midnite993

By all indications given in this discussion, MotorMeister is FINALLY going out of business. They were/are selling customer's cars with lien sale titles as seen on Craigslist and in this current ebay auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151160997390

This is in addition to the cars and engines seen held hostage at the 1:10 mark of this 2010 video: Sneak Peak of Motor Meister's New Facility for 2010! - YouTube

According to a good source, MM's facility is locked down with investigators checking things out. If your car or engine is seen in the above links, I would make an attempt to claim them now. Call the Downey Police and report your car/engine stolen so there is a paper trail to get what's yours when the investigators sort this out.

Check out the photos below taken from the above links. I wonder if there's anything we can do to help reunite these cars and engines to their proper owners...document VIN and engine numbers and post them here?

Silvertarga

So much for their claim that each car has its own cover!!

Reiver

lots of money on those racks...you know if they'd been honest (if they had the mechanical skills) looks like they could of done ok.
Wonder how many lien sales they've 'perpetrated' on honest overcharged customers?

redridge

thats a lot of cars and parts... shame.

bhmkv

Theres some body shops in Ct that kinda do a similar thing. They should be arrested, but instead insurance companies often over pay claims to get customers cars out of storage.

Amber Gramps

It's about time.

theiceman

Wonder what all those guys on Pelican are going to spend their time doing now ?

Amber Gramps

Let's hope the focus on European Collectibles. They need to go under next.

wildcat077

It's hard to believe how many people trusted their cars to them ... i mean if i walked in a shop and saw two dozen cars just sitting there waiting for repairs,i would run away ... not that i would take my car to a shop anyways !

Just sayin ...

Cheers
Phil

midnite993

UPDATE: as of 11:00 today, Detective Roberts of the Downey PD says he has contacted MM and personally inspected (maybe the wrong word) the facility and his (Det Roberts) response is that MM personnel were courteous and friendly. He said the facility looked well organized and that the person he spoke to suggested that anyone who had the correct paperwork (whatever that is) could retrieve their property without delay. Det. Roberts then suggested that a simple appearance might resolve the issue of property retrieval. Monies paid and or lack of completed service will be a civil matter to be dealt with separately.

UPDATE:
Have 1st hand knowledge that Bureau of Automotive Repair investigator's name is Mario Salas.
He spent 6 hours there yesterday and counted 78 cars. He recorded every VIN and instructed MM not to lein any vehicles. Apparently may be placing stop on any and all paperwork filed at DMV forthwith.There are hundreds of motors gearboxes and engine cases scattered all over the shop. Mom and dad are there daily at least for the near future. Do not trust them. And I am sure they they will not be there too much longer. Jerry Jr. allegedly had a veracious appetite for hookers, drugs and Vegas. Thats where all the money went. He is currently AWOL according to Downey PD. By the way the real last name of dad and son is not Marks. Its Marquez according to an employee at the site. They apparently wanted to appear as caucasion descent and not hispanic. At least 3 or 4 customers claimed cars and motors yesterday and today. 1 customer from Virginia even hired a Private detective to retrieve his car and parts. A local body shop who painted cars for MM and is owed thousands is sitting on at least 10 cars. If you have anything there that belongs to you better get it asap. MM is not long for this world and the old man has parkinsons. Wish everyone good luck with retrieving their property.

odurandina

sad. and gleeful.

how many cars/engines, etc stolen over the past decade ?

nice to see the Porsche community can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

midnite993

They found 78 cars and over 200 engines.

Steam Driver

Funny how companies with (apparently) tons of work on backlog can go belly up. We had a place here in CHA that repaired railroad cars and they did the same thing with (get this) almost every foot of approximately 23 miles (!!!) of track filled with freight cars waiting to be repaired or modified.

Most everyone figured it was a money laundering scheme for something else, but no official allegations of that ever surfaced.

Reiver

I've only watched this unfold for the last few years but during that time MM advertised a complete 911 rebuild for about 3k-4k listing the new parts/work involved etc.
Anyone that looked into a rebuild seriously knows that is simply impossible to do for a shop.
So, in my opinion, Marques/Marks or whatever alias you choose made a decision to commit fraud on a few dif levels: Bait/switch when he has your motor/vehicle...triple or more the initial cost and if you balked sell it thru a lien loan (probably pure profit).
Send you back a 'running' motor and say go ahead, sue me and prove it, even tho he used used parts in re assembly or someone else's used parts and still overcharged (the gent with the 16k door stop).
He's a committed felon, hard to tell if he learned that from Dad or not.

midnite993

Sorry duplicate post...see MM bankruptcy thread.