The GOOD, the BAD, and the ULGY of dealing with Shelby Cobra of Arizona. My
Fully restored 427 FE side oiler with top loader 4 speed had been in my garage for the last
18 years needing the car. When Thomas from Wickenburg, Arizona called, he told me they had the last carbon fiber car produced in the Vegas facility and no more were going to be built. It already had all the upgrades I wanted on it and was stored at the Barret* Jackson warehouse in Phoenix. I asked how much and took it. On October 11, 2010 I took my engine and transmission and all the rest of the parts I had purchased and took them to Wickenburg, Arizona. I must admit that I was not impressed with the shop, nor did I see my car there. Tom assured me that they would go to Phoenix in a couple of days and get it. I handed over my check and asked when it would all be done. He told me it would take two and a half months. I said that's great, it would be right around Christmas time. I drove away wondering if made the right choice. But it was a hassle
Getting a 600 lb. engine in my Dodge Caravan, so I thought everything must be OK. After a month, I called to find out what was the progress. Tom told me that he had to order different motor mounts, and they still had not picked up the car, that it would be a few more days for that. I asked for pictures when it arrived. Another week went by and I had to call again to find out the progress. When I asked about the mid-December delivery date, he again told me it wouldn't be a problem. I again asked for pictures and they arrived a week later. Around mid-December, I still had not heard when it would be delivered and AGAIN, I had to make the call. The engine still had not been fired up; the dash had not been signed, and was told they were moving to Scottsdale. He said he
Would pull the dash and drive it to California for Shelby to sign it. I told him to just mail it to them, but he said he had too many that were damaged that way. That it would be after the first of the year. Mid-January I placed three calls and it went to voice mail each time. Finally I wrote Tom an email and NOW I had Christal answering it. She assured me that everything was on schedule. What schedule?? She told me that I would be dealing with her now and would send a video of the engine running. Strange thing is that
The video was showing the old garage in Wickenburg. That was fine, since I now saw the engine running. She assured me that more pictures were coming. Mid-February, I placed
Another two calls (voice mail again), and had to email her for a status report. She called me back to tell me that they don't sit around all day checking voice mail or emails. Isn't that part of running a business? When she finally called back, she told me that the new delivery date would be March 30th. This was already three months behind what I was told. I asked about the signature on the dash and that still wasn't done. She assured me that it would be done. She again told me that she would send pictures. None have arrived yet. Then around March 26th, I started calling and emailing as to what time they would be here on the 30th. She called back to say that it would now be April lOth. They just got the dash back and were installing it. On April 7th she called to get my driver’s license number and address for the registration and license. I was very mad that she
waited this late to finally get this done. She assured me that it would be over-nighted and
I would be very pleased with the car when it finally arrived. On April 8th and 9th I keep calling asking for a time period that they would be here on Sunday. That I did not want
to be away from the house or make other plans to be away. She never called. Finally at
3PM on Sunday afternoon, she called and told me that Tom and the transport were still in
California delivering other cars and it would be Tuesday before they made it to Albuquerque. She knew where the transport was, and it was just nasty to keep me UN informed like that. Monday night I emailed Christal and again asked for a time period when they would be here on Tuesday. No replays. I placed a total of 14 long distance calls on Tuesday starting at 9AM, left voice mails each time, and did not get one call back. At 4:30pm I contacted my lawyer.
Wednesday April 18, 2011, I emailed the Shelby factory in Vegas, and The Shelby licensing people in California. Within ten minutes, I received an email from the CEO of Shelby America and told me that he was spearheading this and would get back to me immediately. When he did, he told me that he left several messages with Christal and Tom and that they hadn’t replied yet. He then called the transporter who has a brushed aluminum Cobra and knows him very well. He said that when they were unloading my car in California to get to another one (one has to wonder, why put my car in last when you know that the others are coming out first), he smelled gas. They found that the rear carb was leaking gas and that the float was stuck. He did not want to take a chance on a fire in the enclosed transport, so he soaked up the extra gas and headed straight back to Phoenix. Again, you would have thought he would have placed a call to Christal, Tom, or ME. At 5:39PM, a friend of my attorney went by the dealership in Scottsdale to find about 10 Cobras out front, three inside the showroom. The hours shown on the door indicated they were open till 7 PM, but no-one was there. The place was all locked up. Also no security guards were on duty. Can you imagine ten Shelby cobras on an outside lot, overnight? She did say that when she looked into the service window, there was a
Solid black (no stripes) cobra with the hood open and looked like it was being worked on. On Friday morning the CEO emailed me to say he finally got a hold of Christal and she told him they were out of town on other business with their real estate division and they turned off their cell phones. That she would give me a call and update me. By mid-* afternoon, I emailed the CEO and told him that no-one had contacted me yet. I then called my lawyer and he got a hold of Tom. Once again, he confirmed the gas leak and told me that the parts were not available in Phoenix and had to be ordered. This is a standard 4 barrel holly 650 that is still being made today. 11:30AM April 8, 2011. Just got an email from Christal telling me the parts are ordered and it would be a few days till they arrive. Wouldn't you have overnighted the parts? So once again I will reach out to the CEO to get this ball rolling.
April 22nd, still working on the car.
April 29th, still working on the car.
May 9th
He also told my attorney that Christal did not appreciate the Shelby Dealership
Calling her about us. Monday comes and goes with no car. I call my attorney and he calls Tom. Tom is STILL working out some small details and will finish up in a few days. The transport driver leaves me an email that he will pick up the car on Tuesday
May 10th
For delivery on Wednesday at noon. Everyone is on board with this delivery
Time. He says he will call me when my car is on the transport. Tuesday evening comes and goes with no phone call from the transport guy.
Wednesday May II Th. At 10AM I start emailing and calling everyone again. By noon, nobody has returned any message. Finally at lpm my attorney gets a hold ofTom and he says they are finishing up a few details and it should be loaded any minute. It was promised here in Albuquerque one hour ago and now we find out it’s still in Arizona. At
3pm my attorney finds out that it has been loaded and is planned for a day time delivery. Well, its ten hours away, so I guess he is talking about a delivery on Thursday May 12th.
Thursday May 12th, no calls or emails yet. At noon, Tom and Bill along with another friend pull up to our home with the car. Ten minutes later, I asked to start it up and Tom recommends not to because he says it has
oil pressure problems. Seven months he has had this car and now we can't start it. He pushes it into our garage, demands a check for
$1600 balance that is due and they leave. All total about 20 minutes. Ten minutes after they leave, they cash my check. Some trust here after holding $75,000 for seven months. I now discover the trunk is not carpeted, no floor mats, no driving certificate from the school in Phoenix, no side view mirror. I am not returned my old parts, like the ignition coil, motor mounts, and
oil filter bracket. I discover the distributor is loose and not tightened down; the wires attached to the ignition coil are loose. I pop the distributor cap to inspect the work done on the dual points and was surprised to find the same 50 year
old points and condenser. All the money for re-syncing the points, and they use the old
ones. Who knows what else I am going to find.
Tom tells me that it has an
oil pressure problem. I told him that he had the car for 7 months, why isn't it working. He thought it would be a WARRANTY issue for me to pursue with who rebuilt the engine. I told him that it was rebuilt 18 years ago and HE knew that. So now I have a car that won't start and needs someone else to fix it.
Tom leaves me with two hand written pages telling me the problems with the car. At one
point during the delivery, Tom turns to Carole and says he really doesn't like working on these old engines. He would rather work on the new aluminum block 427's.
Let's also keep in mind that never at any time in the seven months did anyone say they were sorry for anything.
Who spends $76,000 for a car that doesn't start? And they will try saying that it was my engine and responsibility. I took it to them (the experts) to get it running and they knew that whatever ANYTHING needed, I would authorize it. This is why I have a hard time believing that they did any carb rebuild work. I still question it. There is only a small
amount of gas in those carb bowls and gas doesn't flow uphill (inside the transporter), so the story of it leaking in California is now starting to sound strange also.
Lastly, their ad is clear about why to buy in Arizona. I have included the page from their website dated 02-03-2010 which is the day I started looking for a place to get the body
for my engine.
It's now Sunday Morning May 15th and I thought I would check some items out myself.
I discovered that indeed I had dual points in the distributor. What puzzles me is that they are the same 50 year old points and condenser. Having paid what I did for the distributor work to be done, wouldn't a qualified person change it to NEW ones? When I look at the clutch lever, I discover the rubber boot is missing that I supplied, along with the dust cover (metal) on the bottom of the bell housing. I was also promised that the trunk was carpeted, and had floor mats and side view mirrors I don't have these. Where are my old parts that were not used? They include my old ignition coil, motor mounts, old oil filter housing.
UPDATES:
Car was transported to "Reliable Engines" here in Albuquerque on June 3'd. On June 7'h, Bobby Mitchell (owner) called to say that they had to putt the engine from the car and found that the oil pressure relief value was put in backwards. They put it in the correct way; put the engine back in the car. At this point the car started, had up to 70 pounds of oil pressure, but ran badly. Bobby said that the carbs needed to be rebuilt along with the distributor. I told him that they were and he said there was no evidence of that. These repairs were out of his expertise and recommended another shop to take it. It was then transported to "Worldwide Automotive". Bob Agnew is the owner and specializes in restoring old cars and has been in business for 30 years. He personally verified (pictures included) that the carbs were never worked on, the distributor was never worked on and was very mad at the level of work done on such a great car. His statement is on his letterhead. When the engine was dropped out in Wickenburg, Arizona on October 11,
2010, I told Tom that the engine had been setting in my garage 18 years. That it needed
to be totally inspected, the carbs needed rebuilt kits and to replace anything else that he thought needed to be. done. I had the impression he knew what he was doing and what needed to be done. Older Carbs have gaskets and diaphragms that go dry and crack if stored. I knew this to be a problem, and that's why I told him to get them rebuilt. He definitely charged me for it, along with charging me for the distributor rebuilt. Both were not down or if they were, it was a very bad job.
My recommendation for anyone dealing with this firm is to make sure you have a contract; set delivery dates with a penalty if not meet, and only I 0% down till the car is done and delivered. If everything was done very professionally with them, I would have consigned my car to them at some future date to either sell in their new shop or to help me with the Barret-Jackson auction. But not now. I will never deal or recommend this shop to anyone. So the 2 and a half month project turned out to be seven months. In all this time, I had two phone conversations with Tom, and two with Christal (one of course was on the Sunday at
3PM). No other calls were made by them to update me at all. With all the options
already installed on the car from the Vegas Factory and a completed restored engine, clutch, and toploader, I really cannot comprehend what took so long. My theory is that my car has been done for over three months and on their showroom floor to have something special to show customers. When they finally got some pictures up on their new site from their grand opening, you could see a black (no stripe) car in the background. Was this mine? So that is my story for now and hopefully tomorrow (June
24th, 2011) will be the magically day I have been waiting for now for 251 days. Think twice if you want any custom or scratch car built by them. By the way, the Good I mentioned at the beginning of this post was My car. The bad and the ugly were Arizona Shelby Cobras.
UPDATE: Since the car was dropped off in town, I have had three different shops trying to fix various things on the car. The first shop had to fix the no-oil pressure issue, since it was delivered and told to me by Tom Blessin, that it did not have any. The next shop fixed the distributor and carbs and told me that they were never repaired and still had the old points in the distributor. Another couple of lies from Tom. The third shop, had to do a complete alignment, front and rear ends. That too was never done. They then told me that the exhaust tubes were just resting on the bottom carbon fiber frame. So the tubes that Tom made were very bad and twisted to the point that the number eight cylinder tube was actually rubbing on the steering column. If the engine was revved up, you could hardly turn the steering wheel. Then on Sept 25, 2011 while driving down a main street at about 7am, the rear end completely locked up on me and I was stuck in the middle lane. Fortunately, when I put it back in gear it did move and I limped it all the way home. When I checked the rear end for oil, it was completely dry and completely shot now. At that point I called Bill Griffin in Phoenix and told him to come get my car and take it to Tom Bernard’s place in Las Vegas for a complete repair.
Oct.3rd, 2011: Tom Bernard called and told me all the things that were wrong and gave me a price of $10,500 to fix it. What choice did I have. The list is too long to go into here as to what he found when he took it all apart. Tom Blessin is worse than an amateur in dealing with cars. I should have my car returned sometime in January. In the 15 months since I first met Blessin, I have had the car for just 3 months. If you add up the initial installation charges from Blessin and all the local shops and then Tom Bernard to fix it all right, I am out over $25k.
Conclusions:
The labor to put my car together and get it all running was $10,000
Ignition work that was never done - $500.
Carb rebuilding that was never done - $700.
Engine mounts that were never changed – 150.00
Total Rebuilt from new place in Vegas - $11,000.
Transportation charges - $2400
Attorney bills - $3,000
Total - $25,350
I have since found out from the initial transporter that the car NEVER was taken to Los Angeles, nor was there any problem with the carbs. Just another lie to be added to all the rest.