Deals on Wheels : Thousand Oaks: A Caltrans parking lot serves as a weekend marketplace for used cars, boats and motor homes. But local dealers see it as a threat.

Max Pyne swivels nervously in a plush chair, listening to country music as he deals himself a hand of solitaire on his third weekend at a parking lot in Thousand Oaks that’s been turned into a giant automotive swap meet.

Pyne is trying to sell the motor coach he’s driven around the country for five years. With one eye on the cards, he’s got another on prospective buyers poking around outside.

“This coach has things in it your house doesn’t have,” Pyne tells a man with a child standing outside the coach. “An ice maker, a food processor, wall-to-wall carpeting.” Even with these amenities, Pyne’s asking price--$38,000--is enough to send away the curious.

Pyne is not one of the success stories at the state Department of Transportation parking lot where individuals rent space to show their used cars, boats and water toys.

But each weekend, one out of three cars does sell, according to the two surfing buddies who lease and operate the Caltrans lot. Sales have run the gamut from $500 for a 1977 truck to $42,000 for a motor home.

And after six weekends in business, the parking lot at Rancho Conejo Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway has taken on a carnival atmosphere, with hot dog stands, barbecues and regulars who go just to talk about cars.

This is the only park-and-ride in conjunction with Caltrans in Southern California, according to the transportation agency’s Paul Kunny.

“We’re pleased with it,” Kunny said.

Another spokesperson with Caltrans said that if the Thousand Oaks lot is successful the state will probably extend the lease, which ends in March.

The lot opened in September, after months of negotiations with the City Council, which had concerns about traffic and potential unfair competition with local automobile dealers. Two years ago, the city posted signs prohibiting private party car sales in certain parking lots at the urging of local automobile dealers and because of a traffic problem.

Thousand Oaks Councilman Alex Fiore said he was initially against the lot but hasn’t heard any complaints.

“I have passed by it a lot of times and have seen a lot of people there,” Fiore said.

Frank Barone, a partner in Private Party Sales, the company that pays Caltrans $1,500 a month to run the lot, says he is operating “an adult Disneyland with no admission,” a place to kick tires, rev up an engine and fantasize without a salesperson hungry to close a deal.

“People come by for recreation and entertainment to see what is for sale and to see a few exotics that are here,” said Barone, a long-haired former car salesman. “During a recession, anything people can do that is free is appealing.”

The lot opens Friday at 8 p.m. and runs continuously through Sunday at 8 p.m. Barone and his partner Rick Ongstad, a former stockbroker, provide security and help sellers price their cars. They will allow a shopper to start an engine and look under the hood and provide a phone so the owner can be contacted for a test run.

Most sellers just leave their cars, go home and wait for the phone to ring. But some, like Pyne, can be found playing cards inside their motor coach or reading inside a speedboat, buoyed by the belief that the personal touch is more likely to lead to a sale.

“Every person has an entrepreneurial spirit,” Barone said. “I think we’re giving people a chance to maximize the amount of money they can get and learn some lessons about marketing.”

Patty Pearcy of Oxnard is one of those with the entrepreneurial spirit. Sitting in her motorboat reading the newspaper, Pearcy wears a beeper in case she’s walking around the lot when a person interested in buying stops by. She is optimistic, after selling her car at the lot several weeks earlier.

“We want to move out of state and buy some land, or else we’d keep it,” Pearcy says.

Bob Keliher, a Fillmore resident and a maintenance engineer who was recently laid off by the county, said he was trying to sell a 1939 Buick to help out financially.

“I thought I might have an opportunity to sell it if I’m out here,” Keliher said. “I’ve had several good bites.”

For many out trying to sell their cars, Ken Zarkowski’s experience is the sort they dream about. The Thousand Oaks resident brought in his truck so that he could raise money to make a down payment on a house. Within five minutes of parking, he had a buyer.

“I needed quick money, and I got it quick,” Zarkowski said.

Some people walk the parking lot in search of a second family car or a camper; others, such as Clark M. Johnson of Westlake, are just looking. Johnson has been to the lot five times with his son Roger.

“We’re sort of in the market for a boat,” Johnson said. “But you’re always looking for a good deal on anything.”

Local used-car dealers, though, see the lot off the Ventura Freeway as a direct threat to their livelihood. Gary Nesen, a representative of Nesen Motor Co., said that his company hasn’t been hurt but he doesn’t like the idea.

“These guys are swapping,” Nesen said. “They’re just horse trading on Caltrans property. I don’t think it’s fair competition. We spent millions and millions, and they’re just in there for a song. They don’t service a car or provide a car wash or guarantee the car.”

But Barone said that he doesn’t sell cars but only leases space to private people who would normally just put a sign in their car window.

“The dealers won’t do this because it’s not profitable enough for them to help private individuals sell their cars,” Barone said. “If dealers wonder why people don’t like the way they do business with them, then they need to look at the way they do business.”