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AutoHunter docket features cars coming from long-term ownership

There are people who buy vehicles just to flip them — they hope — at a profit, and then there are those who have owned their car or truck for many years and finally have come to the realization that it’s time for someone else to take a turn.

This week we’re featuring six vehicles from the AutoHunter docket that are being offered from relatively long-term ownership, in one case by the same family since the vehicle was brand new in 1988.

This 1988 Ford Bronco XLT was purchased in California brand new and has been owned by the same family ever since. It also has been covered when parked and is listed as “mostly original.”

It has a 5.0-liter V8 engine linked to a 5-speed automatic transmission and 2-speed transfer case. It also has power windows and locks, air conditioning (which needs recharging), AM/FM/cassette audio, cruise control and tilt steering wheel.

Mileage is reported to be 126,000 (the odometer has rolled over once), and the vehicle is reported to be accident free throughout its history.

The color is light tan, the interior is tan and brown with woodgrain accents, and the rear section of the top can be removed.

In the category of mostly original, changes since purchase include installing aftermarket diamond-plate running boards. It also appears to have an aftermarket wind blocker at the front edge of the hood.

Note as well that the Bronco is riding on 18-year-old tires.

This 1940 Ford Deluxe convertible has been part of the same family since 1972, purchased nearly 50 years ago by the seller’s father. Since a restoration several years ago, the car has been garage-kept and upgraded with period-correct speed equipment, including Offenhauser heads, twin single-barrel carburetors and upgraded ignition. The engine is linked to a 3-speed, column-shifted manual transmission.

As a Deluxe model, the car has a 2-tone dashboard in maroon and tan, with broad seating surfaces.

The seller of this 1991 Chevy Silverado pickup truck reports that the previous owner had the truck for 25 years and it has been stored indoors during winter months since the late 1990s.

The pickup has a color-matched cap over its bed, rides on 5-spoke American Racing wheels, and has power windows and locks, a Pioneer stereo with CD player, a Sun tachometer and a bench seat in the rear of its extended cap setup.

The truck has its factory-installed 5.7-liter V8 engine, rated at 190 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque, and linked to an automatic transmission and 4-wheel-drive powertrain with 2-speed transfer case.

The seller notes that the transmission has been rebuilt, the air conditioning components and catalytic converter have been removed, and that minor damage resulted from an incident in 1994.

The odometer shows 117,000 miles.

The seller adds that tires and rear shocks will need to be replaced.

The consignor has owned this Jeep since January, 1981, and has restored it twice, first in 1999 and then in 2015. Since that second redo, the Jeep has been driven less than 500 miles.

This CJ5 has fiberglass body panels from a 1995 Wrangler wearing a 2013-correct Crush orange paint and carries features from various CJ, YJ and modern Wranglers. The fender flares are from a 2006 model and the rear bumper came from a 1986 Suzuki Samurai.

The 15-inch Ion wheels wear 33-inch BFG All-Terrain T/A tires.

The engine is a 258cid AMC inline 6 with a Holley 4-barrel carburetor and Hedman headers. Transmission is via a 3-speed manual with a T-handle shifter.

The Jeep has an aftermarket audio system and during its second restoration, received a factory air/climate control system.

The consignor has had this Firebird for eight years and in 2019 completed its restoration and customization. The car retains its factory 326cid V8 engine and 2-speed Powerglide automatic transmission. The seller says the original mileage is 65,200, only 50 of them since June 2020, when the car got new 5-spoke wheels and tires.

The paint is Lamborghini Orange with black stripes on the hood and black spoilers front and rear. The color scheme extends to the interior.

Owned by the seller for seven years is this 1970 Dodge Challenger, which the seller says has been garage stored and received regular maintenance.

The car looks nice in dark burnt orange with a black vinyl top, the body color reapplied a decade ago by the previous owner (there is a scratch on the bottom edge of the passenger door, the seller notes).

Power is provided by a 318cid V8 linked to an automatic transmission. The coupe has power brakes and steering and an aftermarket audio system.

There’s much more to see on AutoHunter, the online collector car auction website driven by ClassicCars.com, and we merely focused today on cars we found with long-term or relatively long-term ownership histories.

Michigan Car Salesman Cost FCA $8.7 Million Due To Fake Employee Discounts

If you visited Apollon Nimo at his Detroit-based Parkway Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership, you might have walked out with a damn good deal. In fact, your deal might have been too good to be true. That’s because Nimo was illegally using employee discounts to cut customers good deals, even when those customers failed to qualify for that discount, Auto News reports. In fact, he scammed FCA—now Stellantis—out of about $8.7 million.

In many cases, Nimo nabbed the discount codes from various Facebook groups of which he was part. Here’s more from the article:

In the majority of transactions that prosecutors allege were fraudulent, buyers claimed to be the brother-in-law or sister-in-law of an FCA employee to get a 5 percent discount. The discount codes, known as Employee Purchase Control Numbers (EPCNs), were often bought and sold through private Facebook groups.

Nimo frequently topped the list of auto sellers who sold cars using employee discounts and was handsomely rewarded for being a top salesman. He reportedly received $700,000 in bonuses directly from FCA since 2014, when he first started using his codes—and that’s in addition to dealership-specific rewards.

Out of the 268 unauthorized EPCNs that have been analyzed, every single one was linked back to Nimo. And there could honestly be more, as per FOX 2 Detroit:

A manager at Sterling Heights Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram told federal investigators that Nimo sold about 250 cars in January 2020. The same manager said Nimo sells more vehicles than entire sales departments at most FCA dealerships.

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So, how did Nimo get away with it for so long? One man who leased three cars from Nimo in December of 2018 stated that Nimo claimed FCA doesn’t review the use of ‘in-law’ relationships with EPCN purchases. So, you could claim to be the mother-, sister-, father-, or son-in-law of an FCA employee, and FCA would be less likely to catch it—possibly because it’s not as intuitive to identify relationships with people who don’t share blood or direct legal ties.

The investigation kicked off after several FCA employees complained that their personal discount codes were being used without their consent. This is where that 268 number comes from; these were just from people who complained. It’s possible many other people had no idea their EPCN was being used.

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The Ban On The Mahindra Roxor Has Been Lifted But FCA Still Wants To Fight

The Mahindra Roxor is coming back! Mahindra has now satisfied regulators by redesigning the Roxor, an off-road side-by-side whose styling was a little — no, a lot — too familiar for the legal department of Fiat Chrysler.

In 2018, FCA filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, arguing that the Roxor’s Jeep-inspired styling features infringed on Jeep’s intellectual property. In June, the ITC ruled in Jeep’s favor, prohibiting the sale of Roxors and parts.

Last week, the ITC ruled that the post-2020 Roxor model does not violate what is called the “trade dress” of Jeep, so Mahindra can now manufacture and distribute the 2021 Roxor. While the end of the ban is great news for Mahindra, FCA isn’t happy. From Reuters:

While FCA is disappointed with the commission’s decision regarding the redesign, we believe we will be successful in appealing this decision.

Why was Jeep upset in the first place? I’ll let our David Tracy explain:

The complaint, filed Wednesday (and shown in full at the bottom of this article), claims that Mahindra has “engaged in unlawful acts…through their unlicensed importation, sale for importation, or sale after importation of… products that infringe and dilute FCA’s distinctive Jeep vehicle trade dress.”

FCA defines that trade dress as the following design features:

(i) A boxy body shape with flat appearing vertical side and rear body panels ending at about the same height as the hood;

(ii) Substantially flat hood with curved side edges that tapers to be narrower at the front;

(iii) Trapezoidal front wheel wells with front fenders or fender flares that extend beyond the front of the grille;

(iv) Flat appearing grille with vertical elongated grille slots and a trapezoidal outline that curves around round headlamps positioned on the upper part of the grille;

(v) Exterior hood latches;

(vi) Door cutouts above a bottom portion of the side body panels

The original Roxor design that Jeep didn’t like looked like this:

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Jeep’s and Mahindra’s products exist in two completely different markets. Why would Jeep care that Mahindra wants to build a side-by-side that looks like a Jeep that not even Jeep makes anymore? Who out there is cross-shopping a Roxor with a Wrangler? While I think these are good questions, this legal battle isn’t about the Roxor snagging Wrangler sales.

This essentially boils down to how intellectual property is handled in this country. In short, if you don’t defend your intellectual property, you risk your work becoming generic and losing out on some rights. IP owners are essentially obligated to police their works.

Mahindra gave the 2020 Roxor a new grille — one that looked something like an old Toyota J40 Land Cruiser — but it did not win approval. That’s a shame, as I thought the second version of the Roxor looked even cooler than the first.

The 2021 Roxor design that’s now approved for sale alters the trade dress items that Jeep’s complaint cited . This comes from Mahindra’s petition to the ITC detailing the Roxor’s post-2020 design. The design is certainly striking, to say the least.

Check out David Tracy’s deep dive on the Roxor’s new design.
Mahindra had this to say to us regarding the design of the 2021 Roxor:

The 2021 redesign was led by our design team here in the U.S. ROXOR was an immediate hit with people who use if [sic] for recreational use….and over the past couple of years its gained a ton of interest from farmers and commercial users who are tired of needing to constantly fix and replace the light duty, plastic-bodied, side by sides they’ve been using. While the redesign addresses several areas of trade dress it was done as much or more to appeal to people who like ROXOR for its ruggedness and durability. That’s the main theme our design team worked with to come up with the new styling.

It also answers the question of Roxor’s market aim. I love the Roxor for being something a bit different with an already growing aftermarket. It’s not just for off-roaders, but farmers, too. You can even get air-conditioning and heat in one of these.

As for those ITC images? They’re the real deal. Mahindra tells me it will have more photos in a release weeks from now.

I’m happy that Mahindra won this round. I absolutely understand Jeep’s fight here, as it’s something it pretty much has to do. But I think Mahindra sufficiently changed the design for the 2021 model. It’ll be interesting to see how FCA’s appeal is handled.

I hope to see some of these in the wild. They look properly fun!

Jeep Grabs The Ford Bronco’s Spotlight By Teasing A Wrangler Or Gladiator With A Hemi

Jeep posted this slightly blurry teaser of what appears to be a Hemi-packed Wrangler or Gladiator on its Twitter feed this morning as an opening salvo against its new rival, the long anticipated, highly leaked Ford Bronco just hours after the Bronco once again showed its face before its planned massive multimedia debut.

You can probably make out the number 392 etched on this Jeep’s hood. This, of course, refers to Chrysler’s 392-cubic inch 6.4-liter V8 HEMI engine, now in its third generation producing 485 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque. While this is a favorite combo for aftermarket Wranglers and Gladiators there has never been a vehicle from the Wrangler family to come from the company with the SRT badge. Currently, customers have three engine options for their 2020 Wranglers, the most powerful of which is the 3.6-liter V6 putting out 285 HP and 260 lb-ft of torque. The Gladiator gets this engine, as well as a recently announced EcoDiesel option for some trims.

Now, I don’t want to get your hopes up. Teasers are frustrating exactly because they are high on hype and low on info, but this is a move that makes a ton of sense. Plus it isn’t a bad time to steal Ford’s thunder (and hopefully market share) with a combo Jeep fans have been thirsting over for some time now. Jeep’s then CEO Michael Manley (now CEO for all of FCA) toyed with the idea way back in 2011 and maybe only now was able to make a business case for a Wrangler SRT thanks, in part, to the rising popularity of off-roading and overlanding. I mean, there’s a Dodge Durango SRT now. There’s no excuse not to build this.

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What enthusiasts definitely should not hold their breath for, however, is a Hellcat-packed Jeep, as 707-HP was deemed way too dangerous for the company’s boxy off-roader. Which isn’t to say you can’t find shops willing to build you such a suicide machine. Honestly though, save your pennies, a Jeep’s charms are not found on a 0-60 timescale.

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