Newport Imports Owner Files for Chapter 11 : Automobiles: The bankruptcy filing postpones a foreclosure sale of land and buildings at the exotic-car mall.

Leland West, whose Newport Imports auto dealership until last year was the nation’s biggest seller of Jaguars, filed Tuesday for protection from creditors under federal bankruptcy laws.

One immediate effect of the filing by Lee West Enterprises is postponement of a foreclosure sale, to have been held Oct. 7, of the land and buildings that make up the heart of West’s five-franchise exotic-car mall on Pacific Coast Highway.

The property is owned by a separate company, West Gilchrist Associates, that is not involved in the bankruptcy filing. But West’s lender, Tokai Credit Corp., agreed Tuesday to suspend the foreclosure action it filed last month against West Gilchrist.

Tokai, owed more than $8 million on the land and buildings, also said Tuesday that it will continue to provide financing to Lee West Enterprises during the bankruptcy proceedings.

West’s bankruptcy attorney, William Lobel of the Irvine firm of Lobel, Winthrop & Broker, said Jaguar and the other auto manufacturers that West represents have agreed to continue supplying vehicles and factory support services to the dealerships during the reorganization.

Tuesday’s filing at federal court in Santa Ana seeks reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which allows a business to continue operating under its existing management while it devises a plan to repay creditors.

Lee West Enterprises did not state assets or liabilities in its initial filing. In an interview Tuesday, West would not provide any figures until his attorneys prepare the court-required list of creditors.

West said he has been struggling since 1990 with the effects of the recession and the 10% federal tax on luxury-car sales. He has reorganized his operations, he said, consolidating his Jaguar and Land Rover sales and service facilities, and laying off almost 50 employees as part of an economy drive that has slashed operating costs by nearly 50% in the past year.

The remaining 100 Newport Imports employees were told at noon Tuesday of the bankruptcy filing and, West said, were assured that their jobs are in no immediate jeopardy.

West Enterprises is the holding company for West’s franchises for Jaguar, Aston Martin, Lotus, Land Rover and Ferrari. All are grouped together under the Newport Imports name on two large lots on Pacific Coast Highway.

West, who acquired 30-year-old Newport Imports in 1980, said the bulk of his financial problems stem from the dramatic decline in Jaguar sales in the past two years--a drop of nearly 50% that has cut deeply into his corporate cash flow.

Sales at his Land Rover dealership, he said, are up 40% this year, and used-car sales have also increased. Overall, the five dealerships continue to generate “positive cash flow,” he said, but he has been unable to secure financing to provide adequate working capital for day-to-day operations.

West leases the land and buildings for the Ferrari, Lotus and Aston Martin operations at 3100 W. Coast Highway but has purchased the land for the Jaguar and Land Rover operation at 3000 W. Coast Highway.

That facility, which also houses a restaurant, Ruby’s Jaguar Diner, was the subject of Tokai’s foreclosure notice. Another of West’s companies owns the restaurant.

West, encouraged by officials at Jaguar Cars Inc., bought the property and built the buildings in the late 1980s, when both economy- and luxury-car sales were booming.

But the recession hit Orange County hard in 1990, and Jaguar sales--already weakened by consumer dissatisfaction with the make--began falling. Also that year, the 10% luxury tax on automobiles priced at more than $30,000 was enacted, adding to West’s woes at the Jaguar business.

West said Tuesday that sales of the cars--which have list prices ranging from about $45,000 to nearly $70,000--have plunged by almost 50%.

Until last year, Newport Imports had been the top Jaguar dealership in the nation for years. It sold 567 new Jaguars in 1990 for gross new-car revenue of nearly $26 million.

West said he and other Jaguar dealers are excited about the new generation of vehicles premiering for the 1993 model year--the first new cars since Ford Motor Co. acquired Jaguar several years ago. He has scheduled an Oct. 9 showing of the new line at his showroom.

But sales of the 1992 models have been sluggish, and West said he expects to sell fewer than 300 new Jaguars this year--including the 1993 models that will be available in the final quarter.

With sales like that, “the numbers just don’t work out. . . . There’s no way right now to support that expensive piece of real estate he has,” said an auto retailing consultant who asked not to be identified for fear of jeopardizing future business relationships.