AMEN
On Sep 8, 2010, at 6:52 PM, Tom Hall wrote:
> This message is in response to a recent question on this forum about who
> cares what a VIN Tag is applied to. This _personal_ statement by me, is
> designed to answer the question and should not be considered a personnel
> attack on any individual.
>
> I care! And for some reason, I feel compelled after due thought, to
> respond to this inquiry on this forum. Sorry, ahead of time, to those
> of you that don't care for the continuation of this touchy subject.
>
> Normally I stay out of discussions involving the STOA TAC program and
> VIN transfer, but some Marque enthusiasts seem to have little regard for
> applicable laws and other reasonable conventions. I met Ian Garrad in
> the late 60's after his separation from Chrysler. From that time until
> his untimely death, he was a personal friend of mine and I am honored to
> own a few examples of the special vehicles he essentially created. I
> have no problem with the assembly of a replica of this design. I do have
> a problem when an individual feels justified in applying a VIN Tag from
> a Tiger to a replica.
>
> To many of us owners that feel that Tigers are "something a little
> special", this is more than a little offensive and regardless of recent
> rants to the contrary, likely illegal in most states. A lot of this has
> to do with what I'd call "intent". Once you remove the rivets from one
> chassis and knowingly move the VIN Tag to another and replace the
> rivets, this becomes "an intent to defraud". This is _not_ repair and
> restoration. One can make all the claims one wants about how "Norm" and
> everybody else in the Tiger world were informed. The vehicle ID
> "applied" stands on it's own.
>
> That's exactly what's going on here in California, in my town, with a
> similar replica. What's going on is that someone else did what was
> suggested, moved the Tiger VIN to a new chassis, and now a lot of people
> want to know why this is not a Tiger, because to most observers it
> appears to be a Tiger, complete with a Tiger VIN. I am very familiar
> with this car as it was an early challenge to our TAC program. So here
> we are, almost 20 years later facing the same problem. The owner has
> confirmed to inquiries, that it is not a "real" Tiger, but it is so
> labeled by it's VIN and he's clearly asking Tiger level dollars. It's
> never going to get a TAC sticker because we (the collective Tiger
> Authentication Committee) can't identify the chassis as a Pressed
> Steel/Jensen product.
>
> So this is why I care, and why other owners and potential owners care,
> and in most cases, the government cares. The proper way to identify a
> replica Tiger is to leave the Alpine VIN in place or at least get a
> state issued ID that identifies the true origin of the chassis. To do
> otherwise is just plain wrong. The prevention of this misidentification
> was the basis of the development of the STOA TAC program many years ago.
> We hope that this program has made a difference in how the public
> perceives this Marque, by helping protect it from fraud. Saving an
> otherwise damaged or destroyed example of the Marque by moving the VIN
> to another chassis is not an OK activity in our world. We have
> Authenticated over 10% of the original production of Tigers at this
> point, all over the world, almost 50 years after production was
> initiated. As anyone can clearly see, our work is clearly ongoing.
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