CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — On today's Troubleshooters, how long is too long to wait for repair work to be done on a vehicle?
We hear the story of a man who took his classic '67 Mustang to a local shop to be restored—in January.
He claims he's already paid the shop owner $21,000.00, but the owner wants more money before he releases the car back to the car owner.
The car has been sitting in Gerald Rodriguez's dad's garage for years!
It's a classic. So he finally decided to get it restored, so his dad could enjoy it.
In January, he took it to Gabriel Morin at 'MakeReady Plus Services' to get it running: front-end suspension, and power brakes. power steering. paint job.
Morin told the Troubleshooters he's restored 40 cars.
" why did you choose him," we asked Rodriguez.
"We called around and he said he could get the job done for $20,000.00," he said.
Rodriguez also told us, to date, he's paid Morin $20,000.00, yet the car is still sitting in Morin's shop.
Morin declined our request for an on-camera interview for this story, but he did tell us he and Rodriguez had a verbal agreement of roughly $50,000.00 for the job.
"Was there a written agreement on the total price when you dropped the car off ?' "Not a written, a verbal, with witnesses there. And what was the verbal agreement? Twenty thousand."
Morin told us he explained to Rodriguez that the first few payments were for parts only, then $22,000.00 for a Gen 3 Coyota High-Performance Mustang 490 Horsepower engine, transmission, and completely new front end.
He further told us Rodriguez repeatedly canceled orders for parts. So from Morin's point of view, Rodriguez still owes him more than $34,000.00 to get the car back.
"We can't get the car back," Rodrguez told us. "We owe him more money than I've already given him."
Morin admits he told Rodriguez to come to get the car on Aug.13, but that Rodriguez showed up days early.
The way he sees it, Rodriguez is just trying to get free work.
Rodriguez has hired an attorney, and on Sept.13, that attorney sent Morin a 'Demand' letter for a full refund, plus an additional $15,000.00 to repair damages done to the car by Morin.
He told us he has not hired counsel, but that he could have the car ready with a day or two notice.
