming Lotus Elise, for about $40,000, in early

2004.

The dealership will also offer the new Rolls Royce Phantom, which

will be available in mid-June for about $240,000, Alison said.

In the mid-1990s, Dick Bauer, who owns Santa Ana-based Bauer

Jaguar, built the Harbor Boulevard showroom as a Lotus dealership.

Armivand bought it in 2000.

Shortly after the closure of Armivand’s dealership, an Internet

company occupied the showroom.