Legal Files

A Soft Market and Hard Tax Choices

By now, everyone knows the collector car market has softened. The harder question is what will happen next. If you liken the collector car market to the stock market, you should be bullish. Every time the stock market has lost substantial value, as it recently did after the Brexit vote, […]

‘Real McCoy’ Races to Judgment

Legal Files” previously reported (May 2014, p. 38) about a lawsuit filed by Domenico Idoni concerning the “Real McCoy” Corvette. This March, the lawsuit came to an end, with judgment entered in favor of Chuck Ungurean, the owner of the Corvette. The Real McCoy is a 1956 Chevrolet Corvette SR […]

The Reincarnated Enzo

There have been several stories too big to fit into one “Legal Files” column, but the biggest of them all is the 2004 Ferrari Enzo that Stefan Eriksson crashed into a power pole at 199 miles per hour on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, CA. That story was in […]

Keeping the IRS Away from Your Cars

Tax planning time is usually the end of the year. But this year, between the uncertainties of the presidential election, the IRS working on eliminating some of our favorite tax-planning techniques, the current softness in the collector car market, and interest rates possibly going up, it makes sense for the […]

The Shops’ Side of Restos Gone Bad

The ink was barely dry on “When Restorations Go Bad” (March 2016, p. 42) when Legal Files received an email from George Medynski: “Nice article. But call me anytime if you want the other side of the story.” I’m always happy to start a quest with a thrown gauntlet, so […]

Chicken Little May Have Had a Point…

Making sure your car is Q-tip-perfectly prepared before the concours judges arrive is stressful enough, but do we now have to watch for debris falling out of the sky? We’re talking about what the FAA calls Unmanned Aircraft Systems, but the rest of us call them drones. Drones are pretty […]

When Restorations Go Bad

Disputes involving car restoration work are definitely in the upper echelon of the “Legal Files” Top 10 Hit Parade. That shouldn’t be surprising. Restorations have many elements that can easily lead to disputes: 1. It is really hard to know up front what level of work and cost most restorations […]

Auction Tips and Traps

January is nearing, and a good percentage of us will be making the annual pilgrimage to Scottsdale auction week. Great cars in the winter desert is tough to beat, especially when you board your plane in single-digit weather. But with thousands of bidders chasing fewer cars, well-stocked bidders’ bars and […]

Your Year-End Car Collection Checklist

It’s the end of a great year for the collector car market. As it winds down, readers should take the opportunity to focus on a number of planning details. Tax rates likely to stay the same Year-end tax planning doesn’t look terribly complicated this year. Election season is in full […]

So You Want to Import a Car …

As exchange rates fluctuate, collector cars cross the oceans in the direction of the arbitrage. Add in some recent changes in U.S. import rules, and there is now quite a bit of interest in importing collector cars into the U.S. Is that a feasible option for the collector? U.S. law […]