Luxury Motors coming to Rehoboth Beach
John Ferguson knows a good deal when he sees one. He has been buying and selling cars for nearly four decades.
Which is why, he said July 8, he jumped at the chance to set up shop in the former Lee F. Slaughter Fine Cars location in Rehoboth Beach.
“The deal to come to this place went down in about a week,” he said July 8. “We’re pretty excited about opening up here.”
Ferguson is opening Luxury Cars of Rehoboth Beach in the spot that has been Rehoboth Beach Motor Cars, which closed this spring after four years, when the owners decided not to renew their lease.
Ferguson said he had driven by the lot just south of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal on the Forgotten Mile a number of times, but had never been in.
“The space, the building, it’s a beautiful building,” said Ferguson. “It just looks like it’s supposed to be there.”
Ferguson got his start buying cars wholesale and has owned and operated South Street Motors in Frederick, Md., since 1985.
“There have been opportunities, but it’s the first time I’ve bought a new property in 30 years,” he said emphasizing how good a business move he says opening a second dealership in Rehoboth will turn out to be.
Ferguson said the dealership will have low-mileage, high-end, late-model used vehicles that are fun to drive around at the beach.
“We’re going to do something similar to what Slaughter did, but step it up a bit,” he said.
Ferguson said he’s known previous owner Mark Slaughter for years. He said the two would bid on the same types of vehicles during car auctions when Slaughter was still working in Delaware.
“He was doing the same thing I was trying to do,” he said. Slaughter recently opened up a dealership with his son under the family name in St. Augustine, Fla.
Ferguson said he’s going to be in town for a while.
“We’re going to sell high-quality cars,” he said. “I plan on doing a lot of business and make a lot of friends.”
A grand opening celebration is planned for mid-August, said Ferguson, but, he continued, vehicles are already being dropped off. He said he’s hoping to have 30 to 40 vehicles on the lot in a couple of weeks.
For more information, the shop’s address is 20575 Coastal Highway, and the phone number is 226-2100.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
