what’s going on in seattle?

I am shocked and saddened that the area of the state of Illinois that champions all that is right and good would be soiled by such malfeasance...

 

It was even before that. A straight Chevy dealership.

When I first started at the Cadillac dealership, I was sent to the training center for Fisher Body. This was 1976, and the instructor was busy making evidence for a trail involving phony warranty claims.

Gordon and George Butler (No relation to me or my Uncle George, who was a Studebaker dealer.) were the original northeast distributors for Toyota in the 60's. Their relationship with Toyota soured to the point where the contract was not renewed.

https://www.autonews.com/article/20...w-england-adventurers-read-like-a-crime-novel

Gordon had a Chevrolet dealership and he sold a lot of cars. It got to the point where he felt that GM should give him a discount because of the volume of cars that he sold. They said nobody got a discount, so he decided to do phony warranty. Apparently, there was collusion on this within General Motors. A suspicious Zone Rep was murdered, a witness was almost murdered, it was a mess.

http://malefactorsregister.com/wp/murder-in-three-acts/ Specifically, Acts 2 and 3.

 

Tough and crooked crowd. Seems mafia-like.

 

The Old Yamaha Shop, use to be in the Sandy Hook Shopping Center, just across the river bridge before you get into town..on the left..I think it is a Salvation Army Store now.

But the time period for the empty crates was when they were on old hwy 20..best recollection is it was only a few..

Oh and that one goofy guy stabbed a new Busa with the forks on a forklift...LOL right thru the side of the crate, into the tank and subframe, and he flipped a new GSXR in the crate, off onto the top of the forklift trying to carry them two high..Idito.

 

Royal Gate Dodge, here is MO has been going through something eerily similar. Most of their new inventory was carted away in a day.
https://www.republictimes.net/royal-gate-in-columbia-not-closing/

 

Happens more than you think - the car business is very leveraged for the most part.

I transported a load of pre owned exotics out of Texas a few months ago .... day after picking them up I had a finance co , police , and a judge calling me asking my whereabouts ....the finance co gladly paid the transport fee upon my return of the vehicles .

 

I have to go threw the lot audits at our dealership once a month. Car not there, it better be at a shop where they can verify. If not, you have to pay it off immediately.

 

Auditors were my responsibility, as well. Thankfully, modern technology and competent auditors made it pretty easy to get through. When the place changed hands, that’s when things went pear-shaped and units suddenly started missing. As it turned out, one of the new, silent partners viewed the place as his personal toy box and was coming in, off-hours, and removing units for personal use. The GM had heard of new units being out at the guy’s compound, so he took a trip out there. He found multiple ATV’s, dirtbikes, and SXS’s, still on the shop’s floorplan, stashed in the guy’s shop and trailers. In addition, he found inventory stolen out of the parts dept, such as oil, filters, tires, etc. It was a huge mess. BUT, it gets better. At the other store, the GM was buying stuff on the shop’s floorplan for personal use. As it turns out, that store owned a couple vehicles and two boats, with one being a twin-engine Baja. LOL!

 

Brings a whole new meaning to the term "stealership".

 

Back in 81 or 82 I was working at Classic Yamaha in Cudahy, WI as a tech/ service dept guy, there were only 2 of us in service. One day, Yamaha showed up with the trucks and started loading up the bikes. The other tech and I never saw the owners again. We just loaded up our tools and walked out. I never did find out what happened.

 

I heard about an Olds dealership that was involved in some sort of foolishness with GMAC about 20 years ago. Something about fudging the VINs on the cars in inventory.

I believe the dealership was in Minneapolis.

I think there was a movie made about it.

 

Harley recently pulled the plug on two common ownership Harley dealerships in Wisconsin. Both were recently acquired by the newer ownership group. Yep, you guessed it, selling bikes and not paying Harley Finance. The Motor Company let it slide for as long as they could but finally pulled the plug. IIRC one was in Janesville the other in Milwaukee .

One thing is for certain, I do not think we’ve seen the end of this across the entire motorsports industry and dealerships.

 

Wood chipppers are cool.

 

If ownerships would humble themselves, they wouldn’t find themselves in these situations. Unfortunately, these people think they’re entitled to being a player and putting on a big show for everyone. New money doesn’t go very far.

 

In retrospect it was probably one of the best customization jobs ever performed on a Busa. He did it a favor by putting it out of its way over extended and chromed out swing arm life.