LOS ANGELES -- Holding the Ferrari and Maserati franchises for Beverly Hills and Silicon Valley sounds about as recession-proof as it gets.
Think of the legion of nouveau riche celebrities and dot-com millionaires in California who are eager to buy something red from Italy.
But hard times have taken a bite out of Giacomo Mattioli, the 42-year-old Ferrari dealer to the stars.
Mattioli says managing relationships with the filthy rich is an art form and is especially complicated when the wealthy are feeling the pinch.

And while Mattioli sees the beginnings of a turnaround, mostly in Beverly Hills, he admits to having been stung sharply by the downturn. Overall, business this year at Mattioli's two stores, Ferrari-Maserati Beverly Hills and Ferrari-Maserati Silicon Valley, is off about 20 percent from 2007, when he sold 365 new and used cars.
"This was a crisis of investors that started on Wall Street," he says of the economic downturn. "Ninety-nine percent of my clients are investors who don't have cash under the bed, and they were really the ones who were affected the most."

Giacomo Mattioli
Age: 42
Family: Married; sons Enzo, 21, and Alex, 19; daughter, Arianna, 8
Dealerships: Ferrari-Maserati Beverly Hills, Ferrari-Maserati Silicon Valley
Last music loaded on iPod: Dave Matthews Band
Last book read: Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind by Joe Dispenza
Dream dinner companions: Winston Churchill, Gianni Agnelli, Enzo Ferrari
Personal cars: Ferrari 430 Scuderia, Maserati Quattroporte

'Things didn't work out'
In March, Mattioli closed his 5-year-old Maserati satellite showroom in Pasadena, Calif.
"We intended to open Ferrari there, but things didn't work out," says Mattioli, who was born and raised in Ferrari's backyard of Modena, Italy.
Despite closing the Pasadena store, Mattioli had to terminate only one staffer. He incorporated the rest into his Beverly Hills operation and expanded the service and body shop there into a 28-bay, 10-technician outfit.

The Beverly Hills dealership is a Ferrari lover's dream. Pictures and nose cones of vintage Formula One cars line the walls. In Silicon Valley, the Redwood City dealership has a cafe that hosts tifosi, or Ferrari fanatics, willing to wake up at 4 a.m. to watch F1 races live from Europe. The store also has a conference room that allows clients to hold meetings while overlooking the gleaming service bay.
"The downturn in Silicon Valley is not so much about net worth or means. It's about thinking, 'Should I do this if I've laid people off?' " Mattioli says. "Whereas, in Beverly Hills, it's a different dynamic. A movie producer is more freelance."
So how do you obtain the franchise in what are possibly the two hottest Ferrari markets in the world?

After graduating from the University of Modena, Mattioli got a job at Ferrari securing merchandising rights, then moved into marketing and sales. In the mid-1990s, he was assigned as Ferrari's U.S. dealer development manager. Because Ferrari owned the points in Beverly Hills and San Francisco's Mill Valley, Mattioli became the factory's general manager of both stores. But Ferrari wanted to get out of the retail business, and Mattioli convinced the company that he would make a good dealer in Beverly Hills. He found two investors and secured that point in 1998.
Mattioli then opened a store in Orange County and sold it to pay off the original investors' loan. He quickly made Beverly Hills the largest-grossing Ferrari dealership in the United States. In 2005 he expanded into Silicon Valley.

Of course, things weren't quite that simple. When Mattioli was fresh out of law school, he married Antonella Ferrari, the granddaughter of Enzo Ferrari himself. The couple had two children before the marriage failed. Mattioli says he and his ex-wife are still "very good friends."
Antonella's father, Piero, son of Enzo Ferrari and vice president of Ferrari S.p.A., showed he held no grudges. He became one of the investors in Mattioli's dealership venture.
"Piero is a great friend and a great guy," Mattioli says. "He got past the personal issues and it's purely business."

'A little superstitious'
Indeed, managing complicated relationships is what being a Ferrari dealer is all about.
"I am not in the car business; it's a relationship business," Mattioli says.
"I don't want to lose the opportunity to make my customers aware that we appreciate them still doing business with us. It's the fair thing to do."
For example, he believes in the power of a single salesperson guiding a customer through the entire sales process, including the finance and insurance office.
"It gives the customer someone they can call," Mattioli says.
With 90 percent of Mattioli's business being repeat customers, he says he's willing to give favors to those customers who help the dealership now.
Buy that lonely 612 Scaglietti in the corner today, and you might substantially shave the wait for the coveted 458 Italia that arrives next year.

Mattioli thinks that the economy -- at least when it comes to selling exotic cars -- will improve next year.

"People say Ferrari is recession-proof. I don't think that is true, and, being Italian, I'm a little superstitious," Mattioli says, eyes twinkling. "But I do think Ferrari is last to drop and first to get up."

Credits: Automotive News