Restoring a Collection and a Word About Long-Term Thinking

Words & Photos: Roger Meiners

Two Questions:

1. What’s more important in the long term, family or cars?

The answer is obvious to many, including Mike Mossburg, an Indiana agricultural researcher, and so he liquidated his Mopar® collection to provide for his wife and two young daughters—and to concentrate on his new business. Things went well for him thereafter so ten years ago he decided to get his collection back—by re-creating each and every car—all at once.

“I was at the Mopar Nationals and this vendor [Craig Mosier of Mansfield, Ohio] had a display showing hundreds of cars in a Georgia field—including many of my favorite E-Body ‘Cudas and Challengers,” said Mossburg. The vendor said the owner of the cars was in jail for refusing to clean up his property and was under court order to sell them all. Mossburg thought about this for about a second and jumped—he secured a car hauler and headed south with Mosier. He came home with eighteen cars, all needing serious help.

Ten years later Mossburg’s collection is back. He specifically restored them to duplicate the originals in his first collection. He is working on the last of the retrieved Georgia cars, a Challenger convertible. The E-bodies—plus a few B-bodies for variety—are housed in his new 15-car garage or in a nearby warehouse. The collection includes twelve ‘Cudas, four Challengers, two Chargers, one GTX and a 1998 Viper GTS.

2. What’s more important, short-term gain or long term relationships?

For Brian Engel, a long-time new car salesman at Rick Greene’s St. Marys Chrysler-Jeep®-Dodge in St. Marys, Ohio, it’s the long-term thing. Engel has been orchestrating an annual car show at the store for many years. It’s called “Mopar or No Car” and as you would expect from the title, it’s limited to Chrysler products. Here’s where the long-term relationship thing comes in; Engel has made countless friends through the show, none of whom he pressures to buy anything. Nevertheless many of them have become his customers.

What’s this got to do with the first story? Think of Mike Mossburg, his Mopar passion—and his new business. Mossburg started attending Mopar or No Car a few years ago and got to know and become friends with Engel. Read on for the rest of the story.

Mossburg’s company maintains test farms all over the Midwest. He tests new seed strains for suppliers, scientifically planting them in small plots for controlled experiments producing data on crop yield and other important characteristics that the seed companies need for new product development. Controlled harvesting is important and so Mossburg has to get the equipment to the test plots in a timely manner. Problems developed when the engines in his four new diesel dually tow trucks started breaking down (no, they weren’t Ram trucks).

Mossburg went back to his local dealer who decided to choose short term gain over a long-term relationship. The dealer didn’t take the opportunity to satisfy his customer. He chose instead to keep his money. Mossburg then thought about St. Marys—even though it is one hour away in Ohio—and Brian Engel, his friend and fellow Mopar enthusiast. He gave St, Marys a chance and eventually bought six new Ram diesel pickups to transport his all-important equipment. Engel keeps the relationship alive by providing extra services, such as delivering loaner trucks to farm sites whenever needed. Mossburg appreciates this to no end. Oh, and his business owns another three Ram trucks and four Dodge Grand Caravans.

But that’s not the end of the story.

When Dodge introduced the new 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8®, Mossburg wanted one bad. 
Engel was only too happy to oblige. “This car, unlike the Camaro and Mustang, has the look of the classic Challenger, and it will run circles around one. It’s amazing how quick this car is and how well it handles, despite weighing over four thousand pounds.” The only downside is that the new Challenger will also run rings around the old E-bodies in Mossburg’s collection. But he hastens to say that he still loves the classic versions.

When the 2009 Challenger was introduced with new colors, Mossburg bought one, then another and another. He now has five SRT8 Challengers (one each—blue, purple, orange, red, silver), and a new Furious Fuchsia R/T he bought when his daughter graduated from high school. “I promised I would give it to her when she graduates from medical school,” he said.

More long-term customer care: Engel noticed that a new Challenger had been delivered to the St. Marys store. He checked the mileage and saw something astounding. The car had zero miles on the odometer. He immediately called Mossburg, who grabbed it, provided it could be delivered to his garage floor at home and still have zero miles on the clock. Engel loaded the car on a flatbed transporter and, accompanied by St. Marys owner Rick Greene, brought it over to Mossburg.

“When they unloaded it, I told them the odometer better not roll over to a “1.” If it did, it would cost them $1,000.” They were careful and so it sits there with a big fat zero on the dial, never to move.

What’s next? Well, there’s the new Challenger 392 SRT8 coming out. He has one ordered. Oh, and Mossburg’s wife, Shelley, has a white 2009 Dodge Charger. They were in to pick up the new Furious Fuschia R/T and saw the white car. She sat in it and liked it. Mossburg said to the dealer, “We have a problem. We have a lunch date in 20 minutes and we want to take the car.”

They made it, thanks to his dealer’s long-term thinking.

Roger Meiners is a veteran automotive historian, writer and photographer with 35-years experience as an executive in the OEM automotive industry.