PORTLAND, Ore. — Some of the best and longest lasting memories roll through Southeast Portland at 26th and Holgate. You could say they're "fuel-injected" by used car salesman Dale Matthews. At 82 years old, he is still the first guy in the door at the business he built nearly 50 years ago, Matthews Memory Lane Motors.
As Matthews opens the door to the shop each morning at 8 a.m., he breathes in the smell that reminds him of the job he loves.
"It's the smell of the shop that you really like. A little bit of gas, a little bit of oil, a little bit of fiberglass. I really like it here," Matthews said.
Matthews likes to say he has a dog from every village at Memory Lane Motors — meaning he's got every kind of car you can imagine. Vintage Fords, Chevys, Buicks, roadsters, convertibles and coupes.
"We sell collector cars. We just love old cars," he said.
Strolling down memory lane
Many of the classic cars are parked outside the shop facing Southeast Holgate, beckoning car lovers to come inside and take a stroll down memory lane. Dale's son, Greg, who helps run the business, said the cars practically sell themselves as customers recall good times gone by.
"We see it all the time. They look at these cars and talk themselves into it. That's the one Grandpa used to have. I remember that car," Greg Matthews said.
For Dale Matthews, his journey in the car business started when he was just 12 years old, growing up in Southeast Portland and working part-time at a used car lot.
"I was in the car business, washing cars for a man named Ray Rathbone when I was in the eighth grade," he said.
Graduate of UCDU: Used Car Dealers University
Although he dropped out of Franklin High School as a sophomore, Dale Matthews jokes he is a proud graduate of "UCDU," the Used Car Dealers University. That's where he learned UCDU's unique lingo, and he gives some examples.
"High on eyeball." That means it's a good-looking car, doesn't matter who's looking at it. Or, "It looks good from afar, but far from good."
"How about, 'Painted with a broom and striped with a handle?' That's a bad paint job," Matthews laughed.
"Detroit air in all five tires" is another of Matthews' favorite phrases referring to how original a classic car is. He points out a 1948 woody station wagon on the showroom floor.
"It's special," he said. "It came from Portland."
The car has a few marks on the paint, but that doesn't bother Matthews.
"It's all original. This is a little beauty mark here," he said as he rubs a spot of scuffed paint.
He's also UCDU's poet laureate, and his passion for cars often comes out in verse. He recites part of one poem he wrote about his 50-year career:
"I wake up every morning at the very same time and I head down the road to that great job of mine. It's old car talk at least nine to five, there's no better drug to keep me alive."
In that great job of his, Dale Matthews has sold 11,000 cars, averaging one classic car sale a day; first at the shop on Foster Road that he opened in 1979, then at his current location on Southeast Holgate where he moved in 1994.
Matthews breaks the mold of the used car salesman
Elan Davis is the General Manager at Memory Lane Motors. He's worked with Dale Matthews for 23 years. He says his boss breaks the mold when it comes to all the clichés about used car dealers.
"It doesn't have to be the way the stigma is. He's taught me the right way to deal with people when it comes to cars," Davis said. "He's ultra-fair. We've made a lot of friends out of customers over the years."
Greg Matthews knows Memory Lane's success is built on his dad’s character.
"Honesty, integrity. I mean you don't find too many people in the used car business doing it this long who still have the reputation he's got. He's earned it," Greg Matthews said.
The rotation pool
That reputation has made lifelong friends out of many customers, some buying cars over and over again — like George Passadore, who's known Dale for 35 years.
"How many cars have I bought twice?," Passadore asked Matthews.
"Two or three, and he bought some that used to be his and he didn't remember owning," Matthews laughed.
One of those classics is a 1957 Chevrolet. Passadore owned it, sold it back to Matthews, and now customer John Althaus owns it.
"This is my favorite car. I love this car," Althaus said.
They call it the "rotation pool." If a customer wants to sell back a car he bought at Memory Lane, Matthews will buy the car back for what the customer paid for it. On this day, Passadore is looking to buy a car he previously owned, a 1958 Chevy.
"I'm trying to decide, 'Why did I sell it and should I buy it back?'" Passadore wondered.
"My crystal ball, and there are no cracks in it — I think George is going to buy that car again," Matthews retorted.
Classic Cars and Country Crooning
Riding shotgun with his love of cars is Matthews' passion for vintage country music.
"I've got every one of Buck Owens' albums on the wall there," he said.
The albums are all framed and cover an entire corner of the Memory Lane Motors shop. He bought them from a man in Warrenton, Oregon who answered a newspaper ad Matthews had placed looking for Buck Owens albums. Matthews bought them for $3 apiece. He's happy to sing a few bars of his favorite Owens song, "Act Naturally."
"They're gonna put me in the movies, they're gonna make a big star out of me, " he sings.
His '57 Chevy
A country crooner himself, Matthews used to play in a country band around town. He recently wrote his own song about a jet-black 1957 Chevy.
"For me, I love this car. I really love this car," he said.
Standing next to the Chevy, guitar in hand, he sounds a lot like Buck Owens as he sings about his personal favorite classic car.
"My '57 Chevrolet factory fuel-injected hardtop. It's a three-speed on the column with an overdrive and power brakes to help it stop. It's lowered all around, just two inches down and the dual pipes make a wonderful sound," he sang.
Every car has a story
Beyond the sound, every car at Memory Lane has a story.
"It's the story of these cars. The better the story, the better you can spin it, the better the car is," he said.
And there's no better spin than for a rare 1940 Lincoln with Judkins body, one of Memory Lane's most treasured classics.
"Is this car even running? It's so smooth, I can't even hear it," Greg Matthews said as he and his dad drive it out of the shop to share its gruesome and mysterious story.
"The car to die for"
"It's the car to die for," Dale Matthews said.
"They only made 72 of them. Two of 'em were shipped to Portland, Oregon, and this is one of them," he said.
The Lincoln was linked to a murder in 1930. It was driven by Leone Bowles, wife of wealthy Portland businessman, Nelson C. Bowles. Leone was stabbed to death in Northeast Portland when she drove the car to the apartment of Bowles' mistress, Irma Loucks. It became a murderous love triangle scandal that dominated headlines for months.
"It was front page news from November 13th to June of 1931. It was that big of a deal," Dale said.
His personal collection
The horsepower of that story has earned the "car to die for" a spot in Dale Matthews' personal collection, kept in his oversized garage at his Happy Valley home. It is parked right next to his prized 1957 Chevy and a car once owned by Mrs. Meier of the prominent Portland department store, Meier and Frank. There are 15 cars in Matthews' home garage, but he calls a 1936 Ford roadster the best of them all. He gave it to his son, Greg, on his 50th birthday.
"It's probably my favorite car in the whole world. I knew by giving it to Greg, he'd keep it as a shrine," Matthews said.
Of course Matthews, the car dealers' poet laureate, gifted it with a rhyme.
"From its clock-faced mirror to its real neat heater, I never owned a car I thought was any sweeter," he recited.
A classic ride
Back at the shop — at Memory Lane Motors where they deal in relics of the past — Greg Matthews holds tightly to the present and times spent with his Dad.
"He's my best bud, my BFF," he laughed. "Life without my Dad, I can't imagine. At the end of the day, Memory Lane is Dale Matthews."
At closing time, the Memory Lane team drives the cars parked outside back in the shop where they'll wait for the next day's deals. Meantime, Dale Matthews climbs inside his 1957 Chevy and takes it on the open road, singing the country song he wrote about it.
"It's my 1957 Chevrolet, factory fuel-injected. It's a three speed on the column with an overdrive," he sings.
He takes it into overdrive and waves at passersby admiring the vintage Chevy. Like his cars, Dale Matthews' life journey has been a 100% guaranteed classic ride.
