Posted on 01/10/2014 6:48:28 PM PST by rawhide
At 580 hp and a starting price of $55,000, the Chevy Camaro ZL1 ranks as the top dog of the Camaro lineup (at least until the Z/28 hits the track.) For Camaro enthusiasts like John Hooper, author of six books on the history of Camaros, it's a dream car — or at least was a dream car, until an employee at a Chevy dealership totaled his ZL1 on an unauthorized joyride. Nearly a month later, Hooper and the dealership have yet to agree on how much that particular top dog was worth.
According to Hooper's posts on the Camaro5 forum, he had taken his 2012 Camaro ZL1 to First State Chevy in Georgetown, Del., for warranty work on a paint issue. On Dec. 15, a Sunday, one of the dealer's employees took the keys from the closed dealership and went for a spin — that ended when the ZL1 sheared off a telephone pole.
The next day, the dealership told Hooper about the incident, and by the end of that week, the car had been declared a total loss. Since then, Hooper and First State have been unable to reach an accord over how to replace the ZL1.
To First State's credit, it immediately fired the employee who took the car and tried to pursue charges against him — but local officials said since the car was in the dealership's legal possession at the time of the crash, no crime was committed. Hooper's ZL1 had about 10,000 miles on it, and while First State has offered other used ZL1s as replacements, Hooper has said those cars were not worth as much as his example was pre-crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
Debbie Hooper, owner of this Camaro posted this in the last week---
On 12/15/13 my 2012 Camaro ZL1 was stolen from the dealership by one of their employees. The car had been locked in the service bay for safekeeping, but apparently the keys were available to an employee who entered the building on a Sunday when the dealership was closed. The employee took my car out with a friend and totaled the car. Since then, I have been told by First State’s owner, Bob Hansen, that we would get a car as close to ours as possible with no money out of our pocket. Almost four weeks later, we were offered a used 2012 ZL1 with 34% more miles, the apparent need for new tires at 13,588 miles, tinted windows, and other options we did not want as a “replacement” for our car. We gave the dealer a counter-proposal and left them to think about our proposal. Last night, I discovered that the car they offered us was actually a TWICE-previously-owned car and had received some body damage when it was only a few days old. Naturally, First State Chevrolet claimed not to have known about this when we spoke with them about the car today. We were told today by First State that we could either BUY the car they offered as a replacement (even though it was not as nice as our car), or they were done “negotiating” with us. So tomorrow I will be making a payment on a car that I do not have access to and certainly cannot drive thanks to their employee’s joyride. And First State refuses to step up and “do the right thing.”
And here’s the dealership post:
Recently 1st State Chevrolet had an employee enter the dealership on Sunday December 15th and take a customer’s Camaro without authorization and subsequently totaled the customer’s car in an accident. Our business is closed on Sundays and was locked as is usual procedure. The employee acted on his own in this unfortunate event. This is an awful situation for both the customer and the dealership to deal with. We have been in contact with the customer and apologized for this situation at length. Both parties’ insurance companies are working to handle this claim in a satisfactory manner. Hopefully this situation will be settled in the very near future. -Robert L. Hansen President 1st State Chevrolet
CC
Yes Yes Yes!!!! I wish Ford would build a new Mustang with the exact exterior look of the 1966 Mustang and with the new engines we have today and new suspensions it would BE THE MACHINE to have. It was also a chick magnet.
The original suspension on the Mustang sucked. Above 100 miles per hour it had a tendency float. It was not stable.
The dealership is getting raked over the coals about this on their website. Read the many many negative comments now before the dealership takes the comments section down. It is good to see.
https://plus.google.com/104918506907097870137/about?gl=us&hl=en
I recall floating a couple of times in one. Too young and dumb to know better.
The 2014 looks really good, totally new throughout but more of an evolutionary approach to the interior and exterior styling. They’re planning on export market for this one.
It keeps the lowlifes away from the decent cars such as mustangs and shelbys.I’m find with that.
He needs to get a good looking car and that Camaro aint it.Coupled with the crap the dealership is feeding him he should get a FORD MUSTANG.Good job gm,good job.
No sympathy for anyone who buys a GM product .
Maybe the real president of Government Motors, President Obamma, can organize a car summit between the car owners and the dealership owner at the White House and get this resolved?
My very first car, purchased in 1986, was a 76’ Chevy Camarro and let me tell ya, that baby effortlessly flew down the road! At 16 I just loved it.
My 98 BMW 323i is the benefactor of an M3 salvage transplant. I paid £600 for the 323, straight body no rust.
Paid £700 for a salvage M3 sedan. 2 weeks after work every night in a bay at work, transferred power train and suspension parts from M3 to 323, and I have an M3 at 1/4 of the insurance rate, and the ultimate sleeper.
As a bonus, sold the M3 chassis and leftover 323 parts for salvage, got £400 for it. So I have a £900 BMW M3
The dealership could press charges against the driver, I’ll betcha. They won’t though because it admits some sort of liability in hiring this fool.
I owned two Honda Accords. A 2005 Model I wore out driving 120 R/T miles to work everyday for 4 years, and a 2009 I replaced it with.
I got my oil changed on average once a month at the dealership. Shortly after I bought the second one, a small Maglite flashlight and a very nice KaBar folder in my console was stolen by the oil tech.
It seethed at me that a dealership that prided itself on service above all had allowed this, even though they are not responsible for items left in the car.
Within the next month, I sold BOTH cars to CarMax, even at a loss and bought an F150 pickup. Recently, the salesman who’d sold me the first two cars called me and asked whether I was ready to go for another new one.
I told him no - and why. I told him that dealership would never see me again. They violated my trust. He was completely floored.
The same thing happened with a Mercedes owned by a very highly placed member of the Kenyan government. The Dealer mechanic took his car, one of the high powered sports models, out for a joyride and totaled it. In this instance the dealer immediately offered to provide a new car.
However, the owner of the car demanded that he be given the cash value of the car, including Import Duty and Sales Tax., in cash. The dealership said we will give you a duty & tax paid new car, but not the cash. The case went all the way to the supreme court, IIRC.
Why? First of all, everyone assumed that the government official in question never paid ANY Duty or Tax. Secondly, at the time, Kenya’s tax schedule for vehicles with larger engines was horrendous. We imported a utility version of the Toyota Land Cruiser into Uganda. It had to come through the Kenya port of Mombasa and be driven across Kenya. To do so, we had to post a bond equal to the Duty & Sales Tax on the vehicle. Duty was 240%, Sales Tax was 150% (or vice versa), COMPOUNDED!
The cost of the Land Cruiser with all options, shipping and 10% of the value in spare parts was $12,700. Duty & Sales Tax in Kenya would have been $76,000 US dollars! The bond fee was $1500.
IIRC, the combined Duty & Tax on the wrecked Mercedes was somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000. The owner would have pocketed most of that, less the percentages going to officials higher than he. The dealer knew this and said “Hogwash, we will give you a new, legally registered car, but that’s all.”
“If I were a rich man,
Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum.
All day long I’d biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn’t have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Idle-diddle-daidle-daidle man.
I’d build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen,
Right in the middle of the town.
A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below.
There would be one long staircase just going up,
And one even longer coming down,
And one more leading nowhere, just for show.
If I were a rich man,
Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum.
All day long I’d biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn’t have to work hard.
Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Idle-diddle-daidle-daidle man.”
:)
The Hoopers didn't just buy their show-worthy black ZL1 for $60,000. They had to trade in a 2011 Camaro SS and also sell their pristine 1969 Camaro SS as well to get the new car.
>> I don’t know what else to call these modern customs with the ridiculously over-sized wheels.
The term you are looking for is “donk”. Yes, donk. Don’t ask me the derivation of the moniker, but there it is.
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