We all love classic cars, but collecting such is an undeniably tough hobby for most people to get into. That’s why shows such as “Chasing Classic Cars” are so popular, as they let us experience the thrills of car chasing, and subsequently restoring and selling them, all through our TV screens.
It’s only normal that “Chasing Classic Cars” star Wayne Carini is also quite popular with his audiences, as his expertise and good-humored nature are more than enough to make us love what he does more and more. Nevertheless, even a man with Wayne’s good reputation hasn’t stopped him from getting into controversies and a couple of legal issues, which at times affect his finances.
So what are those legal issues which Wayne has got himself into, and how much did it affect him? Stay here to find out!
Lawsuit
The only legal battle which Wayne Carini is known to have faced was about a 1934 Arrow Coupe car he bought and involved several other people unrelated to “Chasing Classic Cars”. It all started in 2010 when a US-based car restorer named Gary Dicso was commissioned to purchase the car, which is also known as Pierce Arrow, by an Australian collector named Robert Richmond for $98,000.
The deal consisted of Gary restoring the car and then shipping it to Richmond, but somehow the Pierce Arrow never left his garage in New Jersey. It’s unclear what went down between Discso and Richmond, but court papers state that their business relationship had ‘deteriorated’ and reached its lowest point in 2016, when the Australian collector sued Dicso, for unknown reasons.
One year after that lawsuit, Disco filed for bankruptcy, and didn’t claim any ownership over Richmond’s cars, which were still in his possession. Nevertheless, that same year he went on to sell the Pierce Arrow to a company named Gullwing Motors, Inc. This is when Wayne Carini enters the scene, as he was the one who estimated the Pierce Arrow’s price between $100,000 and $120,000, but neither he nor Gullwing were aware that the car belonged to Richmond and not Dicso.
The Aftermath
The Pierce Arrow by Gullwing Motors, Inc. was bought for $62,500 in 2017, but the car didn’t stay long in the company’s garage, as Wayne Carini soon grew interested in it, and purchased it from Gullwing that year for $110,000, as at that point, the car’s title had already been registered by Gary Dicso and was on Gullwing Motors’ power.
This is when another player enters the scene, a company named RM Auctions, Inc., which grew interested in the Pierce Arrow to sell it to a collector. While it’s unclear in what state the Pierce Arrow was in, court documents say that Wayne wanted to restore it, hinting that either Dicso hadn’t already restored it, or that the car still needed some improvements.
To prevent the sale, Wayne doubled the Pierce Arrow’s price to $250,000, surprisingly attracting a positive response from RM Auctions. Soon afterwards, RM Auctions sold the car to their client for $275,000, who went on to restore it. However, things soon took a sour turn, when in 2018 Dicso told Richmond that his Pierce Arrow had been sold the year before. That’s when Richmond took legal action against Wayne’s businesses and Gullwing Motors.
Wayne and RM Auctions reimbursed the money of the client they sold the Pierce Arrow to before Richmond gained ownership of the car by a court decision in 2020.
Other Problems
The legal battle over the 1934 Arrow Coupe which Wayne Carini unwillingly got into doesn’t seem to have affected his reputation that much. The final decision was that neither Wayne Carini nor Gullwing Motors, Inc. had acted out of malice, though it was a different story for Gary Dicso, who court documents state had acted in ‘virtue of embezzlement’.
However, there was another less well-known instance when Carini’s reputation was slightly affected by a car deal. It happened in 2010 when someone on a forum called Lamborghini Talk shared their sour experience purchasing a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo from Wayne’s business F40 Motorsports. According to them, they purchased the car in March of that year and went to pick it up a couple of weeks later, only to find that the car only had one key and its $8,000 worth of luggage was nowhere to be seen.
Allegedly, F40 Motorsports had never advertised the car to have more than one key, but someone working there promised to find the luggage for the client, though they took over two months to contact him again and didn’t answer his calls. That’s when the client posted on the forum, calling Wayne’s business ‘complete frauds’, and threatened to take legal action against F40 Motorsports.
This case was never taken to court though, as Wayne sent the luggage and the spare key to the client in June of that year, after receiving a letter from his lawyer. Though this allegation can’t be confirmed, it’s worth noting that the whole ordeal awakened some negative opinions against Wayne in the forum.
How Profitable Is Wayne Carini’s Business?
It’s safe to say that the lawsuit against Wayne Carini might have affected him financially, especially considering he had made a good deal out of the Pierce Arrow, only to have everything sidetracked in the end.
However, for a man as expert and knowledgeable as Wayne Carini, there are better days than others to conduct business, especially in a market as profitable as car collecting is. While many episodes of “Chasing Classic Cars” have shown Wayne losing a couple of thousands in an auction or not making as much as he wanted out of it, the truth is that he often gets good deals out of cars more often than not.
There are other occasions where Wayne Carini not only makes a good deal but an exceptionally great one at that, such as the time he made headlines for being involved in the sale of a Ferrari N.A.R.T Spider for $27.5 million in a charity auction. While the car was a rarity and the story behind it and its former owner an enthralling one, the price makes it one of those times where the common folk can’t help but be shocked. Also, for that price, it’s safe to assume that Wayne made lots of money out of it.
All in all, Wayne Carini knows well what he’s doing when it comes to cars. So it’s unsurprising that his business has been running for so long while avoiding big controversies.
