james_85Z28

Looks like California is cracking down on the kit car guys and hot rod manufacturers using bogus titles and evading pollution controls on the cars they build. Link

On Wednesday the 6th of October, 22 law enforcement agents and other individuals from the State of California, Department of Justice Fraud Division, Department of Motor Vehicles, California Highway Patrol, Department of Automotive Repair and others arrived with guns drawn and flak vests on at the shop of Boyd Coddington Hot Rods & Collectibles (La Habra, California).

No, this wasn't the making of an episode of American Hotrod but rather a bonified attempt to serve a warrant issued and carried out by duly vested officers for the purpose of investigating Boyd Coddington on the suspicion of fraud. The alleged fraud charges stemmed from an ongoing investigation by the State of California that has for the past several years been limited to the kit car industry but has now been expanded to the street rod industry. The State of California is looking for cars that meet one or more of the following criteria that would lead to registration or license fee fraud.

Street Rodder has learned via e-mail communications with Robert Morgester, the Deputy Attorney General Special Crimes Unit for the State of California Department of Justice, "The California Attorney General's Office has been conducting an investigation into the fraudulent registration of replica vehicles. The initial investigation was limited to Cobra replica vehicles due to known VIN sequences. We are aware that the same fraudulent vehicle registration issues apply to other replica vehicles and hot rods.
To correct a common misunderstanding of California law, it is a felony to do the following:
1. Register a vehicle where the year of vehicle is misrepresented;
2. Register a vehicle where the value of the vehicle is understated; or
3. Register a vehicle where the year of the vehicle is misrepresented to avoid compliance with California smog laws.

Any of the above actions are a felony in violation of Vehicle Code Section 4463(a). Additionally, the above actions constitute the crime of perjury, in that all statement of facts contained in California DMV documents are taken under penalty of perjury."

In speaking with Boyd Coddington he told SRM that the State of California seized certain company records for further investigation. Boyd also told SRM that three license plates were removed from vehicles within his consignment shop. These vehicles were built decades ago by the likes of Fat Jack and Pete & Jake's. Apparently the state of California is looking into any improprieties that would lead to the state being "shorted" tax or registration dollars.

Boyd also told SRM that he had to show records proving such vehicles as the Whatthehey and the Alumatub were legally registered and taxed, which they were. He also had to show records on two of his Boydster's that were built and given away as to how they were registered and how were the vehicle's values determined and did the new owners pay the appropriate taxes. At the time of this writing it appears Boyd's business has done everything according to the law but that SRM has been told the investigations will not stop with his shop. Boyd was singled out because of his "visibility" on the television show American Hotrod and that other California builders would soon be paid a visit.

Additionally, SRM learned that law enforcement officials, it is believed were California Highway Patrol, recently visited the Labor Day Cruise, held annually in Costa Mesa at the fairgrounds, looking for "suspicious" vehicles. When asked what constituted a "suspicious vehicle" it was determined that any fiberglass car is suspect.

Again, according to the Office of the Attorney General from the State of California, its Department of Justice, "To date, the ongoing investigation has identified at least five other out-of-state companies that have provided fraudulent vehicle purchase agreements and titles to California vehicle owners. The companies are in Alabama, Nevada, New York and Florida. The Attorney General's Office believes as many as 70,000 vehicles have been illegally registered in California through these scam operations.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is in the process of canceling registrations that involve documents obtained from Titles Unlimited. (Titles Unlimited is believed to have provided false documents to Californians that cost the state more than $1 million in tax revenues and license fees over the past two years, and as much as $14 million since 1975, when the company began operating.) The Attorney General's Office also has notified law enforcement officials in more than 20 counties regarding residents who titled their cars through the company for possible prosecution."

Attorney General Bill Lockyer of the State of California tells us that an Alabama man was convicted on felony charges for issuing false vehicle titles in a scam that has cost the State of California millions of dollars in lost tax revenues and license fees.

"This illegal operation provided false information regarding the purchase of expensive vehicles to hundreds of Californians, which allowed them to avoid smog requirements and pay reduced sales taxes and vehicle registration fees," Lockyer said. "At a time when California and its residents are forced to confront painful budget choices, these scam artists defrauded the state and all law-abiding taxpayers who have done their part to get through our economic slump. We will continue to investigate to ensure these tax cheats are brought to justice."

vsixtoy

The guns drawn was a little extreme. Were they expecting a shootout with narcotics smugglers? Don't think so.

The rest of the story I personally don't have a problem with.
If they or anyone else (private party or business) or duping up car registrations so they can try and "Make" a vintage hotrod that can be sold and street driven, I personally feel they deserve to go to jail.

The grand appeal of owning and driving a real vintage vehicle/hot rod is the fact that they are rare and collectable. I can not stand to see the Boyd wantabee hot rodders driving the "Modern vintage" style hot rods that they are buying for $100,000 turnkey. Thes cars are meare complete frame up brand new assemblied vehicle built from ground up. They are in most cases not a true vintage production car that was resto'd of actually found in pristinely stored condition for 70 years. Guys like Boyds have been duping customers for years now doing this- taking the vin # off any junked and completely unsalvagable vintage car and mooking things up on these brand spanking new production rodder frames- then claiming it was the original car when not one part of it was. That is not fair to the true collector of the real vintage cars and has hurt their appreciation value due to the so called lack of rarity.

Sounds to me he's on a high that he can't come down from and is struggling to illegally keep his fabrication of hot rods business going.

I personally am glad they caught him if he is so doing this - USA court systems (But of course he has, and many many other have been for years and years as well. Hope they get these guys also)

cali92RS

The real question is how is this going to effect his show (I actually like it).

injdinjn

Even though it is illegal, haven't they got something better to do.

I think their lost revenue amounts are vastly inflated.
I guess they inflate the lost revenue amounts to justify the millions spent in this investigation and vacations to Alabama, Nevada, New York and Florida.

Our Attorney General is a joke. The City/County of San Francisco is openly violating the Calif fair contracts laws. They are still issuing contracts with racial prefrences, and white owned business have a 10% surcharge added to their bottom line. Has our Attorney General done anything about this -NO.

8T8IROC

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the information James, interesting read. I think that it would be fair that any vehicle built as a kit have to be registered with the year being the year it was built not the year of the vehicle it wishes to appear to be. It will be interesting to see if they bust the place on Ontario that turns fieros into ferraris and lambos

BretD 88GTA

I guess you guys missed this part. It appears Boyd was cleared.

This brings up something Lon and I discussed after the club meeting. It was in regards to the company that is now producing repro '69 Camaro bodies.

Lon was wondering how they would be registered – would it be a '69 or would it be a 2004? I said it would most likely have to be registered as a 2004.

This is similar to what Carrol Shelby ran into when he assembled the remaining '68 Cobras he had sitting in a warehouse. The state wanted them built as 2000+ models, but I believe Shelby won out and was able to build them as '68s since he still had the numbers and paperwork to back-up his case.

cali92RS

Thats interesting. Isnt the smog rule that car must have all the smog equipment installed that it came with for that year? So that 69' would have to have a 2004 engine with associated smog equipment?

BretD 88GTA

Here's the catch, these are new production bodies being produced by C.A.R.S. Inc. So, like the hot rods by Boyd, these are not restored originals. This makes me think you'd have to register it as a new car or I suppose as a kit car like the Cobra replicas.

I'm not sure what the smog restrictions would be, if any.

For those that are interested, here's a whole discussion on the topic from Camaros.net:
http://www.camaros.net/forum/ultimat...ic/24/457.html

I like the idea of having these "repro" bodies. The hard top '69 Camaro is next followed by an early Mustang body.

Granted, it's the not the same as owning a restored original, but one day I'd like to build a '69 Camaro road race car. Similar to the "Big Red" Camaro that used to run the Silver State Classic. Chopping an original body doesn't sit too well with me for this type of project, so these reman. bodies are ideal. Plus, if you bang it up, it's not as critical as if you had crunched an original car.

The downside, is that I'm sure some "no goods" will attempt to pass these off as "factory original" cars and stick a VIN tag from a junker on them. Then turn around and ask a high 5 figure price.

Russ-So Cal

If someone has an original 69 Camaro that is junk, but they use it for a vin on a reproduction body, it is my understanding that is legal. If you don't have an original to get a vin off of, you have to build it smog legal for the year it is built. If I had the bucks, I think a 69 convertable with a LS1 would be neat.

injdinjn

I havent checked it out as I have no need to, but I believe there is a Calif law that allows a certain number of repro cars to be registered as the year they most resemble. Therefore, if this is true the repro 69 camaros could be registered as 69's. A search of the Calif DMV web site could verify or negate this info.

vsixtoy

I have a '67 Mini Cooper S that if I wanted and had the desposable income, I could buy a complete 1pc carbon fiber body and subframe assembly for $8000 and just use that as the basic structure- just sh*tcan the rest of it.

With that said, I will not be a hypocrate and would like to state- I should go to jail for mocking up such a car illegally for any smog exempt street use. It should be original.

Its a bunch of crap. you should NOT be able to register a completely new shell or frame or both as a vintage vehicle. It is fruad and cheapens the real cars out there. Being true vintage is what makes a collectable valuable, and that title should be retained only to those that have saved, collected, valued and/or paid for real vintage cars. Having new dupes that can be registered as vintage and awarded the smog free benefit cheapens the appeal and value to the dedicated investor! Those of us that have them earned them the hard way by storing and saving to gain that privilage.

I have first hand knowledge from an employee of Boyds that this does and has happened! He should go to jail. You can't imagine how many customers of his over the years have laid out over $100,000 for a Hot rod by Boyd with a vintage title and will never know that many of them never had one little spec of the car the title is representing.

Guest

The cops around here should start wearing uniforms that say "California Tax Collector"
Hell, so should every state official. They dig a hole, then go after us for the money to cover their screwup. I say empty Gray Davis and his staffs accounts and stick a million dollar loan on each of them.

69 Mustang

I think it's a lot of legal Hogwash, just another way of making smoe money for the state. With all the authentication processes out there, nobody who is educated can be ripped off by cars registered as classic. In fact I saw a car last year that was a 2004 Z06 rebodied as a 53 and reregistered as such. Does that make it a 53 to a collector? heck no. Now, if the individual tries to sell it as a 53, then that is fraud. The state of California will have to prove that they were trying to deliberately fraud the people whom bought these vehicles. But as I read it, it just seems like the state is having a problem with it because they lose that little bit of revenue, since we all know it costs almost twice as much to re-register a new car as opposed to an old car. Jeeze... talk about being hard up. As for consumers, usually these cars will say, "Built 2004, registered a 1969." Nobody wants to defraud anyone. If the damn car looks, smells, feels, and sounds like an old car, then by all means they should register it as one. No way a replica 69 Camaro can compete with '04 guidelines. Air bags, 3 point belts, OBD II, collision mandates, collapsible steering columns.. and that would be just a few. OK, I'm vented out.....

Russ-So Cal

The car doesn't need all of that stuff. If it is home built, and doesn't get in in time to get one of the limited repop registrations, it will need to pass smog for the year it was built only.

injdinjn

Not that the general public will ever know, but my guess is that the cost of this police action(s) will extremely exceed any collected revenue.
But it makes good headlines for the politicos.

snflupigus

wouldnt boyd have connections to arnold.... and just say, call up the gov and ask why the **** the police are ****ing with him... boyd has to have some pull over there and be able to make this a media freak out in his favor right?

vsixtoy

You think Boyd Coddington is a celebrity?
Most average households have no clue who this guy is around here.

Jay Leno, who happens to be very good friend with Arnold, has no pull around here either and that was recently proven with the passing of a recent smog law revision.