Gerald Newman bought this 1970 Shelby Mustang from Golden Classics of Clearwater, Florida for $24,000 in December 2004. The following year he took the car to the All-Ford Nationals show in Carlise, PA. There he was approached by a man claiming “That’s my car!” Shortly thereafter police confiscated the vehicle, and Newman was out $24,000.
It turns out the vehicle was stolen by a Robert Morris, and immediately changed hands until it ended up at Golden Classics where Newman bought it. Morris operated a New York area auto theft ring.
Newman is basically out $24,000 and of course any appreciation and other expense he put into the car. The dealership, claiming they were victims as well, is offering to pay Newman $8000. The man who sold the car to Golden West also claims he was not aware the vehicle was stolen, is also willing to compensate Newman $8000. Recouping $16,000 isn’t too bad considering the circumstances, however Newman isn’t accepting. He has taken the case to court.
Full story at tampabay.com
Hey sucks tio be this guy blowing 24.000 on a Shelby only turning to be a stlon car lol
By John DOE. January 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pmGolden Classics sold me a 1969 Camaro SS 396, and represented the car as having a real 396 motor. When it arrived, turned out it had a mid-70’s 454 plane-Jane truck motor. Unfortunately, this was a long-distance phone transaction (I know - buyer beware - but they still misrepresented the car) and being halfway across the country, I never received resolution and I was stuck with the car. BTW - the Dealer’s ebay name is “Dancin’ Dan”….how fitting.
By DG. January 20th, 2008 at 11:45 amDid anyone making posts here even read the post from the dealer? The car was traded with a title in hand, the problem was the VIN was changed on the car to make it look legitimate. These older cars are so easy to replace the VIN on one vehicle with another it is almost imposible to identify. Especially is it is sold as a clone as this one was. So buyer beware, I had a similar experience with a 69 Mustang I pulled over for speeding and when I ran the tag it came back to a 68 Mustang. The car was registered and titled as a 68. Not until it was impounded did I find out the VIN was replaced five years prior with one for a 68. I would not have even realized this if I wasnt a Mustang lover and quickly noticed it wasnt a 68 Bodied car. Needless to say the guy that owned the car was looking at thousands of dollars in fines for his actions.
By Brian. January 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 amIt is very easy to find a unrepairable rust bucket with title, install it on another car of this age and register it.
But in the end the dealer should accept the lose, he has insurance for it and go after who sold it to him!
I,m the Dealer { Golden Classics } that ended up with this mess. Here it is from day one. A man from New Jersey traded this car into the dealership, he told me that it was a 6 Cylinder car that had been cloned to a Shelby, I felt the cloning job was done very well, but the real 6 Cylinder Serial #’s were on the car and the Title of course was clean as it was never a stolen car, it was a rusted out 6 Cylinder Mustang that the theif used the serial # and Title from to clone the car, so we did nothing wrong at the dealership as the $22000 I gave the man on trade was definately the going value for a clone. Hundreds of collector cars out there have been re-bodied and sold ths way, watch Barrett-Jackson Auction and they advertize re-bodied cars on live TV, so its a known item that is done, so again, there was no way that we would ever know this car was stolen , just cloned with a clean 6 cyl Mustang Title. Next, the actual thief is in jail and a $600,000 restitution of assets he owns has been set aside to pay Mr Newman and other victims, thats why we were not really liable to pay Mr Newman, but it was taking so long, Mr Newman started legal proceedings as we did against the man who we purchased it from, it settled out of court, infact our Bonding Company paid Mr Newman as we were 100% in the right, we had no way of knowing any of this matter. Plus, our own Division of Motor Vehicle confirms the same. We try hard to alieviate any problems up front, but when you sell hundreds of Collector cars a year and for 40 years, things are going to go wrong sometimes, its not a perfect world. I have Never been to court on over 20,000 sales, plus,your never going to make everyone happy in this business, old cars will be old cars, its definately alot better purchasing from any dealer than the thousands and thousands of Curb Siders I call them that wheel and deal in Collector Cars.
By Dan. December 21st, 2007 at 6:55 amThe dealer should return all costs to the buyer & pursue the person they bought it from. This seems logical to me as you go to a dealer so you don’t get ripped off. The buyer thought he was buying a 1970 Shelby Clone not the real thing so the price didn’t ring the alarm bells. In Australia the Falcon XY GTHO is the premium tuff car to own so you can imagine that there is a lot of clones for them selling at greatly reduced price from the real thing as do the Shelby’s. The thing to learn from all this is if you’re buying a classic vehicle they all have history, find out who owned it & were it spent its past. You’re not paying peanuts for these so do your homework & if the history is sketchy or simply not there stay away.
By Bill (Australia). December 13th, 2007 at 4:16 amI’m the guy who discovered this real 70 shelby GT-350 at Carlisle in June 2005. I am the guy this car was stolen from in Sept 97. When I found this car at Carlisle I immediately knew this car was mine because it was unaltered from the day it was stolen from me. The VIN number had been changed to say that the car was a normal 70 mustang and not a Shelby. Mr. Newman bought this car thinking it was a “clone” He did not buy it for $24,000 thinking it was a real Shelby. The insurance company paid me for the car after it was stolen in Sept 97 and I had to buy it back from the insurance company in July 2005. I had the VIN number plate restamped back to its original shelby VIN under the supervision of the FBI and the title reissued into my name with the Correct Shelby VIN number on it and the car is back to the way it was originally before it was stolen from me. My opinion is quite logically that Golden Classics owes Mr Newman all $24,000 back and then Golden classics should pursue the legal course of Action against the guy they bought it from. The shit should simply be put back in the horse until the original thief is made to pay restitution. Mr. Newman is correct !!!
By The owner of Shelby. December 6th, 2007 at 3:24 pmSounds like the dealer was pulling a fast one; The first thing I’d do as a dealer is run the serial numbers to verify what I was buying. A title search would be in order as well. I can’t believe I’m smarter than a dealer that has been in business for more than a week or two.
By sk in colorado. November 30th, 2007 at 6:31 pmcarfax only goes back to 1981 ….
By brent. November 7th, 2007 at 12:46 pmThere is a real “kicker” too all of this. The guy who originally bought the car was told that it was a Shelby “clone” and the guy who stole it found out that indeed it was a real one! Mr Newman bought it as a “clone”. The very first owner of this Shelby worried about the car being stolen and had the serial numbers etched in the floor in various places. After all this it was determined that the car really was a Shelby and not a clone. A really twisted tale!
By ranchero67. September 25th, 2007 at 12:59 pmLike i said, back to the title, shouldnt the title usually be had by a dealer, or at least know the title is clear. Something sounds very fishy.
By Andy. September 16th, 2007 at 12:46 pmsorry, but another case of “if its too good to be true, it probably is”… $24k for a shelby? the guy saw an unreal deal and let it cloud his better judgement. a few minutes on the phone with the serial number and he could have avoided this.
By smblktbolt. September 16th, 2007 at 7:59 amcaveat emptor.
It looks like Golden Classics owes at least 24K to Mr. Newman. Golden Classics was neglent and didn’t do their job when they got their hands on the car. People go to a car dealer for security reasons and the last thing on customers’ minds is to worry whether the car is stolen because is presumable that dealership cars are legally safe. I think that Golden Classics and the man who sold the car to Goden Classics are feeling guilty for selling a stolen car so they are willing to pay 8K each. Mr. Newman made the right decison in taking it to court. I would too. Golden Classics should refund Mr. Newman all his money plus more and then Golden Classics should go after the man who sold them the car.
By mike. September 14th, 2007 at 10:18 pmAlso, its very suspicious why Golden Classics sold a real “Shelby” for such low amount. Did Golden Classics knew the car was stolen and simply wanted to get their money back?..Interesting…Isn’ it?
All ‘70 Shelby’s were re-registered & re-titled 69’s,
By Larry. September 14th, 2007 at 7:27 amfrom what I’ve read.
yea um $24k for a real shelby, i dont think so.
By strtcar. September 14th, 2007 at 7:13 amdo they even make 70 shelbys for some reason i thought it stoped in 69
By jeff. September 13th, 2007 at 4:11 pmCris, the thing your have to remember is he paid something for the car too. The 8000 he paid back was im sure more than what his profit would have been, so hes taking a dive on it too.
By Andy. September 13th, 2007 at 2:28 pmSo…
If you’re a car dealer and pedal stolen cars, then say you ‘didn’t know’, you get to make 16k off the deal with no repercussions?
Wow…I’m in the wrong business!!
What a joke.
Cris
By Is1BadFord. September 13th, 2007 at 11:59 amIt is just me or does $24K for a Shelby seem cheap?
By Jeremy Wilson. September 13th, 2007 at 8:43 amSo was the car passed around without a title the whole time? That should have been some indication. When i bought my car, i got two parts cars without titles, and the first thing i did was call the sheriff and make sure neither were stolen, but that does really really suck.
By Andy. September 13th, 2007 at 5:03 amhe should take it
he’s lucky he had some money back
By where’s my mustang. September 13th, 2007 at 4:57 am