Judy Monroe bided her time for 20 years, “driving those wretched stations wagons,” she recalls, waiting for when her kids were grown up and no longer needed her chauffeuring services.

When they were gone, Monroe, a Santa Rosa resident, finally got to indulge the dream she’d had since she was 16, when a friend’s mom came back from England driving a beautiful, strange new car: a Jaguar. “I’d loved automobiles since I was a young girl, but Jaguar was the one I fell in love with.”

Monroe put her station-wagon days behind her in 1992 when she bought a used 1989 XJ6. Needing servicing for it, she took a friend’s advice that she go to BEM. It was good advice. “I think that the car might have been in a wreck,” she says, since many problems began popping up.

But what also popped up was a growing respect for how BEM treated her problems. “Mark and Jack were wildly honest, trustworthy and upfront people. Mark finally told me one day, ‘Don’t put any more money into this.’ Then he offered me help finding a replacement.”

Mark’s recommendation led to Monroe’s purchase through BEM of a 1993 XJ6, and only this past March, a 1998 XJ8L with only 17,000 miles on it. “Mark had a client whose mother owned it. When she fell ill, she didn’t drive it, so the mileage stayed low.”

At no point, says Monroe, has Mark ever pressured her into a purchase or repair decision. “He is the classic middleman who knows how to put a buyer and seller together in the most compatible way,” she says.

Monroe, who regularly sends people to BEM, is adamant about its place in her life: “I wouldn’t buy a Jaguar from anybody but Mark.” ■