[Lynn]

Nick:

No one accused you of being dishonest. Hope you understand that. The closest thing I saw to an accusation was the statement made by one poster saying it was unclear whether you or a previous owner changed items on the car.

You can track the title history in a situation like this. While title information is normally confidential, you can make a request under certain circumstances.

In Oklahoma you can obtain title history of a vehicle "For use in connection with any civil, criminal, administrative or arbitral proceeding in any federal, state or local court or agency or before any self-regulatory body, including the service of process, investigation in anticipation of litigation..." The Texas law has a paragraph with the identical wording, so I am guessing both states passed legislation with wording "suggessted" by the Federal privacy laws. Most other states will be the same, or at least similar. I have just recently obtained title histories on several questionable cars in Oklahoma (which takes only a day or two) and am waiting on the history on one car from Texas (which will take 6 to 8 weeks).

Assuming you wish investigate the possibility of fraud in anticipation of litigation, you can start with New Jersey. The title history there will show the previous out of state owner, and you can then back track to that state (presumably Minn., but could have changed hands a couple of other times - who knows).

In investigating actual fraud, I have found most of the previous owners are more than happy to discuss the particulars of the car, and are appalled to find someone has used "their" car (these cars are like kids in a way - even when they are gone, we think of them as "ours") to commit fraud. You would be surprised what you can find out.

Obviously one of those previous owners swapped out the motor, and someone restamped the current motor.

And yes, as you may have guessed, I am an attorney. While I don't beleive in suing everyone who looks cross-eyed at you, I honestly beleive the fraud problem will only subside when the risk outweighs the benefit. The risk in this case is the risk of being sued. I normally don't handle litigation. I practice mainly in the area of Estate Planning. I am however, investigating a case right now that involves a swapped trim tag, which I consider more serious than a restamped engine. Once the necessary evidence is gathered, witnesses lined up etc, I will have no reservation hitting the offending party with a lawsuit. My client is quite anxious on this one. Can't share any more details for fear of hindering my current investigation, but once this one is in the books, you can bet I will share all the details, naming names, so that others can use the info to fight this kind of fraud.

Good luck on your car, both on the sale, and finding out whether it was misrepresented, and, if so, by whom. It is a very nice looking car, and frankly the gold color is kind of refreshing.

Lynn