Beverly Hills Car Club and Gullwing motors; thoughts?

Gullwing in ny? I bought an e type from them 6 yrs ago. Good experience.

 

To my eye, both are a mixed bag. I'd say both focus on project cars. BHCC in particular has had some basket cases that I've seen.

I've read negative reviews of Peter Kumar (Gullwing), but I know several people who've dealt with him and say he's a straight shooter. I looked at a 456 there years ago that needed a lot of work, and they were upfront about it. I have also looked at several cars at BHCC, and the salesman was telling me how great the car was while things were literally falling off of it. But my guess is that it varies from car to car.

I've never known an exotic car dealer (or mechanic for that matter) that hasn't had someone say something negative about them. Even the really good ones. Good reputations are hard to earn and even harder to keep. It's easy to disappoint people.

If you're interested in any car, get a PPI by an independent 3rd party. That goes a long way to making the sellers reputation a moot point.

 

Have no experience dealing with either of these dealers but have eyed their offerings for years.

Would like to add that it may be easier for a dealer to have bad things said when they are selling cars that are in need of some help / project cars and not 100 point museum pieces. These types of cars are always buy at your own risk and more likely to be full of surprises - a buyer needs to acknowledge this when heading in for that low priced "bargain" and not be completely surprised or throw out bad press unless the car was totally misrepresented at sale

 

even so much?

 

BHCC can't be all that bad. After all, Gas Monkey Garage deals with them!

 

I have delt with BHCC a few times, in fact I will be there Monday afternoon checking out a Delorean,

Yes they buy anything and sell anything, however they are very honest and will supply you 100's of pictures if you request them. They will put the car on a lift and let you examine every part of the car.

PPI no problem. Simply put, yes they sell some basket cases and rust buckets but they admit what they are and there is a huge market for project cars so more power to them.

By the way, they have a TON of cars in their LA location... Here are some pics from my last visit.
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For a while, I was at BHCC almost every weekend looking at TRs. I saw a review on them some time ago that I felt was extremely accurate, and it goes something along the lines of this: "they don't lie, but they're not exactly forthcoming".

 

BHCC, with out going it to what I know, WALK AWAY.

 

My only experience with BHCC was selling to them. It was the most painless car sale I have ever experienced.

Do they pay a reasonable amount for your car? Not, even, close. But other than that little detail they were great to deal with. I had money in hand long before they had the title or had picked up the car for the trip from NC to CA. From what I have read the reviews from sellers are very good, reviews from buyers, not so much.

The car? 1982 Mondial.

 

I sold them a basket case isetta. It took about a week to get it sold. They send a truck with a check for less than what the agreed upon price is. So I send the truck back and of course Alex Manos calls me yelling and screaming. Then they come back a day or 2 later, same thing. For them, third time is a charm. I mean we are talking hundreds of dollars less, not even worth the time, effort or gas for the truck. Who knows, maybe enough people just fall for it.

 

Is it this thread where we talked about the TR Submarine that BHCC was selling? The "Mechanics' Dream"?

No wait, here:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/boxers-tr-m/530961-what-became-bhcc-testarossa-barnacles-oil-filter.html

And here:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/boxers-tr-m/518242-scary-project.html

 

I bought my TR from BHCC and I had no complaints. They were straightforward and very good at responding to emails. They didn't allow an off-site inspection which limits what kinds of testing the inspecting mechanic can do (if you get a 3rd party), but they were quite upfront about it. I'd buy from them again without any hesitation. A lot of their inventory needs work and they don't hide it - you just need to figure out on your own what work you're going to need to do to get it to pass inspection and get it on the road.

 

I have sold project cars to both Alex at BHCC and Peter at Gullwing. Both were very
professional and easy to deal with.

 

Got mine from BHCC in May 2016.

 

I thought I'd share my recent purchase experience with Beverly Hills Car Club.
The description said "knock off Borrani Wheels". They looked fantastic in the description, vastly newer than anything else on the very rough car.
On a basket case car, that's a substantial fraction of the value.
I even asked for extra confirmation that they were truly Borranis before buying.
(they didn't answered--notice?--the question, but they certainly knew it was important enough)

On receipt, they are cheap Daytons, clearly marked as such, worth maybe 600 new each instead of 2000+.

So I asked for a small refund to help with my financial pain due to their fib. Specifically, I asked for half the gap in the going price for used wheels.
They said...get this...of course they aren't Borranis, "knock off Borranis" means "fake Borranis"!
Yes, that's right...they are claiming that the term "knock off" when describing wire wheels means imitation, not wheels with spinners.

Flat out lie, of course, with a flat denial.
Keep away. Far away.

Incidentally, about the inspections--I wanted them to bring in a guy to look the car over, at my expense.
I pushed hard pre sale, twice. No dice. No extra pictures. Most questions dodged, over and over.
They just make stuff up then take the money.

J

 

Awful story. Sorry you had to go through that.

and this is why worst insult can give a business person of any type is to call them a used car salesman

 

I wonder about the desciption: "knock off borrani wheels"
borrani wheels AFAIK are always spoke wheels, and those to tight is only possible as knock on/off
under knock off I understand central nut and not faked borrani
so sorry to hear/read here about this bad case

 

Do you have a picture of the ad or a pic of the car you bought with the rims?

 

When considering a car from either of these companies, make certain you have zero expectations for the car. You are buying that car with that VIN, but expect the worse, hope for the best. They know very little about any of their inventory, and if they claim to know something about it, don't trust the info. The individuals who work there are largely clueless.

I snapped up a 911 from BCC a couple years ago because I was very specifically looking for a 74 911 coupe (lightest G-body cars ever , 2350lbs stock! ) , non sunroof, matching engine/gearbox and in rough-ish shape so I could restore the thing exactly how I wanted minus concern for it no longer being original. To date, this car is the only car in years of searching I found meeting exactly what I wanted, so frankly I'm happy I found it, but have literally zero expectations and expect to go through the entire car. Don't go to either expecting a car needing minor work etc.