RapidGT

I experienced something similar when buying my 996 Turbo. Ended up losing the car and basically being out the money I paid for it. Owner of the dealer I bought the car from has to pay me the money I paid for the car and so far I have only seen maybe a few hundred bucks in the last 10 years and he owes me $75k. The dealer I bought my car from was called Enigma Motors in Dublin, CA.

pissedpuppy

wow - that's horrible, so sorry to hear this

I'd have to club this dude or something...

Upscale Audio

You are up north and must recall Ferrari Los Gatos. My buddy lost three Ferraris to them as he was waiting for his new car to come and gave them three to sell.

Yea on the Mclaren forum all these guys are screaming "report your car stolen!" and to contact your insurance company, etc. They don't get it. The buyer of YOUR car is an innocent buyer that had an expectation the title would be delivered. Even if you know where the car is, you can't simply go to the guys' house and show your registration to a cop and get your car back. Call the cops all you want. It's a civil matter. Now the DMV will jerk their license of course. I did see a post from a guy that had issues with them at the end of 2019...pre-covid. So they may have already been in trouble.

Every company I worked for went out of business by getting too big for their britches. We expanded at a rate we were forced to because we could not keep up. I don't see any way for them to survive. I don't think this is something Craig Thom ever wanted. Nobody would. You start out being slow to pay off one loan or customer by a week, then two and maybe a few weeks, then ..........

fijibubba

For sure!!!! Clubbing the guy would be an appetizer.

I hope Karma visited this guy.

switchcars

Don't give CNC money, that's how you protect yourself. This is the first big scam of this sort that's happened in a number of years, thankfully. However, there's been rumors of this within our industry for over a year. I got a tip a year ago that CNC was in trouble - they are just milking the PPP and other suckers until they can't anymore, which is likely any day now.

Deal with trusted people of high integrity and a long track record. Yes, CNC had a great reputation, so that's a tough one to predict, but there's usually signs. Usually.

fijibubba

I would guess CNC’s problem started when they built that huge new warehouse in Upland. Their operating costs must have been enormous. I always wondered how many cars they would have to sell and at what premium to pay for all that. Hindsight, they should’ve just stayed at their old place in Riverside. I wondered what was going on when I saw Fraser was no longer the GM there ( knowing it’s a family business). I’ve bought a few cars in the past and Fraser was always great. Sad event regardless.

I imagine when they started out they had no ill intent. A few mistimed business decisions and an extra squeeze from Covid must have been the catalyst for all the cards to come crashing down as they got desperate.

Busta Rib

Damn, I wasn't even aware something like this was going on. Thank you to everyone for raising awareness. Makes you wonder how you can you protect yourself from something like this if the shop has a good rep to begin with, like CNC did. By the time stuff like this gets out, it can be too late.

Speeds5

I don't know but maybe I'm oversimplifying this but if you're selling a car to them or putting on consignment, I would never let the car or title out of my hand until the $$$$ hit my account.

rugu6869

This is heart breaking.
This appears to be the car that "he bought." It's still listed on their website FS!
https://www.cncexotics.com/details-2...4y0122370.html

Upscale Audio

Ferrari Los Gatos, Orange County Lamborghini, and the now-infamous Emporio Motor Group were all impressive operations.
I mean....being a branded dealer for Ferrari and Lambo? That's street cred. CNC had become a Lotus dealer and they had a loooong track record of doing good things, including for me. Go to Yelp and Google and read the reviews. Everything was good ..... until it wasn't. How about the GT car deposit scam at Champion Porsche? $2 million heist Crazy stuff out there.

One of my biggest competitors was rocking it until one weekend the owner emptied the building. Employees showed up Monday to a chained front door. The problem is he took in used gear, mostly turntables, and gave the customers open store credit, and had deposits on a new $15k VPI table coming out. A LOT of customers.

The only thing I would suggest is before doing business to check reviews and sort by NEWEST first. People looked at "Yelp sort" for CNC and the good reviews showed up. Not the latest ones.

EDIT: I looked up Bobby Khan from Emporio Motors and he was a fugitive for five years and turned himself in. he was supposed to get sentenced this last December 17 for wire fraud. His total scam was only $1.7mil and five counts of wire fraud. The CNC deal may eclipse that?

EMpunker

Wow, I had no idea about CNC... I almost bought an Evo 8 from them about a year ago and all seemed well back then...

pissedpuppy

wow - I know the place well. lived in Los Gatos for a bit

rugu6869

When I was on the hunt for my C2, I had found a great Miami Blue that fit the bill.
Dealing with the seller was such a pain! (used dealership in Chicago - new Lotus dealership) They literally took all the fun out of buying the car. Getting answers was like pulling teeth.
They wouldn't even email me the paperwork to let me look it over, they just sent it FedEx. I found an arbitration clause that they said was non-negotiable. I walked away from the deal.

Be prepared to walk away from something if it doesn't feel or seem right. There will be other cars.

Burren

Who's ready to read about cars for sale again???

Speeds5

ME!!!!