Skip to main content

( Scroll down on FB to find this post)
You don't know me but if you hate Classic Motor Carriages or FiberFab because their cars couldn't be built according to experts; I'm the guy that built their prototypes at the factory using the same tools that most of you have and no instructions on how to build them until I wrote those manuals.
and if you ask nicely, I'll tell you everything I know about working in the factory for CMC/FF/StreetBeasts and then some.
Last edited by Alan Merklin
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Would be worth a few beers with him.  Let's invite him to speak at Carlisle. He seems a little arrogant though.  I can drag my CMC up and he can finish it in 40 hours.

I never thought the hatred was from building difficulties.  I was miffed not to find the dimples in the fiberglass for drilling and cutting holes.  The build manual say they were there (assume on the very first bodies out of the molds).  The back order of parts made the build difficult too (no cell phones so every call to Miami tech/sales team was a long-distance call).

Miffed too about the elimination of numerous "non-profitable? FiberFab models that were eliminated when CMC purchased them.  Now there were some unbuildable models that took lots of custom fabrication.

On the Yahoo CMC/FF site, a guy by name of Donnie said he worked there.  He said all the customer relations staff adopted fake names - so an irate customer wouldn't track them down.  A real shame all records were thrown in a dumpster (after 7 years).  I'd love to know # of each model produced!

Then there's CMC President George G. Levin with his marketing blitz and anti-consumer business model (Classic Motor Carriages (fiberclassics.org)):



It was said that in its prime CMC was doing $15,000,000- $20,000,000 US in revenue and selling hundreds of kits a month. But that all abruptly came to an end in 1994 when the Florida Attorney General filed suit on behalf of hundreds of defrauded customers.

The (1994) suit stated that Classic Motor Carriages defrauded customers by “knowingly and willfully” making “false and misleading promises, statements, representations” when it came to the quality of the kit purchased, as well as the delivery time, and assembly time. They were also taking customer deposits by making false and fraudulent statements, and were not delivering complete kits.

I bought a Barn Find Street Beasts years ago in Wisconsin, according to the packing list, 2/3rds of the parts were never shipped to the buyer "Mr Smith" so in frustration the buyer sold it to me. Shortly after I read an article from Curt Scott in Kit Car Magazine that part of the Florida Attorney General's "settlement" with Street beasts was the creation of a spin off company dba Auto Resolutions who  would supply the missing parts to thousands of customers. Since i was the one missing parts, my brain went into action and I called Auto Resolutions (as Mr. Smith having relocated to PA) and went down the packing list of every item shorted. within a week 5 large freebie cartons of parts arrived on my front porch :~)

I did that too, Alan, but I was working through the Florida AG's office (Janet Reno, at the time) by 1995 to get Auto Resolution to accept and concur with my backorder request.  Once the AG "convinced" them to cooperate, everything got delivered within three weeks.  Some of that, like the windshield wiper motor/assembly from Specialty Auto Windows down in Georgia, was very high quality stuff.  Some other stuff - low buck items - was unobtanium so we all wrote it off.

@WOLFGANG  Someone I talked with in the parts/shipping department at CMC (I got transferred to him from someone in Sales to check on a parts order) confirmed that all of the customer support/sales people had false names by saying something like, "You got transferred from Scott?  Oh, you mean Dave XXXXXX.  Those guys all use funny names..."  

That must be the mark of a true, customer-focused company.  

Post Content
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×