Portland Dealer Has Loved (and Sold) Classic Cars for 40 Years
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Dale Matthews has been in the classic car business for more than 40 years. (Photos by Bob Kehoe.)
If ever there was a used car salesman that truly loved his job, Dale Matthews is the guy. The owner of Memory Lane Motors in Portland, Ore., Dale has been buying and selling nothing but classic cars for more than 40 years—with remarkable success. He estimates nearly 10,000 vintage vehicles have passed through his hands since he first opened the doors in 1979. That’s about 270 cars a year.
At age 74, Dale has been an astute salesman from an early age. He was one of 10 children growing up in Portland, when times were hard. At the age of eight, Dale was selling newspapers in front of a grocery store. “In one day, I learned that to sell something, you had to talk to the people. Rule number one is to ask for the sale.”
His Start in Cars
Dale began noting the makes and styles of cars and trucks around his neighborhood. There was a small dealership nearby, where used cars were lined up on a gravel lot. In Dale’s mind, it was like a playground. He pestered the owner with questions, and “probably to get me to shut up,” the man put Dale to work washing cars.
By the time he was 13, he was working at the dealership. Dale fell for in love with a tired 1932 Chevy two-door sedan that appeared on the lot. “I bought it for $40 with hard-earned kid bucks earned from yard-mowing, floor-mopping, and newspaper-throwing,” Dale recalls. “Having no driver’s license didn’t seem to figure into the picture.”
A wall mural inside the showroom shows Matthews’ first lot, which opened in 1979.
By 14, Matthews worked as a lot boy at another small dealership and sometimes would help sell a car. The dealership began giving him $12 for any car he would sell.
In 1969, following a stint in the US Army, Dale returned to Portland. He dreamed of selling vintage cars, but an opportunity to manage a suburban Chevrolet dealership came along. Eight years later, he decided it was time to focus solely on vintage cars.
His Own Place
Dale purchased a property in Portland and hung out his shingle. “I started with eight collector cars that I had gathered on my own. I’m going to sell nothing but old cars exclusively from now on. I pursued old cars like a trapped miner pursues air—relentlessly.”
The present day location of Memory Lane Motors, on S.E. Holgate Blvd. in southeast Portland.
A combined love of vintage vehicles and his ‘down-home’ way of selling brought an ever-increasing number of buyers and sellers to Dale’s lot. In 1994, in need of more space, Matthews Memory Lane Motors moved to its present location in southeast Portland.
Dale’s secret weapon is: “The Buy Back,” which applies to most cars he sells.
“I tell them how much I paid. I tell them how much I want. And I tell them what I’ll buy it back for,” he explained. “This stuns a lot of people but I just tell the truth. I paid this much for the car; I need a profit of this much. If you bring it back in the same or better condition, I guarantee that I’ll buy it back. I don’t know if you can be more transparent than that.”
It’s always like a free car show inside the showroom.
The plan works and has been used time and again. One example is a nice 1961 Impala that passed through Memory Lane nine times. The first time, Dale sold it for $4,500. The last time it went for $32,000.
“I’ve been at this game a long, long time and I love it,” he concluded. “The most fun day of your life will be the day you buy an old car.”
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