In one of Tom's earlier messages, he mentioned the fact that STOA &
the TAC program is making efforts to train inspectors/certify cars in
other parts of the country. He and the others also spend considerable
amounts of their FREE TIME and out-of-pocket money to TAC TIGERS
outside of the Bay Area. They have flown to L.A. and to last year's
TE/AE meet in Florida, with NO re-imbursement for their expenses.
This is done to preserve the value of your hobby. The TAC process is
strictly a go/no-go set of individual items, that taken wholly or in
part nets a car a TAC sticker & certification or not.
Stop the emotionalism about the snobbery, elitism, seniority and all
the other B.S. Why? Because they've paid the dues, put in the time,
and it's run the way it should be. Period.
As an aside, but relevant, I passed the GMAT and went to grad school.
T.S. to someone who hires in later, hasn't put in the effort and gets
paid less and whines about not being in a "senior" position and how
much less they make than me. TAC INSPECTORS deserve the same
consideration. Life's unequal. So is the playing field. Don't TEAR
PEOPLE DOWN to your level. Instead RISE up to where you want to be.
What's the expression, "run with the big dogs or stay on the porch".
Suing the seller also shows me that again, you forego responsibilty
for your own actions because you, for whatever reason, didn't do your
homework thoroughly enough. Hey, guess what? All used cars are sold
"as-is", with no warranty, explicit or implied. Go ahead and sue. I've
used the UCC for the last 20 years, been to court as a witness for
disputes between sellers and buyers on the corporate level. Guess
what? The judge has always looked real THOROUGHLY at due-diligence of
the buyer.
-I bought a TIGER that had been wrecked, said so in the "Book of
Norman" and was not fixed 100% properly. Who's "fault? MINE. Do I ever
think about suiing the PO? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Instead, I'll fix the car
the way it should be, and move on in life.A TIGER is real whether it's
TAC'd or not. TAC-ing it just a way some very knowledgeable and
unselfish folks have pooled their knowledge to agree on the fact it
came down Jensen's assembly line as a TIGER.
Phil LeBrun
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: IMHO
Author: nicholsj@oakwood.org at ~INTERNET
Date: 3/21/97 1:22 PM
After reading all the e-mails about TAC, I never realized that this
was such a sensitive subject. The first I heard of it was through
this list. My opinion is that a program to roote (there I go again)
out bogus Sunbeam Tigers is worthwhile. What that program should be,
I am not sure. My experience with Tigers is very limited when
compared to Tom Hall, Curt Meinel, Norm Miller and the rest. I bought
mine a little over two years ago and it appears that I got the real
thing. But then again, mine doesn't have a TAC sticker on it either.
The current program almost gives the impression of elitism or
snobbery. Methodology is secret, inspectors have to pass an oral and
written exam, localized mostly on the west coast, senior ranking
within inspectors. A Tiger is not real unless someone from TAC
certifies it as real. And if it is certified as real, then more $$$
can be asked for it when sold. This doesn't give a good impression.
It assumes everything is bogus unless a TAC inspector says it is not.
What is needed is a national program where prospective buyers have
some resource to go for advice before they lay out cash for a Tiger.
Forewarned is forearmed. Getting your Tiger certified after you buy
it is like closing the barn door after the horse got away. If you get
screwed by an unscrupulous seller what recourse do you have other than
suing? When a buyer can check some database and determine if the car
he is buying was built on the Jensen assembly line instead of a
yahoo's garage, then you have done a service for the unknowing.
Jeff
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