I agree GB. I'm a lawyer. I see stuff like this all the time. Lot's of inventory going in and out, and bad record keeping, and the next thing you know, you're upside down on the obligations. Then you step over the edge and play one off against the other in the hopes you'll make it all right before it goes too far. It doesn't work, and you get snagged. Happens with a lot of flawed bad people, and it also happens to a lot of flawed good people too. Who knows in Michael's case. We will never know. What wee do know, is that he had some pretty good stuff, and unlike the real crooks that show up here from time to time, Michael was always a pretty good guy, and didn't cheat any of us.

 

^^^ Michael Wilhoit

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

I said 5 years ago January 7th should be national Wilhoit day. I still stand by that https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-birthday.html

 

I'm down with all of this -- ^. I've met (or worked on the 928s of) several Willhoit buyers and all were satisfied. One of my long-time clients decided to trim his non-DD car collection. He called MH and had a deal on his 24k-mile 5-speed GTS in 55 minutes at a great price.

The (alleged) story does make me very happy I married a gal with a car habit and not a house habit though.

 

Sad to hear about his passing. 66 is way to young....

He always had an interesting story behind his 928 business from what I've read. Really would have liked to have met the guy and shoot the sh*t.

 

never met him but I will always appreciate the good he did for the 928 community .....some people leave this world way too soon

 

Fair Enough. While I agree with your sentiment on the government, it was banks (not much better, mind you) who created the complaints.

 

Yeah, that's much, much better. I especially trust the banks.
When I read the complaint filed against him, I immediately thought "Credit Default Swap Sans Phony Creative Paperwork".
Isn't there just a touch of hypocrisy when the banks are going after Michael for doing the exact same thing they do, every single day?

 

I rarely visit the 928 forum anymore and by pure chance decided to poke my head in this evening, and sorry to see this thread. I bought my '91 928GT from him many years ago, and ended up selling it back to him a few years later. After a minor accident 2-3 years into my ownership, my bodyshop discovered the car had some prior damage that Michael hadn't disclosed. I called him and explained the situation, and he said he wasn't aware of it, and I felt he was sincere. He offered to buy the car back at a very fair price (close to retail market at the time), without me even asking him to. I know a lot of "reputable" dealers, even franchised dealer, that wouldn't have done a thing in that situation.

I haven't talked to him in 6-7 years, but I always enjoyed our conversations and some of the interesting cars that he seemed to find. He was kind of ahead of the curve on 928's and 993's way back before the values really started to pop. I remember reading about his legal issues around a year ago, and it seemed like his obsession with that home eventually caught up with him. I've seen some fundamentally good people make bad decisions when they find themselves backed into a corner, and Michael is just another one. Being in the sports car business I've seen this story repeated dozens of times, and you can only rob Peter to pay Paul so many times until the music stops. My condolences to all of his family and friends.

 

and all of us bailed them out for it while many of them walked away unscathed.

 

RIP Michael.
Stopped by the show room a couple of times, always had nice cars there.
Regards,