TRUE STORY: SR Motorcars in Gardena aks Steven Rodgers is a SCAMMER!!

sweettalker · 07-19-2010, 01:35 PM

Posting this to get the story out there. This is a true story about my friend.

Its been 3 years and 3 months since i started the G35 project and only thing i have is a 55,000 dollar brick. I'm writing this so other people can avoid what has happened to me and stay away from SR motorcars.

Long story short, I started a project w Steven Rodger who runs a shop called SR motorcars, back in April 2007. The car was suppose to be done by November 2009. I gave him all the money by Aug 2008, which was about 50,000, but the car didn't come out until last month, May 2010. After 3 years the car was still not completed. None of my gauges worked, and the car wasn't running right. When i took it to another shop for inspection, I quickly found out the car was in a mess. I'm talking to a lawyer, and filing a fraud case against SR motorcars.

Now in details..... Back in 2007 around mid April, I had a chance to start a project car with one of my friend who owned a shop. It was going to be a wide body G35(since i had one) with a RB26 motor swap, but he had another customer who wanted to do the same thing so it got canceled. This is when I told Steven Rodgers about the project(we were friends back then) and how much i wanted to do it. About a week later he came up to me and asked if I was still interested in the project. When i asked him why, he said he also wanted to do a project like that but didn't have the money for it. so he asked if i was willing to pay for the parts and he would do all the labor and once the car was done he would take it to shows/magazines and promote his shop and afterwords I would get the car back. So i asked him how much this would coast and he told me it should be around 50,000 dollars.

Originally he told me that he would finish the car for the SEMA show, which is in Nov. quickly SEMA came along but the car was nowhere near completion. back then I couldn't say much because i only forked out 30,000 dollars. his next plan was to finish the car by 2008 SEMA show. Also around this time he moved in and we became roommates. By Aug 2008, i paid him $40,000 and this is when things started getting really messed up. Around this time steven rodgers came up to me and asked if i could give him the rest of the 50,000. I told him that I didn't feel comfortable giving him all the money without a contract agreement and any sort of invoice (yeah... bad idea) and also i didn't have the money. (i was going to sell my wrx when the car was done and give him the remaining money) after hearing this SR told me that he knew a friend that worked at a loan company and I could pull out the loan and pay it off with the wrx money. I asked him why couldn't he pull out a load instead, his answer? bad credit. so this is when we signed a contract agreement(stating that if the car is not done by end of Nov 2008, he would give me back the money) and he wrote me an invoice w parts that he was going to buy and have modified.

So SR took all the money by now.. was the car done by the SEMA show? nope. when Nov came and i asked him if the car was done, the answer was no. He also told me that he was going to move out of the apartment cause he didn't have any money to pay rent. (funny thing is while he was living w me for 14months he only paid rent twice, the rest? he would tell me to take it out of the project money and later he will put it back in) any how... when i asked him that i wanted my money back, he told me that he had no money and there was nothing he could do and telling me that either i could sue him and waste more money and time or just trust him one more time and give him more time to finish the car.

Who would've thought that little bit more time would become another year and a half. In order to speed up the process i even had to buy more parts for things that he already charged me for. (for example he charged me 1000 for gauges.... i bought my own tv screen and hks camp 2, he charged me 4000 for rims and tires, i ended up buying my friends used rims. he charged me 1500 for custom intake... at the end he just put a metal screen in front of the turbo...) I also gave him a set of defi gauges and he 'lost' the gauges. He said it wasn't his fault and he wasn't going to replace it or pay me back. He lost them back in feb 2008, when he went to jail for four months and one of his worker stole the gauges(defi 60mm boost, oil temp, oil pressure) from his office. (or at least that's what he says) why did he go to jail? well that's another story so ill skip it for now.

The gauges alone was worth 800, but he thinks its not his problem since it wasn't him who stole them (wow really...) anyway, after picking up the car i went to another shop right away(about 5mils away) just to make sure it was safe to drive it on the street. this turned out to be a very good idea since i found out that the car was not safe to drive at all. For examples, the drive shaft was too short, transmission mount was hitting the case, transmission and the engine was held by only the top three bolts together, 4 bolts on the bottom was missing, gasket between the tranny and the engine was missing, fan in the engine bay stopped working after few days(he made it in a way where the fan would stay on all the time if the engine was running) even tho the only time the car moved was to move it within the shop. straight pipe was hitting the body, he couldn't make the down pipe fit so he made a dent on it so it would fit. i also found a piece of hose holding the radiator in place (instead of making sure everything fits he just did some half *** job). also most of electric stuff doesn't work. In the beginning stage of the project, one of his worker decided to cut all the bcu wires (there was no reason to cut these wires) so what does SR do? instead of buying the right harness for the car, he buys a used one that doesn't even fit the car. result? the key-less is useless(doesn't work.. door lock/unlock, trunk release), the side mirrors doesn't move, the trunk will open only when the key is in the ignition, the radio doesn't work, and windows stopped working. (probably a bad connection) there are a lot more problems w the car but i think you get the idea now.

I also found out that his shop is not even registered shop. yep thats right.. this is the site you can go to and see it for your self, http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Repor...orts-100030581 the registered shop is called S&R motor sports(it has the same adres and phone no) and its owned by his land lord. I don't know what the deal was between him and his land lord but i think this is very shady way of running a business. I even talked to BAR and they said they are looking in to this situation. (they said hes not suppose to be working on street cars at all, since he doesn't have the license for it. even for the dyno (if anything happens to your car while its in his shop...well good luck.) Also never give him money for parts.. he will charge you for a new one but will put in a used part.(lot of the components in my car is used) There were more crazy **** during the project but I will stop here.(It seems like its getting really long.... ) So people watch out for this shop (and the owner)!!! If hes willing to scam people around him, I am sure he has no problem scamming others. Another thing that pisses me off the most is that hes been going and telling ppl (his friends and other customers) that when he gave me the car it was running perfect and nothing was wrong with it and I'm really happy about the car.....

PICS : http://www.flickr.com/photos/5163706...57624507515918

P.S : if you know some one or have been scammed by SR motor cars, please let me know, my lawyer says the more people I can find, the stronger I can build this case.

update : found out hes going to jail at the end of this month (end of July 2010) He did a settlement with the two girls that filed the lawsuit. Hes going in for couple years (not sure on exact time). Some might ask what were the charges.... well im not going to say it, but ill give you a hint. It rhymes with grape.

these are some pics, for more goto the link on the top

Custom intakes?? Nope, just mesh grill covering the turbine.. FIAL.

PIC of the SCAMMER

Ignignokt · 07-19-2010, 02:17 PM

Wow that sucks.

Silver-Bolt · 07-19-2010, 02:48 PM

What a hack job. Pink turbos?

Robert · 07-19-2010, 06:26 PM

Ouch. Was this project for personal enjoyment or for business? I never understand the allure of spending equal or more than a car worth on modifications. Will a heavily modified G35 provide more joy than a 911? That's the besides the fact the guy is a scammer, if proven true. Hope you can recoup some of your losses however unlike consider how the guy behaves.

ACZakka325i · 07-19-2010, 09:16 PM

Let me get this straight.

You bought a car and wanted to spend more than its purchase price in modifications with a shop that wasn't real. You waited 3 years for it to be done and let the broke shop-guy live at your house for free. He tells you he is so broke he that he has no money for rent, but is supposed to somehow pull this project-car together with money from the tooth-fairy. The same person is in and out of jail and you still trust him with $50k of your money without an sort of paperwork or documentation.

You sir, are a facking retard.

oct1285 · 07-19-2010, 09:36 PM

^^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweettalker

Posting this to get the story out there. This is a true story about my friend.

Reading is fundamental

Robert · 07-19-2010, 11:00 PM

We have no idea whether this is a true story except the poster's claim that it is. For all we know it can be a disgruntle employee, vengeful friend or a troll. Until a 3rd party confirms this I am just going to treat it as a sad story.

ponch_ki · 07-19-2010, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACZakka325i

Let me get this straight.

You bought a car and wanted to spend more than its purchase price in modifications with a shop that wasn't real. You waited 3 years for it to be done and let the broke shop-guy live at your house for free. He tells you he is so broke he that he has no money for rent, but is supposed to somehow pull this project-car together with money from the tooth-fairy. The same person is in and out of jail and you still trust him with $50k of your money without an sort of paperwork or documentation.

You sir, are a facking retard.

+1

Mavrick151 · 07-20-2010, 12:43 AM

^ +1

mtla4 · 07-20-2010, 12:53 AM

It has to be a joke. I stopped reading quickly after a few sentences. Its a pain to read.

koreez88 · 07-20-2010, 02:54 AM

That whole story just sounds too stupid on OP's (or his friend's) part to be real, I don't believe it.

EmmettBrown · 07-20-2010, 02:56 AM

duck tapes!!!

jhv · 07-20-2010, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACZakka325i

Let me get this straight.

You bought a car and wanted to spend more than its purchase price in modifications with a shop that wasn't real. You waited 3 years for it to be done and let the broke shop-guy live at your house for free. He tells you he is so broke he that he has no money for rent, but is supposed to somehow pull this project-car together with money from the tooth-fairy. The same person is in and out of jail and you still trust him with $50k of your money without an sort of paperwork or documentation.

You sir, are a facking retard.

.

TK-421 · 07-20-2010, 09:40 AM

Am I the only person who can read the first 2 sentences?

07-19-2010, 01:35 PM	#1
sweettalker Second Lieutenant 20 Rep 267 Posts Drives: Vrooom Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: SoCal iTrader: (0)	TRUE STORY: SR Motorcars in Gardena aks Steven Rodgers is a SCAMMER!! Posting this to get the story out there. This is a true story about my friend. Its been 3 years and 3 months since i started the G35 project and only thing i have is a 55,000 dollar brick. I'm writing this so other people can avoid what has happened to me and stay away from SR motorcars. Long story short, I started a project w Steven Rodger who runs a shop called SR motorcars, back in April 2007. The car was suppose to be done by November 2009. I gave him all the money by Aug 2008, which was about 50,000, but the car didn't come out until last month, May 2010. After 3 years the car was still not completed. None of my gauges worked, and the car wasn't running right. When i took it to another shop for inspection, I quickly found out the car was in a mess. I'm talking to a lawyer, and filing a fraud case against SR motorcars. Now in details..... Back in 2007 around mid April, I had a chance to start a project car with one of my friend who owned a shop. It was going to be a wide body G35(since i had one) with a RB26 motor swap, but he had another customer who wanted to do the same thing so it got canceled. This is when I told Steven Rodgers about the project(we were friends back then) and how much i wanted to do it. About a week later he came up to me and asked if I was still interested in the project. When i asked him why, he said he also wanted to do a project like that but didn't have the money for it. so he asked if i was willing to pay for the parts and he would do all the labor and once the car was done he would take it to shows/magazines and promote his shop and afterwords I would get the car back. So i asked him how much this would coast and he told me it should be around 50,000 dollars. Originally he told me that he would finish the car for the SEMA show, which is in Nov. quickly SEMA came along but the car was nowhere near completion. back then I couldn't say much because i only forked out 30,000 dollars. his next plan was to finish the car by 2008 SEMA show. Also around this time he moved in and we became roommates. By Aug 2008, i paid him $40,000 and this is when things started getting really messed up. Around this time steven rodgers came up to me and asked if i could give him the rest of the 50,000. I told him that I didn't feel comfortable giving him all the money without a contract agreement and any sort of invoice (yeah... bad idea) and also i didn't have the money. (i was going to sell my wrx when the car was done and give him the remaining money) after hearing this SR told me that he knew a friend that worked at a loan company and I could pull out the loan and pay it off with the wrx money. I asked him why couldn't he pull out a load instead, his answer? bad credit. so this is when we signed a contract agreement(stating that if the car is not done by end of Nov 2008, he would give me back the money) and he wrote me an invoice w parts that he was going to buy and have modified. So SR took all the money by now.. was the car done by the SEMA show? nope. when Nov came and i asked him if the car was done, the answer was no. He also told me that he was going to move out of the apartment cause he didn't have any money to pay rent. (funny thing is while he was living w me for 14months he only paid rent twice, the rest? he would tell me to take it out of the project money and later he will put it back in) any how... when i asked him that i wanted my money back, he told me that he had no money and there was nothing he could do and telling me that either i could sue him and waste more money and time or just trust him one more time and give him more time to finish the car. Who would've thought that little bit more time would become another year and a half. In order to speed up the process i even had to buy more parts for things that he already charged me for. (for example he charged me 1000 for gauges.... i bought my own tv screen and hks camp 2, he charged me 4000 for rims and tires, i ended up buying my friends used rims. he charged me 1500 for custom intake... at the end he just put a metal screen in front of the turbo...) I also gave him a set of defi gauges and he 'lost' the gauges. He said it wasn't his fault and he wasn't going to replace it or pay me back. He lost them back in feb 2008, when he went to jail for four months and one of his worker stole the gauges(defi 60mm boost, oil temp, oil pressure) from his office. (or at least that's what he says) why did he go to jail? well that's another story so ill skip it for now. The gauges alone was worth 800, but he thinks its not his problem since it wasn't him who stole them (wow really...) anyway, after picking up the car i went to another shop right away(about 5mils away) just to make sure it was safe to drive it on the street. this turned out to be a very good idea since i found out that the car was not safe to drive at all. For examples, the drive shaft was too short, transmission mount was hitting the case, transmission and the engine was held by only the top three bolts together, 4 bolts on the bottom was missing, gasket between the tranny and the engine was missing, fan in the engine bay stopped working after few days(he made it in a way where the fan would stay on all the time if the engine was running) even tho the only time the car moved was to move it within the shop. straight pipe was hitting the body, he couldn't make the down pipe fit so he made a dent on it so it would fit. i also found a piece of hose holding the radiator in place (instead of making sure everything fits he just did some half * job). also most of electric stuff doesn't work. In the beginning stage of the project, one of his worker decided to cut all the bcu wires (there was no reason to cut these wires) so what does SR do? instead of buying the right harness for the car, he buys a used one that doesn't even fit the car. result? the key-less is useless(doesn't work.. door lock/unlock, trunk release), the side mirrors doesn't move, the trunk will open only when the key is in the ignition, the radio doesn't work, and windows stopped working. (probably a bad connection) there are a lot more problems w the car but i think you get the idea now. I also found out that his shop is not even registered shop. yep thats right.. this is the site you can go to and see it for your self, http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Repor...orts-100030581 the registered shop is called S&R motor sports(it has the same adres and phone no) and its owned by his land lord. I don't know what the deal was between him and his land lord but i think this is very shady way of running a business. I even talked to BAR and they said they are looking in to this situation. (they said hes not suppose to be working on street cars at all, since he doesn't have the license for it. even for the dyno (if anything happens to your car while its in his shop...well good luck.) Also never give him money for parts.. he will charge you for a new one but will put in a used part.(lot of the components in my car is used) There were more crazy ** during the project but I will stop here.(It seems like its getting really long.... ) So people watch out for this shop (and the owner)!!! If hes willing to scam people around him, I am sure he has no problem scamming others. Another thing that pisses me off the most is that hes been going and telling ppl (his friends and other customers) that when he gave me the car it was running perfect and nothing was wrong with it and I'm really happy about the car..... PICS : http://www.flickr.com/photos/5163706...57624507515918 P.S : if you know some one or have been scammed by SR motor cars, please let me know, my lawyer says the more people I can find, the stronger I can build this case. update : found out hes going to jail at the end of this month (end of July 2010) He did a settlement with the two girls that filed the lawsuit. Hes going in for couple years (not sure on exact time). Some might ask what were the charges.... well im not going to say it, but ill give you a hint. It rhymes with grape. these are some pics, for more goto the link on the top Custom intakes?? Nope, just mesh grill covering the turbine.. FIAL. PIC of the SCAMMER
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07-19-2010, 02:17 PM	#2
Ignignokt No one can defeat the quad laser. 4 Rep 50 Posts Drives: 335 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Motor City iTrader: (0)	Wow that sucks.
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07-19-2010, 02:48 PM	#3
Silver-Bolt Captain 27 Rep 805 Posts Drives: 2011 Z4 35is Melbourne Red Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Portland, OR iTrader: (0) Garage List 2011 Z4 35is [9.00]	What a hack job. Pink turbos?
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07-19-2010, 06:26 PM	#4
Robert Major General 417 Rep 6,968 Posts Drives: 135i -> is350 -> Tesla M3 perf Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Socal iTrader: (1)	Ouch. Was this project for personal enjoyment or for business? I never understand the allure of spending equal or more than a car worth on modifications. Will a heavily modified G35 provide more joy than a 911? That's the besides the fact the guy is a scammer, if proven true. Hope you can recoup some of your losses however unlike consider how the guy behaves. Last edited by Robert; 07-19-2010 at 08:23 PM..
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07-19-2010, 09:16 PM	#5
ACZakka325i Colonel 278 Rep 2,008 Posts Drives: 2 stroke Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: CT iTrader: (2)	Let me get this straight. You bought a car and wanted to spend more than its purchase price in modifications with a shop that wasn't real. You waited 3 years for it to be done and let the broke shop-guy live at your house for free. He tells you he is so broke he that he has no money for rent, but is supposed to somehow pull this project-car together with money from the tooth-fairy. The same person is in and out of jail and you still trust him with $50k of your money without an sort of paperwork or documentation. You sir, are a facking retard. __________________ (Waitlist): #1 M2CSL (Current): 2016 F15 X5 3.5xdrive - 2010 997.2 C4S Coupe (Past): 2016 F30 340xi M-Sport -2013 535i xdrive 2008 E92 M3 - 2006 E90 325i 2002 E46 325xi - 1991 E30 325i
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07-19-2010, 11:00 PM	#7
Robert Major General 417 Rep 6,968 Posts Drives: 135i -> is350 -> Tesla M3 perf Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Socal iTrader: (1)	We have no idea whether this is a true story except the poster's claim that it is. For all we know it can be a disgruntle employee, vengeful friend or a troll. Until a 3rd party confirms this I am just going to treat it as a sad story.
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07-20-2010, 12:43 AM	#9
Mavrick151 First Lieutenant 12 Rep 321 Posts Drives: 2020 M2C Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: OC CA --> Dallas, TX iTrader: (1)	^ +1
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07-20-2010, 02:54 AM	#11
koreez88 Всем привет ;) 146 Rep 3,358 Posts Drives: Tesla Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: USA iTrader: (12)	That whole story just sounds too stupid on OP's (or his friend's) part to be real, I don't believe it.
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07-20-2010, 02:56 AM	#12
EmmettBrown Banned 51 Rep 207 Posts Drives: cars Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: southern california iTrader: (0)	duck tapes!!!
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07-20-2010, 09:40 AM	#14
TK-421 Registered Sex Offender 573 Rep 4,759 Posts Drives: E46 M3 \| 1JZ S13 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Tampa, FL iTrader: (0)	Am I the only person who can read the first 2 sentences? __________________ Stop putting stuff like painted reflectors and premium package in your signature. You're embarrassing.
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