I could almost cry..

[Barney Eaton]

After the Richmond Buick convention, I stopped in Wilmington NC. Cape Fear CC has a '90 red/tan/tan convertible, donated to them by GM. The car is in pretty good condition except the passanger window has been broken by homeless people so they can sleep in the car. Cape Fear cannot sell the car or parts so it will either be scrapped or rot in place. I have pictures that I will be placing in a scrapbook on the donated cars.<P>One of my long term projects is to get pictures of as many of the donated Reattas as possible and document their fate. I am hoping the Reatta newsletter will publish a list of the schools so that you Reatta owners can help with this project.<P>------------------<BR>Barney Eaton Reatta technical advisor for BCA and keeper of the Reatta database.

[Guest]

barney,<BR>what's the deal with the "donated Reattas"? i'd like to hear the whole story.<BR>thanks,<BR>doug.

[lancemb]

Could the car be sold to a scrapyard and parted? At least it would do somebody some good. What a shame. What a ridiculous law, that it can't be sold.

[Guest]

I believe, barney correct me if I'm wrong on this, the reason they can't be sold is because they were donated to schools for autoshop classes and never had the proper paper work filed for them. Also schools can't just sell something like that (it's alway a secret auction type setting). they can't be sold for scrap either for the same reason. They'll just far apart from age and neglect and it's really sad, but the same thing happens to cars for other reasons. remeber don't crush 'em restore 'em.<P><BR>Matt Wolfe<BR> <P>------------------<BR>If your not living on the edge your taking up too much space.<p>[This message has been edited by Mawolfe (edited 08-13-2000).]

[Guest]

I was taking classes a couple of years ago at a school whom had a brand new GMC Yukon fully loaded donated, with the driver rear quarter smashed and glass broken, and 246 miles! About a $3,000 fix...

[Chazzman]

Most states have a surplus law whereupon various agencies can declare old equipment, tools, etc as being surplus to their operations, and place said item(s) in auction for the highest bidder. Many counties are also authorized to do this as well.<BR>The statutes should be on the State's web site somewhere. This may just be a matter of education a local school board on an arcane matter.<P>Of course if the donated car stipulated in a contract that the car couldn't be sold, or disposed of, there would be a loop hole somewhere that would permit suplus auctions.

[Guest]

When GM donates these cars to the various schools/organizations there is a stipulation that when the school or organization no longer has a use for the vehicle (learning to repair, maintain, etc.) the donated vehicle is to be destroyed. The school or governments have no control over the situation. <BR>GM would have to change its stipulation which it probably requires to limit its liability if anythng should go wrong with the vehicle or parts taken from the vehicle. GM has written off these vehicles since they were damaged in shipment to dealers, did not meet quality specs when manufactured, prototype, etc. Since these cars are written off financially, they do not exist and cannot exist legally when a school has finished with the donated intended purpose. <BR>I know it sounds like a shame to waste scarce parts that our hobby needs but it is a business liability issue for the company that makes the donation.