Kohta halpoja rodeja ja kittiautoja

Normaalisti minulla ei ole tällä palstalle paljonkaan annettavaa eikä tämäkään (jos on ollut jo aikaisemmin, niin poistakaa) mikään kiva ole:

I found the following post on the FORDFE.com forum.

Thanks Royce.

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The state of California is cracking down on fraudulent registrations of kit cars as antiques. For example many Cobra kit cars are registered as 1965 Fords using a VIN from some scrapped vehicle. In actuality those are cars of new manufacture subject to smog, crash testing and other regulations that the builder has illegally bypassed by creating a fraudulent title.

Here's the story:


Wednesday, October 20, 2004

State: 90% of hot rods illegally registered

INDUSTRY PROBE: Boyd Coddington’s La Habra workshop was the site of an Oct. 6 search as part of a multi-agency investigation into the illegal titling of custom-built cars. The investigation is continuing, and Coddington has not been charged.
Paul E. Rodriguez, The Orange County Register
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By GWENDOLYN DRISCOLL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Up to 90 percent of the hot rods and other custom-built cars on California roads are illegally registered and might have cost the state an estimated $250 million in lost revenue over the past decade, the state Attorney General's Office said Tuesday.

Seventy-thousand custom-built cars are estimated to be improperly identified or undervalued in out-of-state registrations procured through shadowy title agencies - a felony, Special Crimes Unit Deputy Attorney General Robert Morgester said.

Hot-rod enthusiasts disputed the allegations and said of the hundreds of thousands of hot rods believed to be registered in California, including an estimated 30,000 in Orange County, far fewer carried illegal titles.

"In general, if you take the hot-rodding community as a whole ... it would be closer to 10 or 5 percent," said Roger Rohrdanz, a correspondent who covers the hot-rod community for Roddin' & Racin' Newspaper.

Brian Brennan, editorial director for Street Rodder Magazine, noted that many custom-car owners found DMV guidelines on how to register their custom cars confusing or contradictory and so frequently choose to go out-of-state to simplify the process. "You're walking on unknown ground because the state of Californiahas so many rules on how to register a car," Brennan said.

The Attorney General's Office has spent the past three years investigating illegal hot-rod registrations, culminating in an Oct. 6 search of the La Habra workshop of celebrity builder Boyd Coddington.

An investigation of Coddington is continuing, and no charges have been filed.

Coddington, who is the star of the Discovery Channel's "American Hot Rod" television program, said he was not involved in the procurement of illegal titles and speculated that the 22-member multi-agency task force that searched his workshop, some with flak jackets and guns, might have focused on him because of his high profile.

"I'm probably the most easy one to get to," he said.

Law enforcement officials described illegal out-of-state registrations through "title mills" as "systemic" among custom-car owners. Morgester said his office found hundreds of new cars falsely described as "vintage" in their titles, and their estimated value reduced from tens of thousands of dollars to as little as $500.

The questionable titles allow custom-car owners to escape higher registration fees when they transfer their car to California, as well as avoid emissions standards that apply to newer vehicles.

Law enforcement's growing interest in illegally titled hot rods was sparked by a nine-month investigation into one Alabama-based title firm, Titles Unlimited, which was found to have improperly registered more than 4,200 California vehicles, contributing to a loss of $7,728,000 in DMV registration fees.

The investigation culminated in the May 7 sentencing of its owner, Richard Weaver, to one year in jail, five years of probation and required him to pay back all profits made on the California vehicles.

The case produced a paper trail linking Titles Unlimited to hundreds of California hot-rod and custom-car owners, as well as some garages that acted as middlemen in the procurement of illegal titles, Morgester said.

Investigators found that many California owners of vintage-car replicas, hot rods and kit cars paid Titles Unlimited a $200 service fee to procure Alabama titles that incorrectly listed the value or model year of their cars.

Typically, the car owner provided a bill of sale transferring ownership of their vehicles to Titles Unlimited - although no money exchanged hands. In the bill of sale, owners described their late-model custom cars as pre-1974 vintage vehicles exempt from emissions standards and of significantly reduced value, the Attorney General's Office said.

Titles Unlimited then procured an Alabama title for the vehicle, thanks to "no-title" rules in states such as Alabama, Florida, New York and Maine that allow titles to be issued without a physical inspection of the vehicle and with only a bill of sale. California, in contrast, requires an existing title and, in some cases, a physical inspection in order to issue a new title.

Titles Unlimited then drafted another bill of sale transferring ownership back to the California owner. Using the fake bill of sale and the illegal out-of-state title, the custom-car owner would then seek a California title for their "vintage" vehicle.

"It's a major concern for us," said Lt. Greg Williams, of the CHP's Investigative Services Section.

The case spurred investigators to examine other hot-rod manufacturers and builders, including House of Cobras in Anaheim and Hillbank Motors in Costa Mesa, which were subsequently prosecuted in 2003 and 2004 for facilitating illegal titles for custom-car owners.

In the case of Boyd Coddington Motors, two vintage Ford vehicles registered in California to Boyd Coddington and advertised on his Web site attracted the attention of investigators in September when discrepancies were noted in their out-of-state registrations.

In an eight-page application for a search warrant, Yolo County District Attorney investigator Bruce D. Naliboff alleged that Boyd Coddington Hot Rods "assisted in providing fraudulent and untruthful registration documents to the California Department of Motor Vehicles in order to procure ownership titles for vehicles without legitimate documentation."

Specifically, Naliboff alleged that Coddington "issued ownership certificates identifying at least two replica vehicles as original manufactured vehicles" in titles issued in New York and Pennsylvania.

One vehicle, for sale for $102,500 in Boddington's consignment showroom, listed a $15,000 purchase price on its out-of-state registration, Naliboff said.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," Brennan said of the allegations. "It is a 1932 Ford. In reality, when you get to the bottom of the paperwork, there is no problem whatsoever."

Ken Miyao, Chief Deputy Director of the DMV, said the registration process was "muddy" but that his agency was looking at legislation that would beef up the tracking and verification process of custom cars.

The DMV does not measure the number and variety of custom cars on the roads in California.

Without adequate tracking of "new" and "vintage" cars, officials expressed concern that illegal titles might enable car owners to pass off their replica cars as valuable originals to unsuspecting buyers.

"They're duping someone into thinking that they're getting something that they're not," Williams said.

"Each time that vehicle is sold, we're creating another victim."

Mike Tenerelli, the lawyer for Hillbank Motors, said most custom-car owners are under the impression that out-of-state titles are "the way it's done" in California.

"They never had the real intent to defraud," Tenerelli said. "If you go to any car show, any car rally, and ask people how it's done, they'd say this is how. It became commonplace."
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Looks like change is in the air.

 

Coddingtonkin on syytösten kohteena, kohta ei enää jenkkilässäkään suosita autojen rakentelua.. :lol:

No onhan tuosta se hyöty että osa huijauksista paljastuu.

 

ei jenkkilästä rakentelua saa loppumaan, mutta rehti peli se olla pitää siis sielläkin.

 

Ei voi muuta sanoa kuin että ei Amerikassakaan taida kaikki olla niin hienoa. Olen muuten tuota ihmetellyt, että onko niillä joku ihme laki millä ne voi kiertää päästömääräyksiä ym. kun tekevät niitä uusia autoja siellä. Ei ilmeisesti ole.

 

Onkohan iso arska ja kumpp. käyneet katsomassa mallia Suomesta?

 

Voisvat lähettää akelta pari innokkainta tonne kolsultoimaan.