Unhappy Unique Owner:CAR SOLD

[decooney]

Originally Posted by davids2toys

To All,
Really not looking for a popcorn event here at all. I am entitled to my opinion and of course everybody else is to. I learned my lesson, sold my problem and now moving on.
The name of this thread is consumer watch and that is all I am doing,. I shared my experience and if I can save someone else the same heartache, that is the point of the whole thing isn't it?
I really don't want a carryover of the thread from the Unique forum at all. I put the link there to give the history rather than have to re-explain everything all over again.
Regarding some of the comments. you may want to re-read the thread. No custom install at all.
1. stock motor mounts, stock locations
2. frame threaded holes are from Unique.
3. side-pipes are are made in a jig from Unique?
4. Followed Unique's instruction to the letter and they knew exactly what year car they were building for.
5. 20 year old car, so what, what is your point?

I could have accepted the brackets having to be bent up or down and tweaked a bit for angles. Unique even told me to put them on before jet coating because I would probably have to elongate the holes a little to match up to the holes in the frame. That is all fine and that is what I expected, what I got was nothing like that at all. The brackets were way beyond tweaking or elongating, they were totally mislocated. They needed total rework to relocate, modify and reweld. I do not weld so where does that leave me? If you can't build the part as promised, then why not just sell it as a kit for a lower price and let the customer have the brackets located to the pipes as they fall on the car and then have them welded at the perfect location. I will post pics of the finished product after rework. Actually there is an ad on the forum with Pics.
This is the link:
Spial Flow sidepipes


This also was not the first time I have had this type of problem with them, my rear shocks upgrade purchase was pretty much the same thing. The letter I had to right to get them to do the right thing was totally uncalled for and ridiculous! So this was just the straw that broke the camels back for me.
I never said the Unique car was junk as some are implying. I know there are some really bad kits out there and that is not what I am saying about Unique's car at all. My complaint is not with the car, it is with the manufacturer!
I am most probably going to buy a ERA next. I have heard nothing but great things about them and one of the things I have heard consistently is when they have a problem they correct it it with the customer and do the right thing. That fact all by itself is worth the loftier price of an ERA car.
A note about me. I have been building helicopters for 34 years. I am a licensed A&P mechanic and for the last 6 of the 34 years I have been a Technical Instructor for the company I work for.
I have owned many classic and hot rod cars and bikes. This would also include 3 Corvettes 1960, 1964, and 1965. I am also not young and not rich.
I will say, this was my first replica kit car, hey, maybe I am expecting to much!!!
In closing, the owners that have agreed with me and have had similar experiences with Unique have PMed me and I have spoke with them at length on the phone. It is not only me who feels as I do. In fact, I heard some other stories that were really interesting. I decided to sell the car rather than have to continue dealing with them. Others are stuck with their cars for various reasons and have to continue to deal with Unique so they can't post for fear of being blackballed...very understandable, but as long as the Unique customers put up with it, Unique will continue to have the attitude and do the things they do!
I am putting this behind me and look forward to my next car
Dave
PS: There is no spell checker so sorry about any typos. Is there a way to turn on the spell checker?

As a long time member of this forum, I'm going to stand up for Unique on this one a bit, and ask for you as the poster to consider taking some of the accountability as an owner of a hand made custom car, making changes or upgrades yourself. i.e sometimes shi$$ happens. Yes, it is very possible that you are expecting too much from Unique. As other's have stated, these are not high volume manufactured cars. These are hand made cars with generations of changes - sometimes there are mistakes and tracking all the changes is not always a perfect process. In some cases the parts are made by a 3rd party supplier and resold by Unique too, and its easy to see how things can occur. Previously "owning" and "building" custom cars are two completely different levels of experience. I'd venture to say now If you had truly built custom cars prior to your Unique experience, all of your mounting points and measurements would have been measured an communicated up front with Unique and determined before you bought the parts. And, most of us who've experienced these kind of setbacks do enough of this kind of stuff regularly to just make it work and move on. You are not doing yourself or the new owner of your car any favors by making this post about Unique. Hats off to Unique for still being in business after all of these years. It probably is a good thing you sold your Unique. I would not recommend an ERA for you either. I don't want to see this same kind of post after you sell the ERA. ERA is a hand built car too, and there is always some variability from one generation to the next, just like Unique. Seriously, given your posts and rants about Unique and your experience, you might want to consider a Superformance since its already built for you. You could then just "own" it vs. trying to figure out how to upgrade or build it yourself. Everyone who builds these cars today understands everything you posted and can clearly see the gaps on both sides of the situation. Good Luck.


Re: Spell checker - You can create your post on your computer locally on a word processor tool (MS Word for example) or text editor, spell check it there, then cut-n-paste your text into your post if you need spell checker.

[davids2toys]

Originally Posted by decooney

As a long time member of this forum, I'm going to stand up for Unique on this one a bit, and ask for you as the poster to consider taking some of the accountability as an owner of a hand made custom car, making changes or upgrades yourself. i.e sometimes shi$$ happens. Yes, it is very possible that you are expecting too much from Unique. As other's have stated, these are not high volume manufactured cars. These are hand made cars with generations of changes - sometimes there are mistakes and tracking all the changes is not always a perfect process. In some cases the parts are made by a 3rd party supplier and resold by Unique too, and its easy to see how things can occur. Previously "owning" and "building" custom cars are two completely different levels of experience. I'd venture to say now If you had truly built custom cars prior to your Unique experience, all of your mounting points and measurements would have been measured an communicated up front with Unique and determined before you bought the parts. And, most of us who've experienced these kind of setbacks do enough of this kind of stuff regularly to just make it work and move on. You are not doing yourself or the new owner of your car any favors by making this post about Unique. Hats off to Unique for still being in business after all of these years. It probably is a good thing you sold your Unique. I would not recommend an ERA for you either. I don't want to see this same kind of post after you sell the ERA. ERA is a hand built car too, and there is always some variability from one generation to the next, just like Unique. Seriously, given your posts and rants about Unique and your experience, you might want to consider a Superformance since its already built for you. You could then just "own" it vs. trying to figure out how to upgrade or build it yourself. Everyone who builds these cars today understands everything you posted and can clearly see the gaps on both sides of the situation. Good Luck.


Re: Spell checker - You can create your post on your computer locally on a word processor tool (MS Word for example) or text editor, spell check it there, then cut-n-paste your text into your post if you need spell checker.

Duane,
With all due respect, I don't accept any part of it at all. I think you are missing the whole point of the complaint. No, I have never built a car from scratch but I am a very competent mechanic. I have hand fabbed many parts in my life. If you are on the Unique forum, look for a prop rod thread by me. In fact, here you go:
Hood prop rod question
They actually wanted me to put a screen door screw from Home Depot thru the underside of the hood , then put an O-Ring from the prop rod to the screw. Nice Fix! That is how Unique addresses problems
If you would, please re-read the original side-pipe thread, especially the part where Unique told me what to expect!!
I was totally up front with the new owner and have nothing to hide at all! He knows exactly why I was selling my car!
I will probably choose not to follow your advice about the ERA car and have faith in the ERA company. If ERA turns out to be the same way, then I will assume it is me and that is the nature of all replica companies, however, I get no indication of this when talking to Peter at ERA, in fact I get just the opposite!!! If this situation was an ERA I am 99.9% sure he would have taken care of his customer and done the right thing.
I am not saying nobody is entitled to make mistakes, as a company, just do the right thing to remedy it. when I was up at ERA a few months back they were actually working on a customers car. The mechanic I was talking to about my car told me a story about the car he was working on. It seems they did something wrong and Peter took the car right in to correct the problem free of charge. Now that is customer service.
My feeling is Unique should have at a minimum paid me for the work and materials needed to be done to get the pipes in the condition that I was told they were going to be in coming from Unique. They could have also refunded my money and accepted a return with them paying the shipping. Instead, they offered to do nothing but tell me how to spend my hard earned money use my valuable time to fix their screw up.

If you're right about ERA, I guess I will just go back to regular production car Hot Rods.

Thanks for the spell check suggestion...Dave