Unique Performance scam

[Bob Johnson]

Doing this kind of work is in part a God Given Talent. Some guys can work with their hands and you can teach them very quick...some other guys want to but they just don't have the hands. Alan has landed some young Hispanic guys and they can do more work in an hour than these young American kids can in a day...even with the language barrier..Alan can communicate better with them than he can with the young American guys that are trying to emulate some Rap guy or Hip Hop thug. Their pants falling off, their hat on sideways or backwards.
Alan and I both have tried hiring some of the kids out of trade schools...but it seems like most of these kids are ones that just didn't study and couldn't get in college and are looking for a way to make a living and they just don't have it. They think of this trade as a glorious fantasy job until they get there and have to work their arses off..Parents have spoiled their kids and they just haven't been made to do anything and most cannot do much of anything. As far as aftermarket parts go, you will have problems with a sizeable percentage of them..even if you get another free, the lost time in replacing it goes out of the builders pocket.

[BonzoHansen]

Bob, how do you really feel? LOL

[Damn True]

I know a guy who went for a walk at an outdoor show, came back to get in his car for a drive and was blocked in by a car that was double parked. "Anyone know who owns this car?" "Yeah, that's him over there." He walks over to find Boyd with a few people around him. "Could you please move the car so I can get out?" Boyd answers "Do you have any idea who the F*** I am?"

ANSWER:
"Yeah, I know who the F*** you are. But you don't know who I am and either you are going to move that car or I will. Your choice Mr. Coddington."

[geoffreyj318]

I found this on http://jalopnik.com/cars/news/foose-...nce-321480.php. It appears that Foose has cut his ties with Unique Performance.

FOOSE DESIGN TERMINATES ALL LICENSING AND BUSINESS ACTIVITIES WITH UNIQUE PERFORMANCE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (Nov. 9, 2007) - Foose Design announced today that effective immediately it has terminated all licensing and all business activities with Texas-based Unique Performance, Unique Performance Concepts and related companies. This termination includes the limited production of all vehicles formerly licensed to Unique including but not limited to, the Foose Mustang Stallion, Foose Camaro, Foose Challenger, Foose Motorcycle and the sales and marketing of the "Hemisfear", also known as the "Foose Coupe", manufactured by Metalcrafters. Foose Design has clearly stated that it no longer has any affiliation with Unique, and encourages customers to understand that Unique no longer has any rights to Foose intellectual property, the Foose name, image, likeness, logos or designs regarding any project.
Chip Foose, the winner of an unrivaled three "Ridler" Awards, and the Foose Design team have worked for more than eight months to resolve issues relative to Unique's problems but ultimately found it necessary to sever their relationship with Unique Performance.
Foose Design does not manufacture production vehicles rather it specializes in designing and fabricating custom built, one-of-a-kind custom cars. Foose Design created the concept for a prototype vehicle to be built under its license to Unique.
Chip Foose builds a special bond with every Foose vehicle owner and it causes him great stress to see this situation occur. Chip has worked tirelessly through the years to build his company, brand and image, which it works diligently to protect, both for itself and Chip's collectors and fans.
Foose Design is working with its legal staff to consider possible action against Unique Performance.

[TonyL]

Chip Foose builds a special bond with every Foose vehicle owner and it causes him great stress to see this situation occur. Chip has worked tirelessly through the years to build his company, brand and image, which it works diligently to protect, both for itself and Chip's collectors and fans.

Damn. knowing Chip, I don't doubt this.

[frankenstang]

I was waiting for that shoe to drop. Good for Chip.

[John McIntire]

Good! It was only a matter of time before we heard from the Foose camp. I think that Chip's reputation is good enough that the real people in the hot rod world know who he is and what he's really about. Its just ashame that he was even associated with these JO's. I think Chip should just keep doing what he is good at, designing and building 1 off cars for select clients, and not even bother with limited edition cars or bikes.
I feel that Chip was used for his name and should never had partnered with those clowns at Unique. He doesn't need them, they needed him.

[Bob Johnson]

this is what happens when you're too busy focusing certain things and others just don't get the attention they deserve. Alan and I could not believe what we heard when we saw Chip was letting them build the Foose cars. Forget the quality problem which Foose saw early on and was trying to address, but the whole business plan of growing that business as fast as they did, it was destined for failure. I could see Foose's disappointment when he looked at that Goodguys 69 Camaro....I overheard one of the Goodguys exec's talking to a couple of people about the air ride Technologies 70 Chevelle that is going to be the next years giveaway car. he made the comment that it was the first giveaway car that would crank, run, drive and not break continuously like all the past cars built by Unique, Boyd, etc. Funny how the giveaway car won the auto cross event at Goodguys too. Someone is going to get a good car...maybe me...I'm DUE...ain't ever won squat..

[barraza]

If you read all the articles linked here it becomes very obvious what happened. They sold 119 cars since 2003, thats only 30 per year. Be generous and figure they planned on making 25k of gross profit on each one after direct labor and parts, that only come to about 3/4 of a million. Anyone who has been in business will tell you it was hopeless given their overhead. Buildings, advertising, and nonproductive people will eat you alive no matter what business you are in.

[jaybee]

"whole business plan of growing that business as fast as they did, it was destined for failure."

That rings so true. I've seen exactly that same thing take down businesses in my own business (transportation) over and over. Someone thinks they have more business than they can possibly handle so they plan to expand 35%/year for multiple years in a row. Ultimately they always end up with poor customer service in some areas because they promised service to too many customers, excess capacity in other areas because the business grew in ways they didn't envision, poorly trained employees or just bad people in key positions, bad processes, and more debt than they can service with the revenue stream. Expansion is good, but you can't force it.

[Doug Harden]

Piss off your employees and expect jail time....

http://www.mustangblog.com/index.php...nce-tells-all/

[matty b]

Serves all of those cheque-book "hot rodders" right. Build your own car, that way it is yours and you know where the project stands at all times.

Im sorry but thats about as ignorant as a staement as I have ever heard. As a shop owner myself I specialize in custom wiring and light (we dont build frames ect.)fabrication and final assembly of customers vehicles, we wired the sam barris tribute car named The Rose, to give you the idea of the level of our work. My specialty is probably right up there with setting up a rear end or building transmissions. Wiring is tedious, complex and a mystery to alot of guys. They pay me thousands of dolllars to rewire their car, get that ls1 running and build out a dash that works. Not only this I make sure everything works and is done cleanly and more importantly safely. Ive seen alot of guys that wanted to do it themselves and not only did their simple wiring job not work it also didnt look good and usually is a fire hazard. And thats just for stock stuff with a few extra added in. Start doing the wiring for engine swaps and all the trick little extra stuff and it snowballs into something that is way over the head of alot of guys and even if they do get it to work it probably isnt gonnna look that clean or it took em forever to do it. Am I hating on these guys?? Not at all. I cant paint a car that well so I have a painter do it cause he practices that trade 40-70 hours a week and the quality shows. Same goes for the guys that wanted an exclusive low production car that carried some status with it. Sure you could put it together your self but there is a point were joe blow doesnt know what to do when quarters need replacement or the correct order to do things in a build so you arent doubling back over work. Same thing as a house, are people less of a home owner cause they had a general contractor build it correctly for them??? So to say they deserve to be ripped off for what a small home costs just cause they had the money to write the check is just plain retarded. My customers know a ton about cars and their projects so I wouldnt sell them short just cause they are having me do work on it. My word of advise is to deal with shops that are recommended from others that are professionals in the trade and that goes for more than just cars. Also at our shop we have an open door policy where we have absolutely no problem with our customers stopping in even unannounced to check on progress( although it is some what irritating when those customers stop by every other day and hang out with you for a few hours). Thats how we have stayed in buisness since 1983, by treating our customers and their cars with respect and being transparent in our buisness practices. Acting like those people deserve it is not only off base but elitist in a warped sense of way. I say elitist cause you think youre better than them, Id like to see your qulity of work if your just a hobby home builder, Im sure its not even close to the quality that a pro builder with years of expierience can do. You can still have the pride of doing it yourself but the end product is probably not going to share the same prestige as a pro built ride. Im sorry for the rant guys but this statment pisses me off, there are alot of really good guys out there that love cars and dont deserve to be robbed, regardless of their level of income. So mr motorhead I hope the day comes that you eat those words and feel what its like to be stolen from or better yet conned out of your money cause thats what happened to these poor car guys

[redfire69]

the statment previously posted is now on Chip's website: http://www.chipfoose.com/pressitem.aspx?nId=23

[WS6]

welcome to the board matt. I am sure your expertise will be greatly appreciated in the electric section.

[matty b]

welcome to the board matt. I am sure your expertise will be greatly appreciated in the electric section.

thanks I came across this board and lateral-g and must say that this is my kind of crowd. So yeah Ill defenitely help out in that section and hopefully Ill get the advise I need on my upcoming project 65 chevelle bi-turbo. Im laid up from surgery at the moment so hopefully that should start within the next few months!!

[terryr]

Hopefully nobody here does the kind of work this guy received. Spend big bucks on advertising then use the cheapest crap for parts. I might expect it from a backyard grease monkey, but to spend big bucks for it is absurd.

http://www.fixeleanor.com/

[gchandler]

When we(Rodger, Mick and I) were at the airport in Columbus after the Good Guys show this year, we were a little early for our flight so we decided to grab a bite to eat. Wouldn't you know it but there was Boyd and his wife just finishing up there meal! As we passed by we said hi and all we got was a quick glance from Boyd and his wife as if to say "Oh! Who the hell are you to be saying hi to me!". We just kind of shrugged it off and sat down at our table. Boyd and wife left. Not a minute later Chip Foose and his dad come walking up and get seated inside the restaurant. Mick decides to go over and say hello. 15 minutes later Rodger and I are wondering what happen to Mick. We go inside and there he was talking to Chip and his Dad like they were old buddies! We joined in on the conversation and Chip and his Dad couldn't have been nicer!

Chip - 1
Boyd - 0

John

Funny how things like this happen. Your experience mirrors mine exactly.

[Todds69]

Crazy....I was really unimpressed when I saw the Foose 69 Camaro at the '06 Columbus show. I was suprised that Chip would put his name on it. I thought there were some fit and finish flaws that should not be there for this kind of coin.

[80proZ]

Exactly!!!! The guys that cry about "Check writers" have no idea all the time and effort that goes into getting a car of that caliber right. I bet a lot of the parts that are commonplace today wouldn't be here for them to just "bolt on" had it not been for some check writing pioneer who thought "It would be cool if we did this part like this!" and made it happen!

John

You guys are giving the "Check writers" way to much credit.Look back at the roots of this hobby.It wasn't "check writers" fabbing up parts to make something work on their cars.Backyard innovation drives this hobby,then it trickles up.Alot of the parts you can buy today come from backyard innavators(Edelbrock,Isky,hurst,Crane..ect)
These high dollar rides just give us regular guys something to aim for.There are plenty of homebuilt cars(on this board even)that can match the pro built cars.
Personally i don't have a problem with someone paying someone else,not everyone has the right skills to build a ride they want.The problem today is that money,not passion, is driving this hobby out of most peoples affordable range.And then you add in crooks like Unique and Hennessy and it starts to go south real fast.

[Young Gun]

but who could have paid for those guys to have kept fabbing those new and innovative parts? sadly check writers...i dont car who builds the car...as long as the owner actually drives it to enjoy it...my problem is when somebody pays a quarter million for a car and it just sits in a big garage and is never driven...I was at the autorama today with my dad and we sat and looked at loads of cars...and while we really liked some of the cars built, the ones we liked the most were the ones that had the registration sticker in the bottom right corner of the windshield...the cars that really get driven are what I really like, not the ones that sit and never see the elements...but thats just me and i dont meant to offend anybody that feels differently, different strokes for different folks