Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Raul Chapa of Los Gatos Auto Mall sits in the seat of a fully restored '59 Cadillac convertible Coupe de Ville.

Classy cars dress up once vacant building

By Clarence Cromwell

A vacant building at 620 Blossom Hill Road, boarded up for years, became a gem of a used car lot at the beginning of the year, when Los Gatos entrepreneurs Ron Battistella and Clint Ralls opened up the Los Gatos Auto Mall.

After shining up the building and sales lots with nearly $500,000 in improvements, the longtime business partners are stocking the dealership with a variety of "upscale" used cars and offering a menu of extensive automobile services.

Ralls and Battistella, both longtime Los Gatos residents, have run car dealerships in San Jose since 1970.

The crowning glory of the auto mall is the mirror-lined showroom where three Excalibur sports cars are on display. Los Gatos Auto Mall is one of less than a dozen dealers handling the 215-horsepower, hand-assembled road monsters. The Excalibur, a $56,597 Cobra knockoff, weighs 2,500 pounds at the curb, seats two and houses a 5-liter Ford engine in its low-slung frame.

Los Gatos Auto Mall also plans to stock Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

The used car and truck lots will offer 2.5 acres of buffed used cars, from economy deals to high-end luxury models, like Jaguars, BMWs and classic cars. And if the car you want isn't on the lot, just ask for it and the dealership will go out and hunt it down, Battistella said. For example, he explained, if you want a blue two-door Mercedes coupe, the sellers can check with wholesale sources around the Bay Area for that particular car.

Battistella seems particularly proud of the aircraft-hangar-like service area behind the dealership, freshly cleaned and painted, where mechanics will perform the full range of services required for both cars and motorcycles.

Another four-stall garage awaits a redecorating with polished stainless steel panels and mirrors; it's where topnotch mechanics will service dream cars like Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Ralls concedes that the scheme is a bit ritzy for a garage, but it's been designed to make car owners feel that their $100,000 rides are in professional hands. The shop also features its own 24-hour security patrol to keep the cars safe.