Club Sportiva's Member feedback told us we needed another Lamborghini Gallardo for the Club. We had a yellow 2004 Gallardo e.gear coupe for a year and then traded it for a 2005 Bentley Continental GT at British Motor Cars in late 2007. Now that the Gallardo has been gone for about six months, it is time to get another one. As I've mentioned in my postings, I am a big Gallardo fan, so getting an updated model is very cool.

I am looking for a 2007 model so it has warranty, the new Calisto rims, preferably it should have about 2,000 miles on it so it will have already depreciated a little bit ($25,000+) and needs to be orange or yellow. The transmission doesn't matter according to Member feedback whether it is e.gear or a manual transmission, as both are excellent in their own ways. To complicate my search, the Club has a 2004 Lamborghini Murcielago e.gear that needs traded to facilitate the deal. My first step was to visit www.cars.com and to check about 15 Lamborghini dealers to check their inventory. Then I called 11 of those dealers to see who could take the Murcielago on trade.

Calling 11 dealers is tiring, even if they are Lamborghini dealers! About four dealers had a car in stock that attracted me and who had an interest in Club Sportiva's Murcielago. Several dealers had no desire in taking a Murcielago on trade, so that helped to narrow the field right away.

Interestingly, the very first dealer I called turned out to be one of the most serious in transacting a trade. I assumed I would be looking for a 2007 Gallardo coupe, but after talking to a few dealers, I learned that I could do the trade for a Gallardo Spyder! That was a very pleasant surprise. Of the four dealers who were initially interested, it narrowed further to two dealers within two days who were working hard for my business.

An authorized dealer in Chicago was very aggressive at pricing the Murcielago to help me acquire their Gallardo Spyder. Their Gallardo is a yellow car with black leather and yellow stitching, a 6-speed manual transmission (yes, I am supporting my February 13 post by trying to get a manual transmission to buck the F1 paddle shift trend) and the car looks absolutely stunning.

Another Gallardo Spyder turned up at a Lamborghini dealer in Georgia, where Club Sportiva purchased a 2003 Maserati Spyder with Tubi exhaust (see February 18 post for Tubi exhaust) in 2006 and almost bought an orange Gallardo coupe at the same time. So this dealer knows Club Sportiva and me, so they were very receptive to selling me a yellow Spyder with e.gear and an incredibly cool interior carbon fiber kit.

As always, the deal comes down to the wire. After the dealer in Georgia let a day pass without getting back to me, it looked like Club Sportiva's next Lamborghini was going to come from the dealer in Chicago and we proceeded with some of the paperwork via fax. Then, I got an unexpected fax with a good price from Georgia in the morning on a different yellow Spyder that just came into their inventory an hour before I was about to wire the funds to the Chicago dealer. After spending the better part of a day going back and forth with the Georgia dealer to better understand the options on this last minute Gallardo Spyder, which the dealer oddly struggled to provide, they ended up not having some details correct, so I passed on their Spyder even though they had a great price.

With that, the deal was cinched and our yellow 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder with 1,700 miles was coming from Chicago. Now, for the painful wait while the car is trailered out to San Francisco across the snow of the wintery Midwest! Our Murcielago was picked up for transport to Chicago within a couple days, but all I care about is getting the Gallardo Spyder to San Francisco in anticipation of our Fifth Anniversary Party for our Members in early March, when we will debut the Lamborghini to the Club. This will be our third Lamborghini to rotate into Club Sportiva in 16 months - a pace at which we are very proud.

The trucking company had promised us a Tuesday delivery, one week from the day they picked up the Gallardo Spyder in Chicago. As always, as the magic day approached, the transportation company started bumping the delivery out, day by day. It finally arrived on Friday morning in a massive 18 wheeler. An impromptu crowd of a dozen people showed up to watch the yellow beast be extracted from the carrier. The car draws a ton of attention, even when covered in plastic and stowed in a car carrier. This car has a magnetic personality, and that is before it gets fired up.

More to come in a later posting about the first drive! Keep an eye out for that, and other engaging car-related postings.

Labels: Buying Experience, Club Sportiva, exotic car share club, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, Lamborghini Murcielago, ownership alternative