Sooo what happened to C&C??

Hey guys,

So Clay sold my dads car on consignment 3 months ago and stiffed him on his money.

I don’t remember ever having an issue with these guys?? I loved their service department, but now I’m afraid he’s going to sell one of my f cars when I drop em off for an oil change.

 

This!

https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/upland/profile/used-car-dealers/cnc-motors-inc-1066-89074598/customer-reviews

 

There was a similar thread in the general forums a few months back, but I believe the user got his money eventually. I don't understand as the exotic car business seems to be booming with prices and sales both going up on top of PPP loans being handed out...

 

Beware CNC Motors/ Lotus of Upland


By the time Clay Thom-owner and salesman/front man Scott got to me they had the scheme of taking in my car on consignment and not paying upon sale down to an art.


The operation is very impressive-beautiful cars, extensive showroom and elaborate offices. This is all just a front. I mistakenly gave my frame off restored 1954 Corvette to them to assist in selling. I needed the funds quickly. We agreed on a reduced sales price and they completely ignored our agreement. After complaining they reduced to the agreed upon price and the vehicle sold within a few weeks. That was the beginning of December 2020. Since that time I have been given a check that they immediately stopped payment on. Stating they didn’t have the funds to pay me. I have been asked to come to the dealership twice to pick up payment. Upon arrival they either weren’t there to pay or was told they didn’t have the funds. I have been in contact most days for the last 90 and lied to too many times to count.


I would not give CNC title until I received payment. Thus the new owner has no title but paid for the vehicle. All of Clay’s lies are very short term- he promises payment today, tomorrow morning or within a few days. Clay and Scott are dishonest. They never intended to pay for the car, this has been proven by their actions. I was told by Clay that he was losing his business, CNC, and the building they occupy. So he has to harm his customers on his way down?


I have restored cars for the past 30 years and this is definitely the absolute worst car experience I could imagine.

 

Here is the prior thread on this. Seems like an ongoing problem with this dealership. Everybody has the same comments. Essentially the dealership sells their car and doesn’t pay them.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/buyers-sellers-beware-cnc-motorcars-upland-california.633598

Hopefully the mods will leave this thread open since CNC used to be a reputable dealership and they appear to be running on their former reputation.

 

Crazy story..not sure if this has been posted or not and have no affiliation to anyone involved in this mess.

 

Just sad.... Always try and use a franchised dealer. It's a safer route.

 

This happened to me with a trade in there 6 years ago. At the time I was upset that CT didn’t just call me and tell me what was going on. It finally got resolved after I found the car for sale at a different dealership and it hit the fan. I had no idea he was doing this on a regular basis...sad.

 

You must not remember when Lamborghini of Orange County fire sold something like 40 cars a decade ago and did not pay off VW credit on their inventory and all the cars got repossessed. All this happened about a decade ago and LOC is under new management now. Even franchised dealers can screw you.

 

I have a friend that left his Performante there to be sold there. Apparently they did over a month and a half ago. They never paid him for the car and obviously are not answering any of his calls or emails.

 

Wow. 6 years ago? That's a hell of a business model. How are these guys still around?

 

And Clay, the ******* that runs it just loves making my poor dad drive from riverside to upland, promising money, only to not be at the shop, or stop payment on a check.

It’s a real shame, they were my service center, they’ve handled my 430, Cali, and Quattroporte.

Now I’ve got to find a new place to trust.

The SB county law enforcement are useless, Hagerty told my dad to **** off, only the DMV has been helpful, and thats just sad.

May the chickens come home to roost.

 

I do remember the Lamborghini OC debacle well. For every 1 new car dealer that goes under, there are many more used car dealers that bite the dust. Most used car dealers are under capitalized and they have no meaningful service operation to keep a positive cash flow during leaner times. I'm a new car dealer and have been in the business 30 years. I've seen this movie play out many times.

 

Saw this video yesterday and was surprised to see the inventory (quality and quantity) at CNC. Figured they would have closed shop 100% by now.

First 5 minutes of this video:

 

What is amazing is that CNC still has their doors open and is still operating and presumably scamming more people. The comments are the police wont handle it as there is an “active” DMV investigation. Yet this has been a public topic for 6 months and the DMV is still “investigating”? We pay tons of tax dollars to keep the DMV in business and they are apparently useless. Just like the EDD that can have billions of dollars ripped off from it (actually TWICE with the two series of stimulus checks). Somebody needs to investigate the DMV on this one. That is the real crime here.

 

Ballerbusters on Instagram busted them. Big mess. They gathered over 120 victims who have the same story. Dealers like these just need to go away.

 

They sell cars every day and have a pretty good Yelp rating.

go figure

 

Or just recently at Porsche of Miami (champion) where they had a high placed guy collecting deposits on cars that didn't exist then skipped town with the dough.

 

Amazing the excuses people come up with After they've committed the fraud. And equally Amazing the believers
of these excuses. The gullibility is 'amazing'. HaHa. The truth is, it's been out there for some time
with the REAL in-crowd. In fact, they were given a $448,600 PPP loan last April for 'payroll' (it's public
taxpayer information) ,, basically the Govt 'helped them' simply continue their misdeeds.
'Covid took me out' is such a lame excuse in this case. Any excuse is a lame excuse.
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There is now an “interview” with one of the principals posted where the guy gives a bunch of phony baloney excuses why these victims are valuable customers and his priority is to not only make them right financially but have them forgive and become friends. Load of crap.....

Meanwhile, another guy posted a video that he says shows a drastic decrease in the vehicles in stock......

 

Yup, here is a translation: “I am really sorry about my past valuable customers that got caught without a chair when the music stopped on my Ponzi scheme. I wish I could get the music running again so that I could get some new valuable customers to enable me to pay the past valuable customers and keep the scheme going.”

Unfortunately a Ponzi scheme is dependent on your reputation and people drinking the Kool-Aid. Seems like the Kool-Aid is significantly diminished and unlikely to be replenished.

 

They aren't the only ones, recently I had a similar experience with a dealer in FL. They held almost$500K for 3 weeks with multiple excuses but I did finally get paid albeit $10K less than agreed. All of these guys are hand too mouth. They act like they are ballers but they are so leveraged that one bad mistake ripples hard. They live well as they are using your money until they get the next payment. Be very careful in dealing with these independents. Dont trust a word. They might mean well but they are awful business people.

 

Agreed. IF he had a flooring line of $30m, he wouldn't have these issues. That is a big IF. I doubt an independent used car lot can get a flooring line that size. Most of his inventory is on consignment, so there is no cash outlay on his part anyways. It's just poor financial management. The auto retail business has been on fire the last 12 months excluding March and April of 2020. Dealers are making record profits. I'm sure his financial troubles started long before COVID.

 

Agreed. His dad died and he doesn’t know how to run a business.

Anybody got a decent service shop in SoCal? I hear the Newport dealer isn’t the best for service

 

My dealer in Torrance does a great job. Let me know if you need an intro.