My 95 928 GTS 5 speed was allegedly a daily driver of Willhoit's prior to sale to the second owner a doctor that I bought if from back in 2015. I did enjoy his eccentric ads and promotion of 928s. May justice be served.

 

On the positive side of his business, he did sell exceptionally clean cars. Most of them had clean records and I know a couple of people that brought him cars that were nice but not nice enough for him to sell.

I personally miss being able to have a source for a great vetted 928 GTS whenever I wanted to pull the trigger.

 

Often folks with high net worth or high value assets carry around a lot of debt. I once worked for a guy that had a business that was theoretically worth 100s of millions and was carrying a personal debt of 60M or so. Scared the crap out of me just working for him. It can go south pretty fast: often the value of assets are subjective or timing dependent. Servicing on the debt? Not so subjective. And once it starts to slip many folks will try to patch things to make it work. I'll guess that's what happened here. It does not take ill will or criminal intent. But you never really know. I mean; what was Bernie Madoff thinking?

 

Hmm, I put that in a different category. Willhoit let it get out of control, but from everything I've read (yeah, I know, who the frig really knows), he didn't start out as an active fraudster and scam his customers. Bernie is the worst type of criminal - he abused the trust of his customers, and destroyed many of them. He completely made up the assets that he had to sell. Willhoit had real 928's for sale, and by all appearances, they were pretty good ones.

 

Appearances can be deceiving.

 

We his cars really that exceptional, or was he a master marketeer?

One thing I always noticed which was off and bothered me, was whoever took his pics didn't know how to properly turn a wheel for the pics. Unreal, and inexcusable.

Sample pic to illustrate how wheels would have ben improperly "turned":

 

I've had several of Willhoit's cars through my shop. All were extraordinary examples. One he sold to a client and it had a few "issues", from the rear window leaking water. He paid to replace all the parts...no questions asked.

 

I supplied him with a lot of parts for some of his 928's. He would get a car in an prepare a "hit" list of what was needed to make it perfect.
He was always a gentleman and fun to talk to. Never spared a cent when buying parts. Certainly knowledgeable about 928's.

 

Ouch... so I assume that we'll be seeing 928s at government auctions soon (that is if he had any for sale)?

 

you still feel the need to throw him under the bus ?....

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-a-career.html

 

Michael was/is one of us... Loves the 928 and is in trouble. Granted it is trouble that he apparently had a hand in...

It would be interesting to know the whole truth of this situation. How did it start? How did it gain momentum? When did it become criminal?

Financial crimes usually do not come with a bunch of prison time, they do come with restitution, and Michael is no doubt needing a new start in life.

Perhaps one of the vendors with the capacity to "Trust but Verify" and need a 928 expert could help him get back on his feet once his jail time is finished. Heck! this guy was willing to perfect a bunch of 928's and promote the heck out of the cars. Should we reach out and offer to help him at any point?

 

I reserve all judgment on this topic.

How come banks can play fast and loose with depositors' money, but borrowers can't play fast and loose with the "bank's" money?? Because it's not the bank's money. The bank is just the third party who's assignment is to create loans to vetted borrowers.

When there is a default, it is always the borrower's fault.. Right? When depositors lose their money, who's fault is that?? It is the bank's fault... unless, of course, they can "prove" that its loans were made in good judgment and that their borrower worked outside of the framework outlined in the loan's terms.

There are a lot bigger companies taking advantage of today's "cheap" money. Of course the money won't be cheap forever. "Good" debt today becomes bad debt tomorrow..