<VV> Re: VirtualVairs Digest, Vol 5, Issue 246

[RoboMan91324 at aol.com]

Craig,

Well put.  A lot of what is being written about here could be classified as 
"situational ethics."  Many feel that it is OK to switch the VIN and body tags 
from one car to another to avoid the hassle that DMV puts you through.  Taken 
at face value, their intent is not to defraud.  The problem is that there are 
lots and lots of people out there who are out to defraud.  Strictly speaking, 
the law does not take into account the intent to defraud when you are charged 
or convicted though sometimes they take this into account in the penalty 
phase.  Swapping the tags from one legally obtained 67 Monza to another is still 
going to get you a criminal charge on your record if you are caught.

As far as I am concerned, there is no problem "upgrading" your car's 
cosmetics.  Higher level cars generally have more attractive doo dads than the lower 
level cars which is enough reason to put them on whatever car you have.  
However, when you make major changes to a car and then try to pass it off as a 
"real" higher level car, you have moved well into the gray area of ethics.  Taking 
a 62 or 63 Monza and transferring the Spyder options to it is fine until you 
call it a Spyder.  Taking a 64 Monza and doing the same thing along with the 
necessary VIN plate swap is fraud plain and simple.  That is not gray area.

I have seen more than my share of attempted frauds when it comes to cars and 
other things.  Some were very inept attempts and others were pretty good.  
Giving some people the benefit of the doubt, they may have been innocently 
passing on a fraud that may have been perpetrated on them.  Who knows, maybe I have 
a really well done fraud in my stable without knowing it.  Such is life.

JMHO

Doc
~~~~~~~~~~
In a message dated 6/28/2005 10:43:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:

> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:09:47 EDT
> From: NicolCS at aol.com
> Subject: <VV> rebodied corvairs
> To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
> Message-ID: <1f0.3edc7007.2ff3790b at aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> 
> I've been watching this thread and boy does it make me uncomfortable.   The 
> line between fraud and practicality is pretty blurry here.  I think the  best 
> way to decide is to imagine yourself in front of a judge, facing some kind  
> of big fine or jail term - remember the distinction between this and the  
> activities of a chop-shop is more or less indistinguishable. Also, there's the  
> problem of fraudulent cars - is a "real" 64 Spyder more valuable than a  
> "faked-up" '64 Spyder?  If it's my money, you bet!  
> 
> I feel that if you can imagine yourself in front of a judge and you feel  
> that you can absolutely make the case that you weren't trying to make a buck  
> by putting all the Spyder stuff on a 500 (the flip side perspective) or  
> weren't simply taking the easy way out when there is a legal way - then  maybe.
> 
> Otherwise, I don't think it's a good idea to commit felonies. <GGG> 
> C. Nicol (flame suit installed and perhaps guilty too)