Raphael Orlove
It’s hard to get a sense of the full scale of Miller Motorcars in Greenwich, Connecticut, even walking past a row of Rolls-Royces parked in front of another row of Rolls-Royces.
It is an official dealer to Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Czinger, De Tomaso, Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren, McMurtry, Pagani, Pininfarina, Rimac and the aforementioned Rolls-Royce. A purple Phantom on 22s gleams in the sun, in case someone walking in might want to drop half a million dollars on it.
How does Miller Motorcars keep all these different automakers in stock? “We don’t think of it as competition,” says Evan Cygler, Sales Executive. “All are a niche.” That works for the kind of buyers who find themselves at Miller Motorcars, self-made entrepreneurs as well as captains of industry in banking and real estate. “We have customers who have an Aston Martin and say ‘I’d love to try a Bentley.’” Or a repeat customer might return and “maybe they’d like to try a V12 this time.”
Miller Motorcars started in 1976 in West Hartford before resettling in tony Greenwich. Its initial specialty was Mercedes-Benz in what was a boom time for both official and gray-market imports. For all its stature, it has remained a family-owned business. Its founders are still in the office every day and even keep score for the employee softball team.
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove There are a few superlatives that hint at the level at which Miller Motorcars now operates. It is the top Pagani dealer in North America for 2023, the top Bugatti dealer in the world for 2021, ‘22, and ‘23, and Ferrari gave it a Cavallino award in ‘23 also, placing it in the top echelon of Ferrari dealers worldwide.
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove Down in Miller Motorcars’ basement detailing studio, however, one can get a better idea of Miller Motorcars’ scale. Beyond a fresh green Rimac and a bright blue Ferrari convertible sits a gleaming Bugatti EB110, the first carbon-fiber production car and, for a brief moment in the 1990s, the fastest car in the world. Even besides a blue-and-white Chiron Super Sport, the 1-of-134 EB110 catches the eye for its rarity and its historical provenance. This might be the only place in the world where a Bugatti EB110 is a trade-in. A $1.3 million trade-in.
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove This is a rare place that specializes in such rare cars. That is the basis of Miller Motorcars’ reputation. Everything that passes through its doors is in perfect condition, and in perfectly-executed spec. Its color combos are trendsetting. Cygler points out a stunning orange Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Roadster, a pure roadster without a roof at all, bodied completely in carbon fiber. It is one of 28 in the world, five for the U.S.
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove The Bugatti showroom is close by, past the Rolls-Royces and lines of gleaming Bentleys and Astons, many in a fashionable green. (Elizabeth Koppelman Hanigan, Director of Communications, points out that green is the hot color of the moment, something Miller Motorcars keenly anticipates year-to-year.) Miller Motorcars is readying a photoshoot for the “L’Ultime,” the very last Chiron, chassis 500 of 500, in top Super Sport spec. It is resplendent in a blue-to-blue fade, and notable places in the Chiron’s world tour are painted on the side. Greenwich stands out. Several other Chirons are being shuffled around, including a very early production example of this 300-mph car. It is an otherworldly scene, Chirons idling in a back lot. Cygler is proud that this final Chiron is coming Stateside, a job that took a lot of communication between the buyer and the factory. Miller Motorcars acts as an intermediary in these kinds of multi-million dollar deals. No surprise Miller Motorcars keeps up a presence at Car Week around Monterey, where supercar manufacturers and their billionaire clientele rub shoulders on Pebble Beach’s 18th fairway.
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove Again, rare cars are Miller Motorcars’ specialty. In the Pagani showroom nearby rests a Huayra Roadster in bare carbon with red pinstriping. This is the car that was on the floor at the Geneva Motor Show, a 1-of-100 model. It, too, was a trade-in. “Perhaps for another Pagani,” Cygler says. Beyond it is the Zonda Monza. The Zonda Monza, a 1-of-1 motorsports specially built for an American collector, with a manual transmission and naturally-aspirated 7.3-liter V12. Is it for sale? Well, it is “on loan from a prominent Pagani collector,” Cygler says.
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove The reality is that once you step away from its Bentleys and Rolls-Royces and McLarens and the like, all of the cars in the showrooms for Miller Motorcars’s boutique, low-volume automakers are pre-owned. At this level, “every new car is built for an individual,” Matthew Horowitz, Director of Marketing, points out.
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove In Miller Motorcars’s Ferrari dealership, a stately building that once housed Aston Martin’s American HQ, there’s an atelier where prospective owners spec out their next order. Leather samples hang from the walls, and optional sports seats sit across from a color cabinet with samples of every hue Maranello offers. Buyers can spend an afternoon here, but it’s merely one step in the process that could take multiple years. In the meantime, “Ferrari has a contact plan,” says Horowitz, “engaging the clients with both physical and digital touchpoints. Additionally, we have events to keep them in the fold.”
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove This constant work and acute understanding is how Miller Motorcars is able to keep its reputation alive. Every supercar, like the Porsche 918 Spyder sitting in Miller Motorcars’s McLaren showroom, is an appreciating asset, a piece of art that can be driven a few times a year just as easily as it can be handed down from parent to child. The whole purpose of these cars is to be rare. After all, as Cygler puts it, “Scarcity is the point.”
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove Miller Motorcars
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove Miller Motorcars
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Image Credit: Raphael Orlove Miller Motorcars
