Unique Performance is gone

[Randy H]

This may sound unimportant to those in the know but it probably still needs to be said to the potential Cobra owners / individuals in there learning phase.

Unique Performance is in no way associated with the great long time Cobra builder's Unique Motorcars in Gasden AL.

[jshel1]

I stumbled across the Unique Performance complaint page a couple weeks ago. At first, I figured it was just a case of sour grapes and one side of the story. It does sound similar to the delays that many were experiencing from Shelby Motors, but more serious.

Does anyone know if delivery times on the CSX Cobra's have smoothed out now that the '07 GT500's are being churned out on a regular schedule ?

[427sharpe]

I know an (ex?)employee over there, Don Hall. He said there was a ton of money owed to the shop guys and looks like they all took it on the chin (or a little south). He had complained for a while about UP's use of substandard parts like rebuilt electrics,clutch discs/pressure plates and clutch forks from AutoZone they had to modify to work...not a good scene. He also said they were using Lakewood scattershields...without dialing them in, just bolt and go. Said the seizure started when Marshals came in, told everybody to get their personal posessions OUT in 10 minutes or else they would be seized as well. Ever tried to roll a monster SnapOn fully loaded UPHILL? Said it was one he// of a wild scrambel as guys were just throwing stuff out the doors. Had to go thru inspections to be sure no co. property was removed. said the long arm of the law was inside about a half hour, closing computers and filing cabinets and escorting folks out of the offices. He also said the business manager took off out a side door so he didn't have to answer 'questions' from former staff owed pay. Seems the main guys had plenty of cash though.......
I guess Shelby will get dragged into this...should have done a little bit better due diligence before loaning his name to these cro---er, fellows!

[Tim Brewer]

Well, I think that's just great. I always felt from the begining that there was something not quite right with that bunch. Getting 125 to 210K for a restored Mustang with aftermarket fiberglass parts that anyone can get. Then, when sales and interest is at it's highest, Ol Shel steps in to cash in on something that has nothing to do with him what so ever. Chip Foose designed that car from the get-go. Then, because of the artificial claim to Shelby, someone decided that the Eleanor's should be in the registry, how absurd! Whose idea was that anyway? I think my next car I build will be an Eleanor replica

[RedEsprit]

It would seem Shelby is getting a little taste of his own medicine on this one. Imagine, snarfing the name of Eleanor from a Hollywood movie. Whodathunkit.

[kris-kincaid]

I think you can get a new CSX4000 roller right now with no waiting. They've refined the build process and things are really moving now.

[1985 CCX]

Looks like CSX4000 cars are listed everywhere and are priced around 50k for a painted glass roller.

[Archrms]

Did Unique Performance deliver any completed cars, or were they all talk?

[Wammy]

Believe the Orange County Chopper guys got their cars! They always had a good car show, will be missed...

James

[STCinc]

http://www.uniqueperformance.com/default.aspx

[cosbytnkid]

Originally Posted by STCinc

http://www.uniqueperformance.com/default.aspx

Well well well, I've had Unique Perfromance's website bookmarked for quite awhile. I wondered if something was up when one of their models I looked at had jumped up about $10,000.00 with no changes that I could see. Just now I went to their website and guess what? It's gone! This doesn't look too good for the boys out in Farmers Branch, TX.

[mpanten]

This is a bit disturbing to say the least. I always watch the car shows and Unique has been the feature on many of them. Sounds like a lot of people jumped on their bandwagon without a whole lot of investigation. This is going to damage a lot of peoples reputations. I really really feel for the people who got screwed on this deal. Im sure not all of them can just absorb the loss and write another check.

[1ntCobra]

I'm not sure that the government has done a service to the customers of Unique Performance here. The concern seemed to be with removing the old serial numbers and using new ones in possibly misrepresenting the cars being sold. But the customers here all knew that they were buying 1960s era mustangs being rebuilt into genuine, but not original shelby mustangs. Would the customer care if the car had perhaps been flood damaged, if the car is completely stripped down to the body, repainted, rebuilt, etc.

If you think about what Shelby did in the 1960s, he put his own serial number plate on top of the ford number. I guess the difference here is that Unique tried to completely remove the ford number before putting on their plate. Well I guess, that was silly since even with original Shelby mustangs, the original ford number can be used to authenticate the car.

I'm not trying to say that Unique was necessarily running a business properly with the big backlog of unfinished cars and apparently using some cheap parts on their rather pricey cars. But having the government come in and confiscate all of the cars because these re-manufactured mustangs are being issued new shelby serial numbers seems wrong, when in fact that is probably the reason why most of their customers were willing to pay the big bucks.

And with all of the cars confiscated, will the government help the customers get their money back from Unique? Or will the government just fine Unique and keep the money?

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

If you think about what Shelby did in the 1960s, he put his own serial number plate on top of the ford number.

In the 60's, Shelby American was classified as an Automotive Manufacturer.
In this century, companies like Unique cannot meet regs and standards to be qualified as such.

[Don]

Police seize cars in investigation
FB: They allege that the manufacturer altered identification numbers
12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, November 6, 2007

By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
sgoldstein@dallasnews.com
Police have confiscated more than 60 vehicles as part of a criminal investigation into a well-known custom car manufacturer based in Farmers Branch.

No charges have been filed against the owners of Unique Performance, but police allege the company has been altering vehicle identification numbers on customized cars that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Police say the company uses frames from limited-edition vehicles – mostly Mustangs from the 1960s – to build its custom versions. But the titles on many of those frames have been deemed "salvage," meaning the car has been declared a total loss, police Cpl. Chad Taylor said.

That categorization alone severely lowers the value of the vehicle, Cpl. Taylor said. Police allege that in order to hide the salvage status, the company swapped VINs from similar model cars that didn't have salvage titles.

"What we believe they're doing is purchasing a Mustang of the same year, buying Mustangs around the same year that don't have salvage titles" and replacing the VINs on the cars that had salvage titles, Cpl. Taylor said.

Officials with Unique Performance could not be reached for comment Monday night.

According to the company's Web site, Unique Performance "builds small volumes of handcrafted, limited production vehicles ranging from vintage Shelbys and Camaros to a custom version of the current Ford Mustang."

Police confiscated 61 vehicles from two Unique Performance facilities in Farmers Branch, two in Dallas and one in Grayson County, Cpl. Taylor said. The vehicles are being kept at a storage facility in Carrollton, he said.

Cpl. Taylor said charges are likely, though the investigation is still in the early stages.

"We don't have any charges on anybody as of yet just because the vast amount of evidence we have," Cpl. Taylor said. "Pretty much time is on our side now. We believe we have most or all of the cars. We can kind of sit back and look at what we have."

Charges against the company could include placement of serial number with intent to change identity, a third-degree felony, he said.

[CSX 4039]

I've never followed Mustang's much, nor movies. How is it that the Mustang experts didn't know that there was no such thing as a "Shelby Eleanor", or whatever, before the movie? Seems the faithful would have cried, "BS" pretty quickly, instead of jumping on the Eleanor (even in the Registry) bandwagon.
Confused.

[Tim Brewer]

Cpl. Taylor is barking up the wrong tree alltogether. He is so off base it's not even funny. It makes no difference weither those frames or cars were deemed "salvaged" or not when they are rebuilt from the ground up. This man needs to be educated, BIG TIME.

[Excaliber]

I bought a fairly new Dodge, salvage title, repaired it and sold it to a friend, at a nice price because it DID have a salvage title. I had to pay big bucks to have the car inspected by a special State licensed inspector to get it approved for registration. He FORCED me to retain the word 'salvage' on the title, probably related to this idiot Cpl. Taylor. Now come on, I did a really really good job, so why do I have to stick with a salvage title? Why can't I be allowed to 'hide that nasty little salvage detail' from a prospective buyer? That stinkin' salvage title reduced the value of the car by 50%. Dang it, I should have just copied over the vin and not told anybody so I could make more bucks.

Yeah, thats the way it should work, right Tim?

Or are you suggesting that Unique and Foose and other 'really good' builders are 'special' and above the law? Heck I want to be above the law, where do I sign up?

[Bill Kesner]

We can only hope that there is some resolvement for the customers. Sounds like Unique Performance had very poor planning, and poor managment. What a shame!

- Bill -

[Joe Wicked]

I know a guy who used to work out there. He used to claim all the time that they were pulling VIN plates off of cars that were rusted beyond repair and using those on salvage cars. Everyone kept saying that it was just sour grapes and he was full of crap. I haven't talked with him in a while, but I am sure he is feeling vindicated now.