[MARTINSR]

It's a tasty highjack!

Brian

[Dave57210]

I'm sitting here with a hiball glass in my hand, filled with a bunch of icecubes, a drop of lemon juice and a double-shot of Crown Royal, enjoying the side-tracking on this (otherwise depressing) thread as folks lay out how they got shafted by a certain "esteemed firm" from Florida

[JGK95]

Damn, I'm Thirsty!



Can't handle the 'hard' stuff, but mostly by choice. If the beer's an English, it's safe to say I've drank it before. For the Ale afficianados, I recommend a personal Fave, Rogue Ale.

http://www.Rogue.com


Great stuff!

Separately, Bob if you're still working on fiberglass, I might be inclined to drag our SB up by you if we can't find a marina guy that does fiberglass repair here in Chi Town.

/Sorry for the hijack, back to the beer!

[MARTINSR]

I don't believe I have ever had Rogue, but I will go hunting for it.



My out and out favorite beer is Belgium "1554". Click here

Brian

[JGK95]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

I don't believe I have ever had Rogue, but I will go hunting for it.
My out and out favorite beer is Belgium "1554". Click here

Brian

Brian, my friend, I think I'll have what you're having!!



My wife picked up the "Multi Pack" from Fat Tire recently and every bottle was a winner. Good call!

[MARTINSR]

I first had the 1554 in a "Beers of the world" box that my wife got me for my birthday. I usually will just grab what ever I have never had when I go pick out a beer. But this 1554 really grabbed me and I will get it often.

Brian

[35terraplane]

Originally Posted by Irelands child

This slight thread hijack gave me a slight thirst so I had to 'hit' my bottle of John Jameson Irish for a wee dram.

A Scottish Whiskey Trail trip can be an interesting one. I've never nor ever will do a visit that way, but I have been known to make an occasional stop to sample the wares. I've found some that I like and some that I wont try again.

My daily is a single beer - and a fairly local one at that, Genesee Cream Ale. I do know that my son and one son in law wont drink it so I know it's as safe in the fridge as is the Guinness.

That single malt of yours, Brian, sounds like it is from near Glasgow and the River Spey

Hijack I thought we were talking about a "streetbeast".

Bob

[ffas23]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

LOL, the "economy" had little to do with the company "going out of business". Let's just say the Feds put him out of business because allegedly the owner had broken a few laws concerning how he treated his customers.

Brian

Brian, Do you have a link to anywhere on the web showing that SB went out of business. If so I would like to read what happened. Funny I went up to the SB website and it still exists.

If they are out of business I would assume their website would also be down. One way or the other it makes no difference to me but I am just a little curious to read what happened for myself. If they did close their doors being my cars body and frame came from Classic Motor Carriages the name of the company before SB took over in the late 90's myself and others may be out of luck if we ever needed body parts at some point down the road.

[Centerline]

ffas23,

I don't think its been officially announced yet but one thing is for sure they're not making any more cars....at least according to their former employees. That's not to say that it would be impossible for Lavin and his cronies to figure out some way to open it up again under a different name (for the 3rd time) and start screwing customers again. They're is a reason Streetbeast is located in Florida and its not just for the sunny weather. The business laws in Florida have so many loop holes slimy people get away with that kind of stuff Lavin pulls all the time.

Just an educated observation, but the contributing factors for the demise of Streetbeast were the economy and word getting out on how dreadful their reputation has been over the years and how many customers they've screwed. This site mainly, and some others have helped immensely in that regard. But the nail in the coffin was when George Lavin was caught deeply involved in a Ponzi scheme that bilked hundreds if not thousands of people out of millions of dollars in South Florida. In order to say out of jail he had to turn over to the state the fast majority of his fortune. He still gets a living allowance that is many times what you or I could comfortably live on, but since Streetbeast was just one of his toys he can no longer afford to sink cash into a loosing proposition.


Centerline
HotRodsAndHemis.com

"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by ffas23

Brian, Do you have a link to anywhere on the web showing that SB went out of business. If so I would like to read what happened. Funny I went up to the SB website and it still exists.

If they are out of business I would assume their website would also be down. One way or the other it makes no difference to me but I am just a little curious to read what happened for myself. If they did close their doors being my cars body and frame came from Classic Motor Carriages the name of the company before SB took over in the late 90's myself and others may be out of luck if we ever needed body parts at some point down the road.

I had the understanding that they HAD been closed, apparently from Centerlines post they haven't. Why, because when you have PILES of money you can make your own rules. I am sorry, I see no reason to EVERY give them a dime of my money. If I had one of their cars and it got damaged, I would simply make the part and move on with life. I would be DAMNED if I ever gave them another dollar. It isn't like we are talking rocket science here, fiberglass and raw metal tubing is all you need to repair or create any part on the car. You don't need them!

Brian

[35terraplane]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

I had the understanding that they HAD been closed, apparently from Centerlines post they haven't. Why, because when you have PILES of money you can make your own rules. I am sorry, I see no reason to EVERY give them a dime of my money. If I had one of their cars and it got damaged, I would simply make the part and move on with life. I would be DAMNED if I ever gave them another dollar. It isn't like we are talking rocket science here, fiberglass and raw metal tubing is all you need to repair or create any part on the car. You don't need them!

Brian

Streetbeast as we know it, is not selling streetbeasts, the building they were in is empty. they were shut down by the feds, as George Levine was going to trial for being part of a ponzi scheme, and fraud. The reason the web site is up. Guys like him never go out of business, until they are put away and they can't find anybody to run it for them, or they die, and can,t find anyone to run it for them.
They have opened another building down the street from where they were, or so i'm told. Watch they will pop up with a new name.
Like Brian said, the car is just metal and fiberglass. Don't let anyone tell you parts from other cars won't work, I have Wescott front fenders on mine. And if I didn't say anything no one would know, Even if they still were making cars, if you got in a wreck, you would still have to graft a fender on it. or patch whatever got hit.
When I got mine, or before I got it I knew what was going in the trash, the grille shell and insert, I already knew a valley grille was going on it, Second thing was I had to get the tires so the fenders would drop down over them, the car looked like it was ready to go plow.So I had to get wider fenders. It all can be fixed, we sure don't need them around, but sad to say you have to chop off the snakes head before it can breed and we start all over.

Bob

[ffas23]

I know exactly what most of the posters here are saying. After I purchased part of my kit in '92 from Classic Motor Carriages I started hearing more and more about people getting screwed where they paid in cash and never got what they paid for. Kit Car Magazine was the first to speak up about this then before many of us were ever on a computer and the internet. I purchased my kit by Credit Card in stages. I ordered just the frame first and when done with that I then ordered the body and body parts. The last shipment of the body came with me finding many parts to be missing. Never got the bumpers or crappy grill which I didn't intend on using either anyway. Didn't get the gages I ordered. No big deal as I bought better ones in the aftermarket. A/C package was suppose to come with mine as agreed but didn't. Plenty of things were missing that were suppose to be in my kit. I had no choice but to dispute the charges for everything missing. My credit card company at the time let me give them a list of what was missing. They gave Classic Motor Carriages plenty of time to make good but they didn't. When they didn't I deducted from the amount owed what the missing parts were worth. We had a settlement and I didn't have to pay for anything I didn't receive. I basically got just the body and frame and some other components needed to mount the body to the frame like other fiberglass parts that needed to be glassed in and other metal parts needing to be welded to the frame. There were other parts I still needed that I could not get anywhere else that I knew of at the time. I ended up building my car up to about 70% and then it just sat in my pole barn from '95 on as other things also got in my way. I didn't hear of Street Beast taking over Classic Motor Carriages although I saw some Street Beast advertisements in Magazines and other places maybe as early as '98 or '99. I actually found out about the takeover in maybe late '01 or '02 and contacted them to buy what I still needed to complete my build. The new outfit seemed to be pretty good to me at the time and shipped me what I needed. I might of spend maybe another $500 with them for the things I needed and as I mentioned earlier most other things needed came from the aftermarket or from Donor cars.

To sum it all up I got back to working on my car in late '03 and it was finished by June of '04 and I am very happy with it. Runs great and a joy to drive. Looks good as I get plenty of thumbs up on the road. If I had to do it all over again I would probably look elsewhere the 2nd time around especially after hearing that there were more problems with SB similiar to problems with Fiber Fab and Classic Motorcarriages years before.

[ffas23]

[QUOTE=Centerline]ffas23,

I don't think its been officially announced yet but one thing is for sure they're not making any more cars....at least according to their former employees. That's not to say that it would be impossible for Lavin and his cronies to figure out some way to open it up again under a different name (for the 3rd time) and start screwing customers again. They're is a reason Streetbeast is located in Florida and its not just for the sunny weather. The business laws in Florida have so many loop holes slimy people get away with that kind of stuff Lavin pulls all the time.

Just an educated observation, but the contributing factors for the demise of Streetbeast were the economy and word getting out on how dreadful their reputation has been over the years and how many customers they've screwed. This site mainly, and some others have helped immensely in that regard. But the nail in the coffin was when George Lavin was caught deeply involved in a Ponzi scheme that bilked hundreds if not thousands of people out of millions of dollars in South Florida. In order to say out of jail he had to turn over to the state the fast majority of his fortune. He still gets a living allowance that is many times what you or I could comfortably live on, but since Streetbeast was just one of his toys he can no longer afford to sink cash into a loosing proposition.


Centerline

Centerline you couldn't be more right about the laws in Florida as mentioned above. They seem to be lax in all of their laws down there especially in the Miami area. I have already had to deal with Credit Card Fraud twice in less then 5 years on a American Express card as my credit card numbers where stolen somehow and used in that same Florida area. Also in the last 2 years I have been a victim to telephone fraud where a company located in the Boca Raton area of Florida sent Verizon info over the phone lines that I was switching to a Voice Mail company out of that area of Florida and I started getting charges on my phone bill for this special voice mail. I never ever had Voice mail to begin with on any of my land lines. Always had a answering machine and never needed voice mail. Had to argue with Verizon who made me contact the company in Boca Raton to cancel something that I never ordered. I even tried to explain to Verizon in my area that I never had voice mail with Verizon why would I all of a sudden need to purchase it from someone in Boca Raton Florida rather then directly from Verizon if I wanted it. Still I had to make the contact and wait for a credit from Verizon. This to me was rediculous on top of everything I have gone through which left a bad taste in my mouth about Verizon now for not backing me up right away.

[Centerline]

Originally Posted by ffas23

...... I didn't hear of Street Beast taking over Classic Motor Carriages although I saw some Street Beast advertisements in Magazines and other places maybe as early as '98 or '99. I actually found out about the takeover in maybe late '01 or '02 and contacted them to buy what I still needed to complete my build. The new outfit seemed to be pretty good to me at the time and shipped me what I needed. I might of spend maybe another $500 with them for the things I needed and as I mentioned earlier most other things needed came from the aftermarket or from Donor cars.
....

Actually George Lavin bought Fiberfab and re-named it Classic Motor Carriages. When the state of Florida shut them down for fraud, Lavin was forced by the state to make good on the claims. He then opened up (the exact same company) under the name Innovative Street Machines which was more or less a holding company that operated under the direct supervision of the Florida Attorney General's office till the $2,000,000.00 in claims were made good.

Once he satisfied the state's mandates, Lavin changed the name again to Streetbeast. Same company all three times, same employees and same ownership. Streetbeast didn't "take over" CMC, it was just reincarnated. With the poor name recognition of CMC after its fraud conviction, that name would never have worked so that's why Lavin changed the name...... and Florida law allowed him to do it. Basically it was screw your customers, get caught, pay back, change name, screw them again and get away with it. That's why so many sleazy business operate out of Florida. I should know since I lived about two miles from Fiberfab and CMC's original factory on Powerline Road in Pompano Beach... just north of Ft. Lauderdale. He11 they used to have one of Fiberfab's Porsche Spiders mounted on the roof of their manufacturing building. The company wasn't moved to Miami till they changed the name to Streetbeast.

Centerline
HotRodsAndHemis.com

"Don't retreat.... just reload". - Sarah Palin

[JGK95]

What's tragic is with little effort, I went out to the web and found all three former iterations of the company and they're all still active as an active site or a redirect to active sites.

Frustrating.