'65 turns out to be a '67S

[beh911]

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

I just read the latest posts on the Pelican thread:

And none other than Sam Cabiglio, Jerry Seinfeld's Porsche guru, was the original owner of the 67S in question. What an interesting twist to this.

VIN swapping from an arguably more valuable model to one of similar or lesser value is certainly strange enough.

To the OP,
I didn't catch you had already contacted an attorney with my earlier post.
From one of the posts on the Pelican thread, it looks like you may gain some traction by contacting the Alabama Department of Motor Vehicles.

Pretty sad that dealers can hide behind this sort of stuff, but their reputation will suffer. It's the internet age after all. Word gets around fast.

Good luck

[tfiv]

An "as is" isn't worth the paper it's printed on. If you bought it from a licensed dealer, and the car indeed has had the VIN switched, you'll be unwinding the sale. Just call the business regulation unit. They'll make his life miserable quickly. Now if you bought it from a "dealer" but not a licensed one. Hire an attorney, it's going to be a long, expensive slog.

[goodtogo]

An "as is" isn't worth the paper it's printed on. If you bought it from a licensed dealer, and the car indeed has had the VIN switched, you'll be unwinding the sale. Just call the business regulation unit. They'll make his life miserable quickly. Now if you bought it from a "dealer" but not a licensed one. Hire an attorney, it's going to be a long, expensive slog.

If I was an oil sheikh I wouldn't think twice !

The problem could be that I go all the way and win a judgement and when I come to enforce that Judgement, the dealer simply morphs into something near identical and carries on, happens all the time and going on this dealers ethics demonstrated so far, that's very very likely.

Also have advice from others who have been there before

http://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/vie...hp?f=2&t=55749

The law's an ass unless you know your way around it like a car dealer AND you've got limitless money, neither of which is me, unfortunately. (Apologies to all reputable car dealers out there and I know that a lot are. It would be interesting to hear your guys take on my situation)

Hell, it would be really interesting to hear from the dealer concerned, this is a free country, we know your lurking on these forums, If youv'e got nothing to hide then stand up and defend yourself Sir !

[goodtogo]

My best bet it would seem, paradoxically enough, is to prove that the original 1967S was stolen. Although I could very likely loose the car entirely if the original owner came forward and reclaimed it, or an insurance company came forward who had paid out on it, as a stolen vehicle I could definitely sue the dealer who would have to pay 3 times by total costs, plus damages and would be jailed for up to 5 years. This vision is keeping me going. I do have specialist investigators working on this 'behind the scenes' in the US

[62S-R-S]

Not being any type of fortune teller - but your purchase seems to have quite a number of things going for it, despite the unsavory bits. Just the title of the thread, has drawn a lot of attention in a short time.

'Mishmashed', undiscovered, 1967S (S) ! !

With everything disclosed, many people would be happy to have it in their garage. Sorting out items overtime. Why not ditch all the outgoing expenses of investigators, and lawyers that will drag-out-for-years on end. Is that the correct, best way to play it ? These costs are going to cause more grief imo. Why not simply work within the community, build the car into one of the most perplexing, mysterious 67S on earth ?

Unless experts are advising you differently..

[goodtogo]

I will do that, eventually. First I want justice (call me old fashioned or just plain old stubborn

Thanks for the posts guys.

Tim

[Schiefer]

Hi Tim,
Really hope you will be able to sort out this mess.

I think it is very important to determine if you have a complete 67S tub and not a clip. If the metal under the radio is not cut out and restamped with the 65 VIN, I would send an email to Mark Waring and check if he could use his equipment to try to find the 67S VIN: http://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/vie...it=Mark+Waring

This swap was not done yesterday (look at the corrosion on the rivets for the VIN plate) and most of us here would have been fooled without a close inspection like done by your mechanic.



So if the dealer never really inspect the car, it is understandable they didn´t know what it was. BUT: that is no excuse for not taking it back whatever the contract says. They sold you a fake car and a reputation is worth 1000 times more than a single sale. They should be able to avoid loosing money if they could get the 67S back on the road.

Only solution for the dealer is to come clean, take the car back, chime in here and say sorry and move on. If not their reputation is beyond repair.

Good luck!!

[Frank Beck]

So if the dealer never really inspect the car, it is understandable they didn´t know what it was. BUT: that is no excuse for not taking it back whatever the contract says. They sold you a fake car and a reputation is worth 1000 times more than a single sale. They should be able to avoid loosing money if they could get the 67S back on the road.

Only solution for the dealer is to come clean, take the car back, chime in here and say sorry and move on. If not their reputation is beyond repair.

I see this scenario play out in other areas of life. There are a lot of dead and broke people because they dug in and made the "short term gain" their goal. It is nothing more than arrogance, greed (selfishness), and disrespect for others when someone won't take the high road in a sitch like this.

This is a splendid opportunity for the dealer to promote credibility and goodwill.

But the clock is ticking.

If he doesn't move quickly his "generosity" will be viewed as coerced rather than by conscience. Personally I think it may be too late for that.

[goodtogo]

When I was around 19 years old got a holiday job working for a retired English couple who had retired to central France some years before. They had an old farmhouse in a few acres and always had some youngsters staying with them, students mainly, who were welcomed into the household and lived in a couple of old caravans in the grounds. These youngsters, myself included would spend a few hours a day working on the estate doing various jobs, a bit of labouring, fiving up the farmhouse or in my case doing a bit of stone work repairing a derelict pigeonnier in the grounds. In exchange the hosts, who were a charming couple, he was an es RAF officer would provide food and board. Every night we would all sit round a open wood fire drinking cheap red wine, courtesy of our hosts and would then a enjoy a huge dinner, talking about every subject under the sun. Our hosts provided a couple of Solexine moped's for our use and I remember setting off many a time in the afternoon with a baguette and a hunk of cheese in the front basket to explore the countryside.

Anyway, outside one of the cafe's in a very rural village, was an honesty public telephone, just an ordinary telephone with an honesty box by the side of it. This was long before mobile phones and was the only way of communicating as our hosts had no phone. Me, being a txxxxt started using this phone without paying. Several months after leaving France I had a letter asking saying the provider of the phone had not collected enough money to pay her bill and I came clean and mailed off a few francs. I had a lovely letter from from Madame saying no problem and thanking me.

Fast forward, I am now in my 60th year, semi retired, having created, run and sold a couple of successful small businesses and I have two lovely daughters approaching 30 tears old, one a doctor who recently spent time out in Sierra Leonne working with ebola victims and one working in marketing and busy preparing to get married in 6 months and looking to buy a first house.

I can honestly say that in my years running my small businesses, I have never found it necessary to scam or defraud anyone and I kind of take a pride in that.

That however is not the point of the (long winded) story.

I still look back with eternal shame on my behaviour in not paying for those phone calls all those years ago in France and particularly remember how gracious and non judging Madame was when I came clean. Don't know why I am relaying this, it just comes to mind.

Tim

[beh911]

You're relaying this because you hope the dealer comes to their senses.

Looking at their website, they appear to do a decent volume of P cars and are involved with the "Porsche scene".

They seem too invested not to do the right thing.

Reputation is everything these days. Since they are reading this (it's easy to see who logs in on this site and what threads they read), perhaps you will get a private message from them reconsidering their original stance.