Complain about a product or service

Cars of Yesterday

Pompano Beach, FL

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John of Danville CA (8/7/01):
After studying the complaint from JC of Lexington, Kentucky (below) and the sarcastic response posted at the end of it, suggesting he let someone else do his car buying, I'm reluctant to subject myself to the same treatment, but I feel I should post this for the benefit of those others who might be tempted to deal with this outfit.

Just like JC, I was drawn in by his description of the 1963 Thunderbird which he described in his ebay listing as "shows and runs beautifully ... a real pleasure to drive." Included with this comment was a list of 11 major mechanical improvements made by the prior owner at a cost of $20,000. This was termed "a complete mechanical restoration". Together with this were numerous digital photos which make this car look like a true showpiece.

I was not able to get from California to Florida to inspect the car, but I wrote to Marv and asked if the car was perfect, what else it might need, and could I trust him to buy the car sight unseen. He spends a lot of time blowing about who he is and how rich and important he is. He never once gave me direct answers to any of my questions, but just like with JC, he pressured me to send him a wire transfer for the entire $17,500 for this car, in addition to which it would be $1,000 - $1,100 to ship the car to California.

At the last minute, the shipping charges turned out to be $1,550. Anyhow, when the car arrived here, it is a tired, junky-looking piece, smelling like mildew with a very tired interior. After the driver backed it off the truck, I started to drive it home when, within two miles, the car wouldn't go into reverse. This together with the fact that NOTHING on the car works. The supposed $2,880 paint job is either non-existent or is a sloppy $39.95 special right over rusted areas etc.

I emailed Marv to complain bitterly, and he sent me back a very nasty message stating if I wanted to get tough they would do nothing for me, and go ahead and sue. Knowing we're in California. Just like JC, I then softened my position, and now he has told me to drive the car to Aamco and have it fixed and he would send me a check. Since at least ten other promises have been brokem, I'm sure I'll end up holding the bag on this repair job, but more importantly, he said he would sell the car for us; of course he didn't say for how much.

Despite your criticism of our naive car buying habits, it seems to me that at the very least, something should be done about these (individuals) who ply their trade on the internet. I consider myself anything but a stupid person, but there must be thousands of victims like JC and me out there waiting to be taken by this master of deceit. If you're not disturbed by this type of activity, is there at least another agency you can recommend to us who might take a more overt interest in this man's business practices?

Marvin Friedman of Cars of Yesterday responds:
Cars Of Yesterday, Inc. sold a nicely restored '63 Thunderbird Convertible (Ground-up restoration) to John in Danville, Calif.

As with all vintage cars, I urged John to come inspect the car in person or hire an inspector ... he declined. I had advertised this car for $19,995 but lowered the price and sold it to John for $17,500.(plus shipping)

He asked us to arrange for a trucker to deliver the car to him. I told him shipping would be for approx. $1000-$1100 in an open carrier and $1500-$1700 enclosed. The car came enclosed and he paid the shipper $1500 for delivery.

This car was painted professionally by a local shop in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. for $2880 and I have a copy of the bill which I did send to John. John notified me in an e-mail that after driving the car that the transmission was not performing correctly. His note was extremely offensive. I e-mailed him back and stated that he could call me on my toll-free line ... and that if he spoke to me as a gentleman, I would try and help him.

He did call and explained the problem. I authorized him to have the car flat-bedded to the nearest AAMCO and that I would pay for the charges. I spoke to AAMCO and authorized them to remove the transmission and to completely rebuild it. They did at a cost of approx. $1400 and I paid for the entire bill on my American Express Card.

Then, at John's request I sold this car for him on EBay for $17,500 to a producer in the Hollywood, CA., area for $17,995. He received the car, left me great feedback and called me up to let me know how much he loved this car. John promised me to have all negative comments removed since I was so fair in paying for the tow and new transmission and also sold the car for him without even charging him for the EBAY listing fee.

I did all these things not because of any threats, not because I had to, but because I am always interested in maintaining excellent customer goodwill.

J.C. of Lexington, KY, writes (6/28/01):
I have recently been burned by a Classic Car Dealer who has a substantial presence on eBay Motors and other online venues. The car I bought was supposed to be a complete restoration yielding a car that “looks and runs, as new”. Through a series of very deceptive advertisement, email and telephone correspondence, Marv (owner?), consistently hyped the car far beyond its true condition.

In his eBay Ad (which I can produce) the headline read, "Best in World"! Marv repeatedly used extreme hyperbole to describe the condition of his restored car such as "Perfect", "As New", "Showroom Condition". Well, far from it. The condition of the car was not even close to those lofty characterizations.

The net loss for my particular transaction with Cars of Yesterday, Inc., was nearly $9000 over a period of less than two weeks. Heck, I never even drove the car off the lot! I’m not alone here as I have recently become acquainted with two other buyers who have experienced similar problems with this same car dealer. I request your advice regarding any potential recourse that I may have.

The eBay Auction After agreeing to pay $19,000 for the car (6/14/01), a 1970 Cadillac DeVille Convertible, I hired an inspection service to check it out. The inspector approved the vehicle mechanically and gave a good report of the overall condition. At this point, Marv induced me to pay in full (not just the 20% deposit as specified on his eBay Ad), using the hook of "other higher offers are waiting in the wings". Since the car passed inspection and Marv assured me of the car’s “As New” condition, I reluctantly wired him the full amount. Stupid move on my part.

Five days later I flew to Florida to pick up the car. Its condition was in no way indicative of Marv’s hype. I hated it! Many, many serious flaws. My discoveries include but are not limited to:

• oil pooling on top of engine manifold. Marv seemed surprised & could not explain.
• Front seats are split apart badly on both sides.
• Nothing about the dash is new as promised.
• Instrument panel is badly faded and very dull.
• Wear on steering wheel so bad that it was covered by a cheap wrap.
• Metal toggle switch (Like something from Radio Shack?!) on main instrument panel, has been used to replace the power-top button.
• Rust on the bumpers and under body side molding. (Ad reads: Car has zero rust. Chrome done to “Pebble Beach” standards “like surgical chrome.”)
• Body side molding (rt.side) bowed, hanging loosely due to rusted out fasteners. Glob of super glue (or equiv.) visible in an unsuccessful attempt to attach molding to body. o Could not get rear speaker to work.
• Car has many, many obvious flaws throughout.

In no way could this car be indicative of “Best in World”, “As New” or “Showroom Condition”. After my personal inspection I informed Marv that the car was in no way indicative of his ad or our phone and email correspondence. I then asked for a refund. He blew up. The more flaws I pointed out, the angrier he got. [He was quick to point out that he has a Ph.D. and is worth $20 Million and what a crybaby I was for rebuking his car and his deceptive tactics.] He refused to entertain a refund of any sort.

At this point I became very concerned realizing I did NoT want to drive this car home. In fact, I was very unsure if it was even capable of making the 1000 mile journey. I pleaded with Marv to work with me and after apologizing for offending him (regarding the poor condition of his car) asked him to please work with me on this. After calming down, he begrudgingly agreed to re-market the car on eBay and through Hemmings.com, but only after I signed a contract accepting the car and limiting his re-marketing efforts to 30 days. After that, the car was completely my problem.

We went to the copy center where he angrily typed up a contract. Viewing this as my best hope of regaining most of my money, I reluctantly signed his newly drafted contract and flew back home, very disappointed. After my return home, I became uneasy with passing this car onto the next guy via Marv’s marketing tactics and so again focused my efforts on a buyback from Marv. He flatly refused my request for him to buy back the car, keeping a 20% fee ($3800) for his time and trouble. Obviously, his other “higher offers” were fictional.

Finally, my offer to sell the car back to him for $11,000 was attractive enough for him to bite. We agreed on this price and that is how the transaction ended. In a little over a week, I was out over $8000 plus expenses. My total cost for this mess...about $9000, and I never drove the car off of his lot. BUYERS BEWARE!

In Marv’s defense

• His ad does have a legal disclaimer that basically says that the ad is meaningless.
• His ad welcomes a personal inspection and/or a mechanic’s inspection.
• Unfortunately, my mechanic’s inspection DID okay the car prior to payment. I later realized he was viewing the car from the perspective of “it looks great for a 1970 model” whereas I was expecting, “a near perfect restoration” as advertised. The company I dealt with -- “Inspection Solutions” a.k.a. “LemmonBusters” -- does not arrange for a pre-inspection conversation between the buyer and the inspector.
• His photographs of the car were excellent, however, he was careful to omit the front half of the interior which is where most of the obvious problems were. Prior to purchase I asked him to clarify this area with additional photos which he never produced. on the phone Marv specifically told me that the interior (as well as the rest of the car) was “just like a new car on the showroom floor in 1970”. Balogna!
• I did see other cars at his local that at least appeared to be very nice. Certainly, much nicer than mine.

J.C. concedes that there was a disclaimer essentially saying the promises in the eBay listing were meaningless. Further, he himself -- presumably without a gun being held to his head -- signed at least two different agreements with Marv, all this after paying $19,000 for 21-year-old car, sight unseen. We hope J.C. will not be offended if we suggest he let someone else handle his future car buying.

Marvin Friedman of Cars of Yesterday responds:
I sold a car to a J.C. of Lexington,KY on Ebay in 2001. This was a car restored with a body-off-the-frame by world renowned Cadillac restorer Richard Farkas of Orlando,FL. This was a #1 Condition gorgeous show car.

Prior to hitting the "buy it now" feature on EBay, at my suggestion, J.C. hired a professional inspection company. He was told by the inspector that, "It's the best 70 Cadillac convertible I have ever seen"

After the inspection, J.C. purchased the car.

He called me up the next day and said he would be delayed in picking up the car for a couple of weeks and asked if I could store the car until he arrived. I agreed to do so at no charge as long as the car was paid for. He did, I sent him all the paperwork and picked him up at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale 2 weeks later.

When he arrived, he told me that he had lost $211,000 in the stock-market and that he needed to sell the car. He asked if I would buy it back. I replied, "No, but I will sell it for you and get you what you paid for the car."

He signed a short agreement giving me permission to sell the car for him. I told him I would relist the car the next morning.

He called me at my home that night, and said I am in big trouble with my wife ... she wants it sold right now and he offered to sell me the car back for $11,000. I advised him NOT to do this as it would mean a substantial loss and that if he just gave me a week, I could get him all his money back. He said my wife won't let me do that ... "she is still angry about what I did with our savings in the stock market." I wired him $11,000 the next morning at 10:00am.

I relisted the car and 7 days sold it on EBay for $1,000 more than he had originally purchased the car for. I told him to be angry at his wife ... not me.

He then said he was going to place all types of detrimental information about me on the internet if I didn't send him a check for the money lost. I refused and told him that he was trying to extort money form myself & Cars Of Yesterday, Inc.

After 6 months of his posting of false information on the internet, I hired an attorney in Hollywood,FL., Hyatt Freed and began a civil action against J.C. for the dissemination of libelous and slander statements against Cars Of Yesterday, Inc.

J.C. subsequently agreed to cease from doing any further dissemination of false statements, either in writing or verbally, and we dropped the legal action against him.

The subsequent owner of this gorgeous Cadillac loves the car.

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