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Reply to "JPS - one unhappy customer's advice."

Q: What's the deal?

A: When people are in the market to buy a dream, they will nearly always look past evidence and reason and chase the object of desire with hard-earned money in a way they never would with any other purchase. John Steele sells dreams, and he's very good at it (the selling part). He's built some great looking cars, but he's never built one that's even approaching "weather tight", and this was well documented before the coupe project was even an idea in John Steele's head. John is John- he can't be Henry Reisner, or Boyd Coddington, or anybody else- he builds cars the way he can and wants to. They look great right out of the chute. They leak. They have lousy engines, sourced from the lowest bidder. At least three of them have caught fire in the last three years. Looking the other way, or wishing it were otherwise, or "holding his feet to the fire", or threatening legal action will only lead to further frustration. What was promised is irrelevant. John is John, and can't be anything else.

This is old news. This sort of problem has been documented back to at least 2002. It's been gummed to death- but it won't stop the next guy who wants a replica coupe from believing he can get the car of his dreams from JPS- because the dream pushes evidence and reason to the side almost every time.

It's the recurring theme of the Speedster Owners website: "If you wish something hard enough, you can make it so". This kind of Pollyanna reasoning applies to how the cars are titled (illegally, 95% of the time), how they are insured (incorrectly, for the most part), whether sales tax is owed (the state says "yes"- most builders say "no"), and most fundamentally- the reputation of a particular builder.

Some guy looking for a coupe just plunked down a deposit to SAS for a car with a "projected delivery" in the 12 month neighborhood- never mind that there are multiple guys on this site who have waited YEARS for a car that wasn't a prototype. Steve Lawson has been sued over this exact issue. And yet, "after a long talk" with Steve- the deposit was sent. The buyer will be truly shocked and indignant when it takes him 4 years to get a car. He bought a dream.

Yeah, due to the exchange rate, and increasing materials costs- Intermeccanicas have become expensive. Every IM owner I've ever come across, met, or corresponded with would tell you it was worth every penny.

On the other end of the spectrum- nearly every Vintage Speedster owner is satisfied with his car. They are what they are, and Kirk doesn't typically promise something he can't deliver. There's a lot of value in that.

What's the point? Take a good hard look at what other people have to say about something before you do it. Don't be fooled by the shape of the bodies- there is a profound difference between car from various builders.

"Ready, aim, fire", beats "ready, fire, aim" every time.
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