David Michele founded European Auto Restoration in 2002. Starting out in a small outbuilding north of Holland, MI, David began buying, restoring and selling older European cars. For David, the love of European cars has been a constant in his life.

Recent Immigrants from Italy, David's parents instilled in him a love of Italian cars. David's father Gerardo drove a 1978 Fiat 128 Wagon as his daily driver in the 80's and his mother Maria drove a 1980 Fiat Brava. His father later purchased a 1984 Alfa Romeo Spider, which he owns to this day. Gerardo recently purchased a 2000 Moto Guzzi Basa, on which he and Maria can be seen touring New England. When he was sixteen his Brother Gerardo bought an Alfa Romeo Milano, this car was to become one of David's many favorites. After college David bought one for himself and his 1987 Alfa Milano remains in his permanent collection today. In 1988 David spotted a Fiat X19 rusting away in a neighbors yard, he and his father painstakingly restored the vehicle. The Fiat received intensive bodywork, a re-built head and a re-built transaxle, among many other things.

A love of beautiful cars lead David to study Automotive Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Although a career as an Automotive Designer was what David originally pursued when he started at Pratt his direction soon changed. The Automotive Industry was not making vehicles that had the same level of integrity as the vehicles that David had fallen in love with.

After college in Brooklyn, NY David and some friends embarked on a road trip in an old 1 Ton Dodge van. As they traveled through 34 of the lower 48 states David put much of his mechanical knowledge to the test . After hitting an Elk on the Oregon coast David completely rebuilt the old van and also acquired a Datsun 510 wagon that he towed all the way back to the east coast. David’s Datsun became his daily driver while he was living in Brooklyn, no easy life for a vehicle. It also made multiple trips from the east coast to Michigan and back.

Before leaving Brooklyn, David bought a 1971 BMW 2002 for his wife Juliet. The 2002 needed almost as much bodywork as his Fiat X19 had. Though a difficult lesson David learned that some vehicles are just too rusty to make a restoration financially feasible.

When David & Juliet moved to west Michigan, David decided to devote his time to restoring old European vehicles, with an emphasis on models that were being overlooked by vintage car collectors. Thus European Auto Restoration was born.

The spring of 2003 brought unbelievable good fortune, David acquired a 1960 Fiat 1200 Sedan from the original owner complete with photos, documents and other Fiat paraphernalia from the 60’s. Only a few weeks later he found a 1960 Fiat 2100 Sedan, which unlike the 1200 needs much restoration. The rarity of these two vehicles makes them priceless additions to David’s collection.

In the unseasonably cold and wet fall of 2003 David and his wife Juliet built their first house and a beautiful new facility for David's growing business. Situated between Saugatuck-Douglas and Fennville, the new facility is just minutes from I-196 and only 10 miles south of Holland.

In May of 2004 David converted his wife Juliet’s Mercedes Benz 220 D to run on used vegetable oil using a kit that he purchased from Grease Car. The environmental, financial and mechanical benefits of using vegetable oil as a fuel were so outstanding that David decided to purchase and convert a 1996 Dodge Ram 2500 in April of 2005. As part of a goal to make it more feasible for other environmentally conscious drivers to convert their vehicles David has become a certified Grease Car installer. For more information on Grease Car visit their web site: www.greasecar.com.

David has worked on many interesting and unique vehicles, some of which include a 1959 Fiat 2100, 1960 Fiat 1200 Granluce, 1971 Alfa Romeo GTV, 1989 BMW 750iL V12, 1972 Mercedes Benz 220D, 1973 Saab 99L, 1969 Mercedes 280 SL, 1967 Alfa Giulia Super, and a 1972 Datsun 240Z, to name a few.