inyadreems

Steve Saleen's name shouldn't be unfamiliar to our regular readers. Over the course of 25 years, Saleen was responsible for the unbelievable performance cars coming out the doors of his Southern California-based company, Saleen Inc. Among other vehicles, the tuner had a penchant for taking Ford Mustangs to the outer limits, beefing up their engines, suspensions, and body work to turn them into tarmac-ripping monsters that looked as fast as they ran.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Saleen would leave the helm of his company to temporarily run a business that attempted to import Chery Chinese vehicles into the U.S. Later, just two years ago, Saleen walked away completely from the company that he had founded leaving the Saleen name, business, and assets to a private group of investors. Fast forward to February last year, and Saleen Inc. was no more - operations had ceased and the major assets of the company were sold once more - this time to MJ Acquisitions. It only took another couple of months before more drama ensued; MJ Acquisitions publicly refused to honor existing Saleen owner warranties, stating that warranty repairs were not its responsibility. Soon after, Steve Saleen stepped into the picture, taking the warranties on himself from the helm of his new tuner company dubbed SMS Supercars. Saleen insisted that he had no legal responsibility to honor the warranties, but wanted to show a higher moral standard to owners of his products - as well as keep his name from dragging through the mud under the new Saleen owners.

Now, later in the same year that Saleen Inc. closed its doors and sold its assets, two new companies, having purchased ex-Saleen assets from MJ Acquisitions, are reportedly planning to build new products under the Saleen banner. Not so fast, says Steve Saleen.

Saleen has filed a lawsuit against MJ Acquisitions in an attempt to stop the new companies from building Saleen products that he has no association with. Where the issue gets muddy has to do with whether the new companies have any right to produce the products with a Saleen badge on them. Saleen himself contests that while he left those rights to the initial buyers of Saleen Inc., when they shut the company's doors and sold off the assets, those rights became null and void. In other words, the Saleen Inc. business was not transferable to any other parties beyond the initial buyers.

Now Saleen is trying to assert that the only builder of Saleen vehicles is SMS Supercars. Saleen issued a statement regarding the lawsuit and the warranty situation earlier today.

"It amuses me that faceless executives and wannabes are trying to misrepresent themselves as some kind of continuation of Saleen, which they are not," Saleen said in the statement. "SMS Supercars is the true Saleen. It is the only company that I endorse, the only company entitled to use my name and legacy, and the only company that carries my signature on its products, because they are my products. The legal action we have undertaken today will emphasize once and for all that the only genuine Saleen products are mine."

Only time will sift through what are obviously some very complicated issues, but we'll keep you informed of any updates as Saleen's legal battle plays out.


Source: SMS Supercars

http://wot.motortrend.com/6533482/tu...-of/index.html

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