Matt Harwood
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Posts posted by Matt Harwood
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I don't think any of these shops set out to be scammers or to rip people off. I would wager that in many cases, it ends up being a tax situation where they've kind of been ignoring their taxes or taking shortcuts and the IRS finally starts getting serious. Then they need to find the money in a big hurry or go to jail. Big checks coming in to pay for restoration work neatly solve that problem. Unfortunately, restoration is expensive and uses expensive parts, services, sub-contractors, and supplies. So the next check coming in pays for the first guy's stuff, and so on. It snowballs pretty fast. Once you start digging that hole, it's almost impossible to get out so you just keep digging and hoping that it somehow turns out OK. It never does, but rather than eject and admit that you screwed up and risk losing everything, you stay in until the bitter end. These articles are the result.
Now, $11 million seems like a VERY deep hole and I'm not sure how it got so far out of hand for them. But I'm quite certain they didn't set out to steal $11 million from their customers and I'm guessing that the guys behind it didn't keep the money and make themselves rich. They screwed up somewhere else and used other people's money to bail themselves out.
I don't have any first-hand knowledge of any of this stuff, but I know more than a few shops/dealers that have been in this situation. It rarely gets this big, but when it turns into a kind of reverse Ponzi scheme it's very hard to break out of the cycle. Admitting defeat and acknowledging that you screwed up can be VERY hard to do, especially if it involves flushing your life's work down the toilet.
Just thinking out loud...
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12 minutes ago, 61polara said:
I also have a 1941 Roadmaster sedan with no rear fender trim or fender skirts. No extra trim on the leading edge of the rear fenders and no brackets for mounting the fender skirts. The car has original paint and no signs that the trim was removed and holes filled. My car is an early production car from the CA assembly plant. Let's compare notes on our cars and see if we can document why there is not rear trim on these cars.
My guess is that it had factory skirts and they were removed at some point. There is no mounting hardware on the car for the skirts--all the mounts are on the skirts and they will fit on any 1941 fender, so there's no clue there. The stainless trim at the leading edge of the fender is often lost over time as the mounting tabs rust (the trim is stainless, but the mounting hardware is not). If there's no evidence of mounting holes in the fender for the fender ornament, this is the most logical answer.
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16 minutes ago, Ruppshop said:
Is there a way to upload videos on here or dose it have to be a link to YouTube
You have to upload it to YouTube then you can post a link here, which gets embedded automatically by the forum software.
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I've found that the people who recommend 12 volts aren't particularly good mechanics. Instead of actually fixing things, they prefer to just go to the auto parts store and buy another one. Your attitude towards the change is the right one.
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If I can figure out how to make my cell phone talk to my car, anyone can. It's not hard and using the cell phone is a lot easier than trying to carry that stupid album full of CDs and sort through them at 75 MPH. Once it's configured, it connects to my phone automatically every time I get in the car and I can control it through the car radio interface or even the buttons on the steering wheel. I'm as big a Luddite as anyone, but it really is better.
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My back yard. The carriage house has room for three cars, two nose to tail behind the right door, and one behind the left door. There's a fully furnished apartment on the second floor we use for visitors who come to stay with us, which is accessible via the door on the left side of the building with an awning over it. It isn't particularly dramatic looking, but I like having it and it matches our semi-colonial house. Right now only my 1993 Mustang lives in it, while the rest of it has been converted to a gym that I don't use often enough.
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No, hula girls aren't quite the hackneyed cliche that the fuzzy dice have become.
The only thing worse than fuzzy dice is this:
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How to say, "The owner of this car is a Boomer" without saying, "The owner of this car is a Boomer."
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I've always said there's no Duesenberg I wouldn't happily take into my garage.
That statement is no longer valid.
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You are most certainly not alone.
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That's a lot of money for a $20,000 car.
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I just heard someone call the Cybertrucks "Deploreans" and now I have to buy that guy a drink.
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Wait, what? You don't expect perfection when you buy an old car? And if something goes wrong, you accept it and fix it rather than trying to make the seller pay for it?
Are you even from this planet?
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1 hour ago, West Peterson said:
In regard to photographing every defect, it goes without saying that it would be very important to do so, but as you point out, there needs to be context, and the location needs to be known.
In regard to not driving the car... there's no excuse for that if its a running operable car. Why did the inspector not drive the car??? Only once did I not drive a car I was inspecting for a PPI, and that was because I had just fallen off a ladder and was too injured to do so. The buyer was from overseas, and couldn't put his own eyes on it.
I suspect driving the car is a liability issue for them.
As far as context, almost nobody does it and certainly not the big inspection companies. I wish they would. Most inspection reports are little more than an exhaustive list of flaws, which, taken in aggregate and without any other information, can be scary and make a car look like it is rife with problems. They never mention any positives at all. If you receive a report with 20-30 photos of chips and scratches that are so close-up that they look like significant damage, the lack of context may make you think the car needs expensive paint work. If an inspector is unfamiliar with the operation of an older car with a carburetor, his report may say something like, “Vehicle is hard to start, would not idle properly, and blows smoke.” Again, such a detail sounds alarming and may indicate significant mechanical issues.
Or not.
How does context help? Imagine if the photos show all those scratches, but the inspector’s report also says, “Nice 80-year-old original paint with the usual signs of use but nothing that detracts from the overall appearance and none of the scratches requires immediate repair to prevent further deterioration.” Now you understand that yes, there are some blemishes on the car, none of them are serious enough to need professional repair. Or if the inspector’s report says, “Typical carburetor start takes some extra cranking to compensate for the choke but once the engine is warmed up and the choke is open, it runs properly.” Now you understand that the engine is healthy and simply uses old technology (carburetor and choke) instead of modern fuel injection. In short, context transforms a report from being only about the bad aspects of a car to being a complete picture.
Inspectors could do their jobs better. Most simply don't want to because it's not as profitable.
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54 minutes ago, West Peterson said:
But I guess I'm more tired of having to apologize for those ... who give the rest of us such a bad reputation.
Welcome to the club.
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1 hour ago, TAKerry said:
Matt, that sure puts things into perspective. Do you receive a copy of these reports as well?
No, I don't get to see the inspection reports. On the rare occasion when the buyer actually calls to say he's not buying (usually by saying, "I'm not looking for a project, I want a car I can drive right away,") I've asked for them to send me a copy of the inspection report. Most companies have gotten clever and hide the reports on their own websites behind a one-time-use password so the customer can't simply forward a link to me. On a few occasions the customer has been nice enough to print the report and mail it to me, which is how I found out about the Bonneville, for example. It doesn't change anything when I try to explain how the report got it wrong, of course, because I'm the lying cheater and the inspector is the angelic voice of truth, but at least I can get a little window into what the customers are seeing. The report on that Bonneville, for example, did indeed say that the paint was failing and that the interior was worn.
Interestingly, two weeks later another customer engaged Lemon Squad to inspect that same Bonneville, and they dutifully called to see if they could set up another inspection. YOU ALREADY HAVE A REPORT, USE THAT ONE. IT'S THE SAME CAR.
I have pointed this situation out to one inspector whom I like, and once I laid it out like I did above, the inspector (that is, the sub-contractor for the large national inspection company) was flabbergasted. Several of these guys are actually good inspectors whose efforts are erased by the report writer at the home office. This guy tried to go up the chain and express his surprise and outrage at the situation that I laid out for him. Guess who didn't show up the next time someone called that particular inspection company?
I will admit that this is all speculation on my part. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence, but that's all I've got. I'd love to be wrong. I just don't think I am.
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1 hour ago, Bhigdog said:
Not passing judgement one way or another but that's a pretty strong statement to make without some objective examples of just how PPI actors are actually "picking" peoples pockets...........Bob
OK, here's how the inspection industry works.
You hire an inspector. You either call one of the big companies with their "staff" of "experts" (who are all part-time contractors, not experienced employees) or a guy who advertises his services as an inspector. In most cases, they'll sell you on their knowledge and in-depth experience with all types of cars.
The inspector comes to look at the car. He typically takes a photo of every cosmetic flaw he can find, usually without context. Some photos are so close that you can't even tell where the item might be on the car or how big it is. If it's up on a lift, he'll take a picture of every leak and rust spot he fan find, again without context. We'll take a test drive, but he's not driving the car. He has no idea how it feels or how things are working. He mostly wants to know if it accelerates, stops, and shifts. He won't notice alignments, or misfires, or harsh shifts or anything like that. But his report will probably be full of stuff that he couldn't possibly know.
If he's an individual, perhaps he calls you and tells you what he's found. Maybe he's straight with you, maybe he's skewing the results somewhat for the same reasons as a big company (see below). You'll never know, though. It's not like you'll ever see the car yourself, right? Sometimes you get a good inspector who talks to you while he's looking at the car, as he's doing it, and maybe you get a better picture that way. I don't know, it's only happened once at our shop.
If he works for a big company, he submits his photos and questionnaire to the home office where another "expert" actually writes the report, never having seen the car at all. This is where the scam shifts gears--for the most part, the inspectors themselves are pretty earnest, if grossly inexperienced. But the home office isn't interested in helping me sell a car or helping you buy a car. (I've even had inspections where the customer received photos of a different car than the one I was selling.)
No, the inspector's real job is to generate profits and minimize liability. Rather than risk you buying the car and finding something that they should have discovered (liability and litigation) they tend to go extra hard on the cars. They'll tell you about how the paint flaws are indicative of a failing paint job. They'll say that any rust bubble is a sign of major issues below the surface that will be very expensive to fix. Every leak turns the engine into a ticking time bomb. They are going to give you problems without context and make you afraid to buy the car. If you don't buy the car, there is no liability. Simple! Better yet, the customer thinks the inspector is a hero saving him from a turd, and will use him again. One inspection turns into two or three or four. Again, you'll never see the car, you'll never know the difference. The customer counts it as a satisfactory experience.
And the only people who notice this pattern are guys like me, and obviously, we're crooks and don't like honest inspectors doing an honest job for honest customers. It's pretty clever, no?
Just as an example, Lemon Squad's recent report said the paint was falling off this car and it needed a new interior. Buyer declined to buy saying he didn't want a project.
Here are some of the sage comments we've received from various inspectors:
· While inspecting my personal 1929 Cadillac: “Is this a kit car? It has roll up windows. That’s not correct. All Cadillacs have power windows.”
· When arriving to inspect an Orbit Orange 1970 Pontiac GTO convertible: Looks at subject car and says, “Wow, I didn’t know they made orange Mustangs!”
· When looking at a 1970 MGB: “Who makes MG?” and “I thought all MGs were front-wheel drive?”
· Inspecting a 1968 Corvette and turns on the windshield wipers, then turns off the ignition key instead of the wiper switch. Wipers obviously stop in middle of windshield. Makes note: Wipers broken, do not park correctly.
· Sees wiper marks on windshield. Makes note: Windshield cracked.
· During the test drive of a 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible: “Is this car a manual or automatic transmission?”
· Evaluating 1941 Cadillac with Hydra-Matic transmission. “Car does not stay in place when parked--transmission needs to be rebuilt.” (Early Hydra-Matic transmissions did not have a Park position, only Neutral).
I would wager that we've had more than 500 pre-purchase inspections since we opened for business 10 years ago. I can count on one hand, maybe one hand and two fingers, how many have turned into sales. That isn't because I've somehow managed to find the only 2000 crappy cars in the world. If someone calls a generic inspection company or commercial inspector, I know there's no deal. It's a total waste of 2-3 hours of my time. I have to do it because I don't want to be known as someone with something to hide, but inspections kill deals and they waste a ton of everyone's time. We put the car on the lift, we stand there and answer questions, we demonstrate features, and we go for a ride. And three hours later, the inspector leaves and I've wasted half a day not selling a car. Meanwhile, both the inspector and the inspection company have used my inventory and my time to make money for themselves.
Statistically, to have that large a failure rate suggests that I'm right or that my cars are all crap. Since I know that not all the cars were crap, that says to me that there's something else going on beyond simple inexperience or ignorance, especially among the national companies.
Like I said, nobody believes me because I'm a scumbag car dealer. I'm the problem. So nobody looks too hard at the inspectors themselves, regardless of the outcome. Believe me or don't, I don't care. But in my experience, which outstrips every single one of you by several orders of magnitude, most inspections are a waste of time at best and a rip-off at worst.
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3 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:
The website www.cars.com publishes
customers' ratings of the dealers who
advertise on that site. Gateway receives
only 2 stars out of 5. (See link below with
the 26 comments received.) Interestingly,
there are some 5-star ratings, and quite a few
1-star ratings, without much in the middle--
for an average of only 2.
I don't know them, but you can read for yourself:
https://www.cars.com/dealers/6020780/gateway-classic-cars/reviews/?page=1
Complainers write bad reviews. Happy customers rarely do. I got a bad review from a guy who bought a car and it arrived with one of the tires 10 PSI low and he was terrified that it might have caused an accident when he first drove it off the trailer. I note that several of those reviews are from people who are angry that the dealer didn't call them back fast enough.
Whiners gonna whine.
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4 minutes ago, C-Lamb said:
Retuning to the torque ball topic... how do I know when it's bad?
The oil puddle on your floor will tell you.
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The oil industry receives significantly more in subsidy money than the electric car industry. In fact, the subsidies given to the oil and gas industry amount to approximately 7.1% of GDP ($7 trillion). Electric vehicles are $7500/car and falling (these are 2022 numbers).
Get angry at the right people, eh?
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Save your money, skip the inspection, and go right to the part at the end where you don't buy the car.
Pre-purchase inspections are mostly a scam. And nobody believes me, the shady, dishonest car dealer with an agenda when he says it's a scam. People are so busy watching for the dealer to pick their pockets that they never even notice the inspectors doing it.
If you can't go see it yourself, don't bother with a PPI. Just don't buy the car and save everyone a bunch of time.
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Doesn't hurt to buy the strongest one, does it?
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Carters are somewhat more complex than Strombergs and more challenging to tune, but they do seem to work better--the Carters give a smoother idle. Performance is about the same between the two. Parts are plentiful for both and rebuild kits are available from a variety of sources (I prefer Jon, @carbking here on the AACA forum).
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You seem pretty far down this road, but Stromberg AAV-16 carburetors are relatively inexpensive and plentiful on eBay. I realize you're overseas, but getting one of them shouldn't be difficult. Why reinvent the wheel with the Holley? A good Stromberg is easy to tune and will make the car run properly while saving you a ton of time and headaches along the way.
Just a thought.
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1936 Packard eight sedan
in "Not Mine" Automobiles For Sale
Posted
No, this is the type of car you don't buy because there are 10 other equally mediocre cars for less money and in better condition.