When a model of car rolls off the assembly line, it’s a fair assumption that each example is more or less identically good. However, their lives diverge from there, and some of these cars end up crashed, repaired, and sold on, possibly with the buyer being none the wiser. A Canadian used car dealership is being accused of misrepresenting a previously crashed 2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition, and unsurprisingly, there’s a lawsuit about it.
Specifically, Automotive News reports that Florida dealer Bourak Auto Sales is suing Victoria, B.C.-based Silver Arrow Cars and its owner Tim Quocksister, alleging fraud and misrepresentation regarding a Ford GT that was crashed outside of North America, shipped back to North America, repaired, and sold again, allegedly without disclosing prior damage.
Let’s look at what we know. A Ford GT Heritage Edition did hit a pole in Brazil back in 2015, and that crash is well-documented across the internet. It’s a pretty gnarly hit, and from there, Automotive News claims the owner at the time sent the car to Detroit for repairs, then quickly sold it within America to another dealership, then on to Silver Arrow Cars.
As the crash happened in Brazil, it wouldn’t show up on that Ford GT’s Carfax due to jurisdictional restrictions on data collection. However, the vehicle was then reportedly sold at auction, and that’s where things reportedly get a bit messy. As per Automotive News:
“Almost immediately” the defendants consigned it to an auctioneer but didn’t disclose the prior damage and restoration to the auction firm, whose pre-consignment form requires sellers to state where a vehicle is custom-restored or original-restored, the suit claims. It said they also failed to provide the auction firm with the required “detail shots showing any flaws, blemishes, undercarriage and other close-up highlights.”
If I was bidding on a car, a lack of detailed pictures would raise a few red flags. However, Ford only made 346 Heritage Edition 2006 GTs, and it’s possible that the plaintiff acquired the car at a comfortable enough margin that should the history be clean, costs of reconditioning could be baked into the retail price. However, in this case, the history of the car wasn’t exactly clean, and it’s pretty easy to see how that could affect value. As such, it’s not surprising to read that Bourak Auto Sales’ lawyer told Automotive News this:
Unsurprisingly, Quocksister appears to be dismissive of the suit, telling Automotive News that he and his dealership will “try to get it thrown out quickly,” calling the allegations “a claim with no merit.”
This isn’t the first time Quocksister has been in hot water regarding a Ford GT. Automotive News Canada reports that back in early 2020, Quocksister was an accused party in a lawsuit around flipping a 2018 Ford GT before the two-year ban on resale was up. Ford sought damages of $1 million plus attorney fees from the defendants and aimed to block and rescind the sale of the car in question.
Regardless of how this legal case plays out, this is a good time to remind anyone that a pre-purchase inspection is a great tool for spotting potential problems when buying a used car, and that sometimes it’s best to just walk away. Whether we’re talking about a high-dollar collectible like a 2006 Ford GT or a reasonably priced 2004 Acura RSX, used cars exist in a variety of conditions, and you’re gonna want to do everything you can to get the best for your dollar. Not every used car is as it seems, and two sets of eyes are a whole lot better than one.
(Photo credits: Ford)
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Fighting over if this matters since wealth is insane sidesteps the real problem. Enforcement of shady/illegal practices by car dealerships needs a massive increase in both frequency and punitive measures. Repeated frauds like this (and you can be 100% sure this dealer has defrauded others) should be IMO automatic grounds for loss of right to practice the car sales business at all.
Could the defendants argue that this car is more valuable after the crash?
Ford never raced these things, so this particular car may now have the most interesting backstory. It’s been crashed in South America, sent back to Detroit for repairs. It’s repaired so well that nobody notices the work and then it’s sent to Canada.
I may pay a slight bit more for an international car of mystery.
no
What kind of sister is that?!
Maybe I’m missing something, and maybe this is how the defendants will, um, defend themselves, but how do we know that the defendants even knew about the crash? They bought it from someone else, so what if the original seller never disclosed the crash, and now the defendants are in some hot water because they didn’t do their own due diligence ?
It is mentioned elsewhere in here, but is it common for the rich guy buying a very expensive car at an auction to bring someone along to PPI it?
I guess we know some of these really rich guys send a pro to go buy it while they sip champagne by the pool, but anyone who has watched Mecum or Barret Jackson on TV knows he actual check writer often is there bidding.
I imagine some sellers/owners/collections have reputations for good care, so maybe you don’t always bother.
Well, I mean the difference between “an extra plane ticket, hotel room, and couple day’s pay” and “cost of a vintage supercar” is probably two orders of magnitude, so yes, a smart rich person would bring someone along
Bourak Auto Sales is suing Victoria, B.C.-based Silver Arrow Cars and its owner Tim Quocksister.
ummm probably shouldn’t google that.
Rich people problem.
Thankful that they removed that ugly wing when they repaired the car.
But wings are cool. Kinda like bow ties.
I guess if you’re racing, sure. On a street car they’re not my jam.
Just like fish fingers in custard.
And a fez! (I don’t want to risk pluralizing that!)
I had a colleague with an early RSX / 4th Gen Integra, he kept it for about 15 years and near a half-million on the odometer before he thought about replacing it. Only on its second clutch by that point and after teaching his kids to drive, too. Durable car. Even then, he kept driving it when he didn’t want his new car to get dirty in bad weather.
This is only happening because a Clean Title 500 mile heritage edition Ford GT is worth about 100k more than a crashed 500 mile heritage edition Ford GT on BaT now that it’s on the CarFax. It has and never will do with safety or actual condition of the car, just resale value, since that’s the only thing the Heritage Edition buyers ever actually care about. 300k paint job… I swear the collector car market is the dumbest thing on the planet.
For the record, transparency is extremely important at all levels of car sales, don’t get me wrong, but the high end market drama just drives me crazy since there is about a 2% chance this car accumulates more than 20 miles a year for the next decade.
Rich guy problems that don’t materially affect the rich guy.
Whatever.
If a shady BHPH lot hid a previous crash history from a low income buyer, would that be OK?
If one is different than the other, why?
Either way the dealer allegedly covered up something that would have prevented the buyer from buying. Whether the buyer is rich or not doesn’t make that less wrong.
BHPH offers NO warranty of any kind. At that end of the market, you know what you’re getting.
I’m not saying the guy with the hilarious name is innocent- he’s not. But the money that will be expended over this issue could feed a whole lot of people.
But it never would so why bother? What if the buyer funded soup kitchens around his city, but was still filthy rich? Would that make it more or less OK? I mean I get your sentiment, and don’t entirely disagree, but even if the buyer is a scum bag that shouldn’t let the seller scumbag off the hook.
And that name is hilarious!
Rich person can just go out and buy another car or get it fixed with no meaningful impact to their lives.
If someone lied to you and conned you into buying something defective for $100 or $1000 or whatever is as cheap to you as this is to the buyer, would your first reaction be “Whatever, I can just go buy another one?”
If it was an amount of money I earn in mere minutes?
Yup.
There aren’t a lot of people in the world who earn $717,000 in a matter of minutes and I certainly wouldn’t assume this buyer was one of them.
There are more than enough. Probably way too many.
That’s the thing about rule of law – once it stops being applied in some situations, even ones you might personally not mind, it eventually stops being applied in all situations, like the ones involving you.
As imperfect as it might be, it’s the closest we can get to justice as a transcendent thing. That’s worth keeping, no matter what we think of the individual situations.
At this end of the market, you’d think the buyer would get an expert to PPI the car before buying. A few grand to fly an expert in GT40s to BC would have been money well spent.
It does sound like the seller is a typical used car dealer – but then so was Bernie Ecclestone.
Next time I’m buying a collectable supercar for millions, I’ll avoid Silver Arrow Cars.
The buyer isn’t blameless, but the “He’s rich, who cares or “He can just buy another one” attitudes on display here are frankly ridiculous.
100% agree; the schadenfreude is strong today.
While I do not support any dealer hiding crash damage, there is 100% a difference between this and a BHPH doing it.
This guys livelihood is NOT dependent on that vehicle. His net wealth must be high enough just to buy the car that he can continue operating his normal life while fighting to resolve this issue. The BHPH buyer cannot. They cannot be without the vehicle if it breaks down, they cannot afford a lawyer to go fight the dealership for lying to them, etc.
The significant difference in the level of douchery exhibited by the same action at different levels of money is that at the bottom, this can destroy lives for many years. At the top, it can piss people off and make a bunch of lawyers money for a few years.
I hate shady dealers. In fact, I refuse to work with dealers and that works for me. But yeah, I hate the BHPH pulling this crap a little bit more than the high end collector dealer doing it, based the expected impact of a poor outcome.
In Canada, we don’t really have BHPH lots, and I believe damage under $5000 doesn’t need to be reported to a buyer. Any insurance repair will show up on the Carfax, but often damage under a few grand goes unreported and is fixed for cash, as reporting raises your premium and devalues your vehicle. For working class people, getting it fixed yourself is often the cheaper option.
When such vehicles are sold at a dealer or a used car lot, they will be represented as accident free, even if the seller is fully aware of the damage, and that’s legal. It’s buyer beware for all of us that can’t afford to just throw cash at expensive issues. Thats the best the working class can get.
Meanwhile, an aristocrat can afford to take a loss, do proper due diligence, or just say fuck it and buy a new car.
Sorry, but this dipshit can go kick rocks.
It’s easy to laugh it off because it may be inconsequential to the buyer, but it’s still wrong and I’m sure it’s still extremely frustrating.
It reminds me of the time I purchased some pouches of cat food online. I normally paid about $12 for a 10 pack, so when I found it for $10 I ordered it, only to receive one pouch instead of 10. Does $9 make a difference to my lifestyle? No, of course not. Was it wrong and deceptive? Absolutely. Was I angry and embarrassed? Of course.
The point is, that regardless of value, wrong is wrong and we shouldn’t laugh it off because someone can afford it.