The Man Who Owned 75 Saabs

In West Grove, Pennsylvania (located between Philadelphia and Baltimore), there’s an incredibly easy-going type by the name of Ed DeStafney, who runs the firm Compact Cars.

Its business is buying used Japanese cars like Toyota, polishing them up and fixing them for resale. Ed has run the workshop for around 30 to 40 years.

It started as an old Chevrolet store, where incidentally he bought his first car, a Chevrolet Bel Air, back in 1957. He didn’t dream that he would take over at the workshop later in life. Ed has sold Saabs for years, and he estimates that he has owned over 75 Saabs himself over the years. We are not worthy!

At Ed’s place, the thinking was that he would set up his Saab business again, but he runs it more or less himself and hasn’t considered expansion. His energy is simply not there.

Now Ed has a large number Volkswagen and Porsche cars on the premises, which he owns privately. He’s thought about renovating them, but not to sell – oh no! He wants to keep them for himself. Among other things, he has a disassembled Porsche 356, a sports car that was produced from the late 1940s to mid 1960s.

When people from the television show American Pickers who go around buying up stuff like antiques telephoned Ed for a visit, they got a flat refusal. “There’s no point in you coming, I’m not selling anything from my collection!” Fair play.

Source: united states of saab