Engines and Elegance: The Exotic Car Club Story

Passion for Cars: Greg Panjian's Journey and the Exotic Car Club of The Villages

In this episode of Open Forum in The Villages, Florida, host Mike Roth sits down with Greg Panjian, founder of the newly formed Exotic Car Club of The Villages. Greg shares his fascinating journey from Connecticut to The Villages, driven by a love for cars and family ties. He recounts his experiences with various car clubs, the acquisition of his Rolls Royce, and the passion that fuels his involvement in the car community. The discussion covers the hurdles faced in maintaining exotic cars, the social element of car clubs, and his vision for the Exotic Car Club's future activities. Wrapping up the conversation, Greg offers insights and advice to young car enthusiasts and shares details on how to join the Exotic Car Club.

00:00 Introduction to Open Forum in The Villages
00:33 Meet Greg Panjian: From Connecticut to The Villages
01:50 Greg's Journey with Exotic Cars
04:42 Challenges and Joys of Owning a Rolls Royce
07:26 The Exotic Car Club of The Villages
12:12 Alzheimer's Tips with Dr. Craig Curtis
13:35 Greg's Involvement with the Rolls Royce Club
13:59 Driving the Rolls Royce Ghost
14:15 Current Car Collection
14:43 Acquiring the Rolls Royce Dawn
15:51 Garage Space and Daily Drivers
16:22 Future Car Purchases
17:54 Visiting the Rolls Royce Factory
21:07 Self-Driving Technology
25:00 Joining the Villages Exotic Car Club
25:34 Advice to Young Car Enthusiasts
26:41 Podcast Conclusion and Support

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Transcript

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GREG PANJIAN - EXOTIC CAR CLUB

[00:00:00] Speaker 2: Welcome to Season seven of Open Forum in The Villages of Florida. In this show, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live in and around The Villages. We also talk to people who have information vital to seniors. You will get perspectives of what is happening in The Villages, Florida area.

We are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters.

[00:00:30] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in The Villages, Florida. I'm here today with Greg Panjian. Thanks for joining me, Greg.

[00:00:36] GREG PANJIAN AI: Nice to be here. 

[00:00:37] Mike Roth: Greg, tell our listeners a little about your background and how you got here to The Villages. 

[00:00:43] GREG PANJIAN AI: That's a big story.

. I started my last career with Edward Jones in Suffield, Connecticut. And I was doing good there. one of my daughters moved to Ocala 'cause her husband Tony Vita was playing polo here at The Villages.

So I wanted to come down and watch Tony play and see their home. after that game I got a private tour of The Villages with a friend. Went to a country club town Square, said to my daughter that night, I'd like to retire down here. And that was about 13, 14 years ago.

And I said, she said, why don't you move your Edward Jones office here to The Villages? I said it doesn't work that way. I found out we had a relocation program, so I called up the home office and said, if an office ever opens up in The Villages, I'd like to be considered to relocate.

11 years ago, I get a phone call on a Monday. You still wanna move to The Villages? Yeah. What's going on? We have this office and so the following Monday, they flew me down for an interview and the following Monday they said, how soon can you be here? We want you to take over that branch on Colony Plaza.

So I've been here 11 years now and it's been wonderful. 

[00:01:50] Mike Roth: Good. today we're here to talk about exotic cars. I understand you've started a new club called, the Exotic Car Club here in The Villages.

[00:01:58] GREG PANJIAN AI: That's right. The Exotic Car Club of The Villages. 

[00:02:01] Mike Roth: Tell our listeners about that.

[00:02:03] GREG PANJIAN AI: My background is I belonged to six car clubs. when I first got down here, I bought a used Corvette and joined the Corvette Club. Had that for a couple years, then sold it. I wanted to buy a car that I could exhibit at the monthly Spanish Springs car show the car had to be 30 years or older.

So I started looking for the type of car. I actually thought I was gonna buy a Cadillac El Dorado from the seventies, and I missed it by an hour. But I also considered buying a muscle car.

Like when I was in high school, I had a 68 GTO. And that was fun and I thought about buying one of those. But in my search online, I started seeing these interesting Rolls Royce convertibles that were affordable and. looked pretty nice. So I ended up buying one that I found on Facebook Marketplace down in Punta Gorda and went down test, drove it and bought it.

Then I joined the National Rolls Royce Club got introduced to the Florida chapter and that started my passion for. Rolls Royces. 

[00:03:10] Mike Roth: Okay. So you said in high school you had a muscle car. Yep. How long have you've had a high interest in cars?

[00:03:18] GREG PANJIAN AI: I grew up in my dad's little corner grocery store and we sold a lot of magazines and I got to read all the magazines I wanted.

Car magazines were a biggie, motor trend, hot rod, car craft, many of which are still around. that's what kids liked. They liked cars, 

[00:03:35] Mike Roth: And you purchased the Rolls Royce, was it because of the way it looked?

[00:03:39] GREG PANJIAN AI: I don't know what it was.

[00:03:41] Mike Roth: Did you do any research?

[00:03:41] GREG PANJIAN AI: That was about four years ago. I wish I had found out that I should have bought a late eighties instead of an early eighties. ' because they were a little bit improved. the nice thing about it is I love going to Spanish Springs Town Square sitting there, and I could talk for five hours to people about that car.

They will tell me a story about a Rolls Royce. ask questions or say, can I have my picture taken with it? I see so many smiles from that. I got a kick out of it, it's fun. 

[00:04:08] Mike Roth: Sure. 

All the great fun. 

[00:04:09] GREG PANJIAN AI: Clubs are social events 

[00:04:11] Mike Roth: Mainly social events. 

Sure. 

[00:04:12] GREG PANJIAN AI: Just we happen to have cars as a side thing, 

[00:04:15] Mike Roth: Just keeps you busy. It also allows you to meet other people. 

[00:04:19] GREG PANJIAN AI: It's a social thing that's why they call it 3000 social clubs. The car club is a social club.

[00:04:25] Mike Roth: Or they call it 3000 clubs and activities. I took the trouble once of finding out how many activities and how many clubs. There were about 500 activities in the list. Shuffleboard at a Rec center is an activity. Not a social club.

Got it. So you bought this 30-year-old Rolls Royce and Pagoda. And when you took it to the local rolls Royce repair shop, what did you discover? 

[00:04:52] GREG PANJIAN AI: Oh boy. I wished I had done my due diligence 'cause it's been very expensive.

But I took it to a local mechanic and he said I can work on these. then I said I'm gonna bring it to a gentleman near Orlando that. Worked on these he put it up on the lift and said you need $15,000 worth of service on this. I said, what? So I said, thank you very much, and went back to the local gentleman and had him do work 

It cost me a lot more than 15 from the local guy, and he didn't do half as much as what the guy in Orlando that would've done. that car has been very expensive. 

[00:05:28] Mike Roth: What do they cost you on an hourly maintenance basis, cost per hour to maintain a Rolls Royce?

[00:05:34] GREG PANJIAN AI: I paid 62,000 for that car and I probably put, half of it, back into it. it's worth less than what I paid for it. But there's nothing wrong with it right now It's running fine .

[00:05:45] Mike Roth: Right now. That's the story of all.

Cause right now they're running fine. Give 'em some time, then something else will go wrong. if your Rolls Royce. Needed service. Where would you take it? 

[00:05:55] GREG PANJIAN AI: I would bring it back to the gentleman in Orlando area. 

[00:05:58] Mike Roth: Have you found any problems getting spare parts for a Rolls Royce?

[00:06:02] GREG PANJIAN AI: I haven't had problems, but I understand there's a problem with the gas tanks on those that they do rust out apparently. I guess there's a way of coating them or something. I've heard of coating the tanks. But they gotta take them.

I don't have it for sale at the moment, but I'm pretty close to giving it to a consignment place to sell it. 

[00:06:22] Mike Roth: Which one were you thinking of using? 

[00:06:23] GREG PANJIAN AI: There's a gentleman on the West coast that actually repairs them.

He's a higher end shop, and he said, I can sell it for you. 

[00:06:30] Mike Roth: Out in LA when I was living there in the eighties, there were quite a few Cornishes around. 

[00:06:35] GREG PANJIAN AI: Oh, it's a beautiful car. 

[00:06:36] Mike Roth: Yeah. We had a guy in our Mercedes club in LA that had one, he owned a pizza shop. On Sundays, when the shopping center was closed, we would do road rallies in his parking lot.

I remember we were driving the Mercedes around in a big chicane, a big circle. then he said, let me show you what this Rolls Royce could do. he drives the Cornish around the circle. so hard and fast the hubcaps fly away. we're chasing down hubcaps.

[00:07:02] GREG PANJIAN AI: Just at a rolls Royce event this past weekend with the Florida Club, and one of the members told me he had just bought three Cornishes and now he owns every generation. he's got quite a car collection himself. we talked about people who used to own them.

Lady Gaga Frank Sinatra. Many movie stars wanted to own that car when it came out.

[00:07:23] Mike Roth: It was very popular back to talking about your exotic art club. How many members do you have now? 

[00:07:28] GREG PANJIAN AI: We have somewhere around 20.

We had our first meeting last month and had seven. attend. other people were out of town or had other commitments. It was a brainstorming session what do you want to do? We want to go out to dinner drive to places and go out to dinner stuff like that.

We're just getting started. We have another meeting on the third Saturday of this month, 9:00 AM, at the Ezell Rec Center. 

[00:07:51] Mike Roth: What brands do you have in the exotic? 

[00:07:53] GREG PANJIAN AI: When we were at our first meeting, we had a McLaren, a Ferrari a couple of Bentley's, and my Rolls Dawn.

Which qualifies me to be a member. because the Corniche is too old. I wanted to have later model. Exotic cars, not older ones. It'll be a small group. 

[00:08:10] Mike Roth: What is your dream car? 

[00:08:12] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yeah, I was thinking about that question. When I was 16 I worked in my dad's little corner store and I didn't get paid an hourly rate It was a family business. So he promised me, when you get your driver's license, I'll buy you any car you want.

Within reason. Of course, he wouldn't let me get a Corvette or a Mustang 'cause they were too small. I picked the car. It was a 1969 Hearst Olds 442. they only made 904 of 'em and had a 455 motor. air scoops on the top, and a Hearst dual gate shifter. He brought his checkbook in.

We drove into Boston to Peter Fuller of Cadillac Olds to buy that car. And my dad bought a lot of cars. He used to drive Packards. He Asked the salesman how much you could buy that car for, 'cause he'd never paid sticker price. And the man said that's the price on the window.

We're not discounting it 'cause it's a limited edition. He wouldn't buy it, he would not pay sticker price. Anyway, we walked out of there without the car and the Concelation Prize was one of his friend's sons had a 68 GTO that he wanted to sell.

So that's what I drove during high school. I keep looking at auctions 'cause there always seems to be one at Mecum. I think there's one coming up now. 

[00:09:24] Mike Roth: You're still looking for that. 4, 4, 2. 

[00:09:25] GREG PANJIAN AI: I need that spot in the garage where the Cornish is now to put it, they're going for about 75,000, so we'll see if I got one.

[00:09:34] Mike Roth: And, how long have you been thinking about starting this exotic club? 

[00:09:38] GREG PANJIAN AI: I tried to actually start a Rolls Royce and Bentley Club. couldn't get enough people I wonder if I should have called it a European car club or something, but, I really want to keep it small. I belong to the British Car Club, which is a great club.

But the newer exotic cars there's just a couple of them in the club. 

 So I wanted something that was just cause of a similar, type, newer, exotic.

So anyway, there's no club for Ferrari.

[00:10:04] Mike Roth: A lot of. orphan brands. 

[00:10:05] GREG PANJIAN AI: Alot of exotic cars are built in the UK, aren't they?

[00:10:09] Mike Roth: Lotus's, McLaren's, Morgan.

[00:10:12] GREG PANJIAN AI: Lamborghini is built in Italy.

Actually, one of our members just bought a Lamborghini. He's got quite a car collection His name's Mike. it'll be a fun little club, I think. 

[00:10:21] Mike Roth: Yeah. What's your first, do you guys have a first activity planned? 

[00:10:24] GREG PANJIAN AI: I haven't done that yet. you have a hard time in your club. 'cause as I go to some of your meetings, you need people to step up and offer their time and effort to do something, so that's what I'll be looking for. 

[00:10:37] Mike Roth: Good get people to share the load. 

Otherwise, clubs collapse here in The Villages. 

[00:10:42] GREG PANJIAN AI: And you're even looking for a president, aren't you? 

[00:10:44] Mike Roth: Anyone who wants to step up to be president of the Mercedes 

Sure. More than happy to give that to somebody else. I've done it for a long enough period of time.

I gave up running the Improvisational Theater Club. I found two guys. And now we run it twice a week with two different directions. that's been good. hopefully I'll find someone who wants to step up and take some responsibility in the Mercedes Club.

[00:11:07] GREG PANJIAN AI: When I moved here I had a Lexus and I joined the Lexus Club that club closed because the gentleman that started it. Was stepping down and couldn't find a replacement There were a lot of Lexuses. in that, club. I had a gentleman contact me about joining my club and he said he had an LC 500. Their sports car. It's a Two-seater convertible. 

[00:11:30] Mike Roth: What brand is that? 

[00:11:31] GREG PANJIAN AI: Lexus. 

[00:11:32] Mike Roth: Oh, a Lexus? Yeah. 

[00:11:33] GREG PANJIAN AI: It's a beautiful car, so it's 110,000 or plus.

I was having a challenge to determine. is your car an exotic? So I asked AI is the Lexus LC 500 an exotic? Said no. This gentleman was a retired doctor, and I said, I'm sorry, I don't think it's considered an exotic.

Send them to the Mercedes Club because we're a Mercedes enthusiast. We accept everybody who says they're enthusiast. 

I kept thinking about this and I said, you know what? I think it's a nice car. I'm gonna let 'em come in. I sent him an email and said, I'd like you to join the club.

He said, our meeting is at nine o'clock on Saturday. And he said, oh, that's too early. I can't go to that meeting, 

[00:12:12] Mike Roth: Okay. let's take a short break and listen to an Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis. 

[00:12:16]  Dr Craig Curtis: Dr. Curtis, can you talk about alcohol use and Alzheimer's? Yes, Mike. They have had studies out for years that show those with, that have one to two drinks a day, actually have a lower risk of heart attack or stroke. And in a study published.

[00:12:32] Mike Roth: That's interesting. That means that people who totally abstain from alcohol have a higher risk.

[00:12:38]  Dr Craig Curtis: That's a difficult question, Mike. It's yes. Those that abstain from alcohol, not with Alzheimer's disease, but actually had a slightly higher risk of heart attack and stroke. 

However, so this was a study published in June of 2023 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in stress signaling in the brain.

So essentially they had less stress, which we've always known is a risk factor. For a heart attack or stroke. But the American College cardiology currently is not advocating for the use of alcohol to reduce your risk of heart attack or strokes because of other concerning effects of alcohol on health.

[00:13:17] Warren: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, craigcurtismd.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

[00:13:33] Mike Roth: Thank you, Dr. Curtis. Greg, you said you've been a member of the Rolls Royce Club for how long now?

[00:13:39] GREG PANJIAN AI: Ever since I had the cornice, I've been to three national meets,

[00:13:42] Mike Roth: Where have the national meetings been? 

[00:13:43] GREG PANJIAN AI: They move around, the first one I went to was in Gettysburg, which is a nice place to visit. Then Nashville and more recently this year in Colorado.

next May it's in Palm Springs. 

[00:13:55] Mike Roth: Did you 

drive your Cornish to those meetings? 

[00:13:59] GREG PANJIAN AI: No, I haven't. The only one I drove to was when I owned a Rolls Royce ghost. I drove that to Nashville. How'd that handle on the road? Beautiful. it was very effortless to take that long trip.

[00:14:10] Mike Roth: What year was the ghost? 2013. 

Okay. And. Today, how many cars do you own? 

[00:14:16] GREG PANJIAN AI: I have four. I have the COR 81 core niche, the 2016 Dawn, the 2021 Corvette, which is my seventh Corvette I've had. And of course I belong to the Corvette Club. And my daily driver now is a Cadillac Escalade. 

There was no club for that either. And it wouldn't be considered exotic, but 

[00:14:36] Mike Roth: You could classify it as exotic as the president of the club, couldn't you? I could. Yeah. Yeah. That people wouldn't appreciate that. 

What made you buy the second Rolls Royce Dawn. 

[00:14:47] GREG PANJIAN AI: So that was my dream car.

It's really a two-door convertible version of the ghost. I think it may have been built on a similar platform. It's the only convertible Rolls-Royce makes. I found it on the Rolls Royce national website, where they list certified vehicles, and it happened to be in St. Louis. At a dealer that also had a dealership in Fort Lauderdale. So I called Fort Lauderdale and negotiated my trading the ghost in there, and they shipped it from St.

Louis to Fort Lauderdale where I picked it up. I drove it back. I went down there and drove my ghost down, traded and drove the dawn back.

[00:15:26] Mike Roth: So how many miles on this dawn?

[00:15:28] GREG PANJIAN AI: I think it's just got 18,000 now. And it has a two year Rolls Royce warranty and service plan too.

I don't really like owning those without a warranty or some kind of a warranty so we'll see what happens in our year and a half. I know I can buy an extended warranty through Rolls Royce, which I did for the Ghost when that had run out of its two year warranty too. 

[00:15:51] Mike Roth: So that's four cars. Most homes in The Villages have a two and a half car garage. how do you come up with the extra garage spaces? 

[00:16:00] GREG PANJIAN AI: I have a three car garage. I don't have a golf cart or a golf cart garage. When I built this house in St. Catherine, I was able to make it a three car. So my daily driver, the Escalade has to sit outside. 

[00:16:13] Mike Roth: Did you buy that one new?

[00:16:15] GREG PANJIAN AI: No. That was pre-owned I don't usually buy new cars. I buy pre-owned. 

[00:16:19] Mike Roth: Okay do you have your eye on. What your next car purchase might be?

[00:16:24] GREG PANJIAN AI: I mentioned before, that Hearst Olds 4 4 2, when I was at this Florida get together with the Florida group this past weekend, there was one there, one of the 904 I asked the owner, who's a billionaire, with a. Car collection.

Would you consider selling that? He says, they'll all be for sale when I pass away. 

[00:16:44] Mike Roth: That commonly happens. 

[00:16:46] GREG PANJIAN AI: You're right. That's why you see 'em for sale at Mecum as big collections.

 There was one actually in Mecum. Last January. I tried to put a bid on it, but the minimum bid was more than what I wanted to put it sold for a high amount. maybe around 80,000 

[00:17:02] Mike Roth: So that car is appreciating?

[00:17:04] GREG PANJIAN AI: About five, six years ago I looked at 'em and they were a hundred thousand. I think they've been coming down. 

[00:17:08] Mike Roth: You have to keep your eye on, are you going to meet 

them in January? 

[00:17:11] GREG PANJIAN AI: I'm sure I will. That's quite an event.

[00:17:14] Mike Roth: Yeah, several of us from the Mercedes Club are planning on it. 

[00:17:16] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yeah, I have a friend that goes there and volunteers and drives cars. they need drivers to drive the cars through the auction. 

You don't make any money. But it's a fun thing, 

[00:17:25] Mike Roth: Yeah. You have to wear a shirt and everything. 

[00:17:27] GREG PANJIAN AI: Did you see that at one recent auction? One of the drivers hit the gas instead of the brake and crashed a couple of cars. No, I didn't see that. 

[00:17:37] Mike Roth: Yeah, that's an expensive mistake.

Whose insurance would cover that? Ham's or the owners? Good question. Yeah. I don't know. That could be a problem. I've seen a lot of the cars where they're pushed across the block. 

[00:17:49] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yep, that's true. You wonder if they don't,

[00:17:52] Mike Roth: the engines are not 

There's no battery in it to start it. did you take a visit to the Rolls Royce factory in England? 

[00:17:58] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yeah, that was quite an experience because I had bought a car from, the Rolls Royce dealer in Orlando Fields, which is quite a dealership.

They have Rolls Royce, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis there at that location. when I knew I was going to London last summer, I emailed the factory and said I'm gonna be here this week, to arrange a visit. instead of getting contact from them. I got a contact from the dealer.

They said, we handle the arrangements for this. So I gave them the information and it was all set to go. then the day before I'm flying to London, I get an email from the dealer, apologizing saying they didn't get the paperwork in time so I can't go. I sent the factory another email.

And explained what happened, what I thought had happened. a few days later I get an email saying, we can pick you up at your hotel on Wednesday at 9:00 AM We'll bring you to the factory and serve you lunch my girlfriend Allie and I, got picked up at nine in a Rolls-Royce a two hour ride to the factory in the outskirts of London, a little something to eat and two hours back. It was fantastic. 

You could see the real production line. What were the most interesting things you saw?

No we went into the room that's like a humidor to keep the wood moist. And then there was a number of sewing machines with the leather being stitched and so on. And big cutting machines that were in operation. And what a popular option is those lights in the ceiling.

[00:19:26] Mike Roth: The stars and light. 

[00:19:27] GREG PANJIAN AI: So we saw, we were actually right there while someone was punching them into the liner. we didn't see any. Cars being married where they marry The frame to the body but we were at this point where they were gonna be putting together an electric one because they make an electric car.

. Yeah. Matter of fact, the production of the Dawn. Ended, so they needed that production line. ' because they've limited themselves to only 6,000 cars a year in that facility. I heard recently, they were going to do a little expansion to increase it to another 500.

[00:20:04] Mike Roth: How many shifts a day does the plant operate? 

[00:20:06] GREG PANJIAN AI: I'm not sure. But there is a really good video on YouTube showing that facility and almost any other facility that you wanna see how cars are built. 

[00:20:15] Mike Roth: Yeah. I noticed some of the Mercedes ones aren't Mercedes factories in Germany?

There are Mercedes factories in China. 

[00:20:22] GREG PANJIAN AI: Oh, really? 

[00:20:23] Mike Roth: I toured the one in Stuttgart. Did you? And the amount of automation was amazing. In fact, most of the assembly points. I didn't see human beings. The only time you saw human beings, was, when something went wrong, an alarm bell goes off and all of a sudden, 15 guys and ladies come running to that place where the alarm went off, or at the end of the assembly line where they're checking the final quality.

Third place was. the programming or what Mercedes was doing was every car was coming off the assembly line, and going to a programming station where they programmed that car for the country it was going to and the features it had It seemed like a lot of different programs were required.

[00:21:06] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yeah. 

I just read an article that Mercedes has a level four self-driving that they're gonna be introducing in China and it's in an S class. 

[00:21:14] Mike Roth: The 

[00:21:15] GREG PANJIAN AI: S class level four was released with self-driving for a certain number of highways in Nevada and California. But the number of roads that it is in level four, self-driving was very limited.

 there were speed restrictions as well? at least on the first generation a couple of years ago. I don't know what they're doing now. I'm not a great believer in self-driving right now. Too many accidents, whether it's a WiMo hitting a cat. or Passing school buses with stoplights.

Self-driving is a very extremely complicated problem. 

My Escalade has super crews and I've had to, take control over it a few times. Have you? Yeah. 

[00:21:58] Mike Roth: I find When you're on a road and the road markings are missing the self-driving features fail.

Yep. 

I had one case where it tried to drive me off the road because the road markings disappeared. 

[00:22:11] GREG PANJIAN AI: One with my super crew. Then the road markings were okay. 

[00:22:15] Mike Roth: Yeah. They depend on at least in Teslas, a hundred percent on cameras. And cameras can get dirty.

Road debris can hit the camera. A bug could Totally obscure the vision, right? I think it'll be a few years before the manufacturers. use multiple technologies to avoid those problems. you're going up north in a couple of days snow.

And rain. Definitely obscure visibility. And I'm curious how they handle ice. Because, as a human being, you would react differently than a computer might. 

Yeah, 

it's interesting technology problem. 

[00:22:51] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yeah, it is. So

[00:22:53] Mike Roth: You haven't picked it besides the 4 4 2, which is hard to find. 

[00:22:57] GREG PANJIAN AI: Actually I love I was surprised that I was bought this Escalade a couple months ago, but I really like it a lot and I would like to upgrade. Once the prices come down to the electric Escalade, the IQ I think it's called.

They're 9,000 pounds of a

[00:23:14] Mike Roth: lot of batteries in that. 

[00:23:15] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yeah. but they're too expensive. I don't like paying retail for new cost, so I like to buy 'em after the, third depreciation at least. 

[00:23:23] Mike Roth: What is the retail on the battery powered Escalade now?

[00:23:26] GREG PANJIAN AI: Roughly, as there's four different versions. I think they're around one 20 to one 40. I'd like to see 'em below a hundred. Way into the one hundreds, well below 100. 

[00:23:37] Mike Roth: With depreciation on the electrics being as high as it is. 

[00:23:40] GREG PANJIAN AI: It should happen pretty soon. 

Yeah. It should happen. 

[00:23:43] Mike Roth: You got 

a 2-year-old certified pre-owned.

[00:23:46] GREG PANJIAN AI: Yep. 

That's what I'm looking for, 

[00:23:47] Mike Roth: How did you happen to buy the Escalade? 

[00:23:50] GREG PANJIAN AI: I wasn't on my radar, but I was driving an X7 and started seeing these range rovers on the highway. I said, what a beautiful vehicle that is.

So I started my Google and YouTube reviews and they were comparing it against the Escalade. I started watching Escalade reviews and saw one down in Orlando, I made an appointment to go down and test drive it. I liked it, so I traded my X7 for it, this is kind of embarrassing to say, but that's my fourth daily driver this year.

I started the year with my Mercedes GLS 450 that I bought a year and a half ago, in January. I decided I wanted something different. So I bought a Porsche Cayenne. that was Too small. So I traded it for the X7. then I started seeing these Range Rovers and eventually moved to the Escalade.

I could see myself keeping this Escalade for a while, at least until I find, something new. The Escalade? is a 2023 model with 16,000 miles on it, it's also certified, so I don't have any. Worries about repairs for a while. that'll be under warranty until I find my next car, probably in, two years from now 

[00:24:58] Mike Roth: So last question, Greg. if someone wants to join the Villages Exotic Car Club. How do they do that? 

[00:25:05] GREG PANJIAN AI: So we have a website and a Facebook page. You can find us by searching Exotic Car Club of The Villages.

My phone number and email are on there. I'll give you my phone number. It's (860) 966-0706. Or email is gregory np@icloud.com. the website is exotic cctv.com. Exotic car club, The Villages dot com. 

[00:25:34] Mike Roth: And if you could give some advice to the 22-year-old Greg PanIN.

Based on what you know now, what advice would you give him? 

[00:25:42] GREG PANJIAN AI: Save your money because, I know young people love these cars and we end up buying them when we're retired. Of the Corvette owners are older. Although Rolls Royce owners, have an average age of new buyers below that of the mini.

Really, it's in the forties now. So I guess it's a lot of these 

[00:26:01] Mike Roth: AI millionaires. 

[00:26:02] GREG PANJIAN AI: Or basketball or football players so that's interesting. Most of the owners in my Rolls-Royce Club are older cars. Rarely are they newer cars.

I probably have one of the newest ones out of the 400 people in the Florida group. 2016 is one. 

[00:26:19] Mike Roth: That's considered new. What's the oldest one you've seen in your club? 

[00:26:22] GREG PANJIAN AI: There's a gentleman that's over a hundred years old that was made in Springfield, Mass.

there's a really nice Rolls Royce section of the Springfield Museum. 900 of them were Made in Springfield, Mass. And there are three examples in the museum It's a nice place to visit. 

[00:26:37] Mike Roth: Thanks for being on Open forum today, Greg.

[00:26:40] GREG PANJIAN AI: Thanks, Mike. 

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