Greg Mushro - Vintage Offroad (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Nov 24, 2009
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Location
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There are a lot of Greg Mushro (http://www.vintageoffroad.com) threads but I'll post this for completeness:

I read them all before I started working with him on a quick-turn, eight-week project. Several friends warned me to reconsider, but I liked Greg and thought the negative feedback was just misaligned expectations. So, I wrote a very good contract that detailed the timeline/workmanship/deliverables, signed and countersigned, then paid upfront so Greg could order parts and get going.

Two years and $30K later I had to get an attorney involved just to get the cruiser back, unfinished. We ripped out and re-did most of it. Some of the issues were astonishing. We fixed everything locally and now have a gem, no thanks to Greg.

Greg looks for people who are not price sensitive, takes in the cash, then does what Greg does. The feedback is real.
 
Mate, glad to hear you got your truck back, but what are friends for, if my mates give me advice on some peanut then I walk away now matter how good the deal sounds.
 
You went in with eyes wide open...I guess. I don't understand why you would think that ALL of the people who dealt with him were just unreal expectations. It baffles me that despite a metric s*** ton of warning signs, people still do s*** like this expecting a different result... Only to learn "oh, s***, yeah those 100 or so different people with nothing to gain and whose only thing in common is a bad experience with Greg Mushro were right."

Glad you got your stuff back and ultimately wound up with the truck you wanted, but jeez, why put yourself through that?
 
If you've ever talked to Greg, you know he has a very disarming and reassuring way about him. I sold him a soft top last year and was actually thinking what a nice guy he was. What I can't understand is why he makes the choices he makes when he has the resources and ability to do the right thing, yet he never seems to.
 
Yes, apparently he is very personable on the phone but when you get him face to face he is cold and conniving. I guess the phone job is the sweet talk to get the deal. Then when you go to pick up the product he figures fxxx you I got your $ and here's your piece of s*** I represented as a nice restored vehicle.
I would not sell him anything knowing what kind of person he is. Especially knowing someone who was stung by his fraudulent business practices personally. I would feel like an accessory to his thievery and therefore receiving stolen money.
Or...maybe I'd take his Ill gotten money then send him some rusty bows and a faded top with scratched up windows. Then leave him out to dry.
 
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All good points, which is why I posted. Greg is a really, really nice guy when you meet him. The kind of dude you want to hang out with and have a drink. So, you start telling yourself, "hey, this guy's not that bad." He gives you references, you call the references, they like him too. Ironically, the main guy who swayed me ended up in the same exact position as me. No truck after a few years of work. I saw three projects turn out like that.

Greg sells a lot of trucks to very rich people and many of them are probably happy. I think the $50k "rare" FJ 40s actually get done and shipped.

He had an amazingly complete, unmolested 45LV which he was brokering for the original owner (i actually collected the title right from them). I flew out to see it and was blown away. Had to have it, even though I knew I was overpaying. Then I made the mistake of letting Greg paint it. Had I just shipped it home, I'd be telling you how cool Greg is. Instead I got to learn about a very dark personality the hard way.

If it makes you feel any better, I know from the back end of my experience that Greg barely scrapes by. That's part of the issue. He uses the cash from one truck to finance whatever project someone is screaming about, having spent that project budget long ago to pay his guys or his mortgage. Not a great way to live, let alone run a business.
 
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This is a topic I could talk for days about. I bought a truck from Mushro around 2010. I was looking for either a nice Vintage Bronco or an FJ40. One thing I can thank Mushro for is leading me to the Landcruiser community. Funny though how he talked about a community that represents none of the qualities that he posseses. I made a deposit to hold the truck and went to Flagstaff to check it out. First sign of what a grease ball he is, was that he wasn't even in town when I arrived. I spoke to him and emailed several times about the visit just days before. When he finally answered his phone, I was at the shop. He lied and said he had an emergency and left town. Meanwhile his workers already told me he went camping with his family and it was a planned trip. The guy is such a pattern liar, it is almost comical, because he doesn't even keep track of his own lies and who he has already told them to. The truck he was brokering was a decent truck. I too should have just paid for it and taken it and gone on my way. Unfortunately Mushro insisted on making it "Cherry" for an additional 4k. Painting it and doing metal repair on the rear tub. It took 18 months to get the truck from him. The guy is a pathological liar, and he thinks people don't read him. That is his biggest mistake. Does he really think that wealthy clients dropping 30k or more on a recreational ride aren't smart successful guys too. My "cherry" body work was a complete fraud. I'm not talking about poor work. It was a complete breach of contract, and fraud because everything that was done, was more or less an attempt to paint over false body work. I pulled fiber mesh wadded in rust holes. The rear sill was rusted thru the center and they bondo'd over the separation and painted it. The list goes on. My body shop in Va documented all the disgraceful work they did. I did get Mushro to pay for all the repairs. I got his attention by verifying I could purchase Vintageoffroadsucks.com and regardless of expense I would have had IT people from my company destroy his website. It really is a sad case. If he only channeled his passion into developing a respectable business, be had all the resources to do so much better for himself. In the age of today's Internet, I can't imagine who would still do business with him. You want to stay as far away from this guy and his vehicles and services as possible. It's not a case of hit and miss with him. He is a predator who is engaging in deceitful and dishonest business practices, and it is all done regularly and on a premeditated basis. He is a disgrace to the Landcruiser community, and I hope he and Vintage Offroad dissolves soon.
 
I have been here on Ih8Mud for 10 years and every few months this exact thread comes up. It is clear to me that this is not a person to do business with no matter how good his trucks look in the pictures. The pattern is always the same. Someone with $$ gets blinders on, buys a "restoration" from this clown, and then has endless problems. Either they can't get the truck, the deposit disappears, or the universal complaint: poor/unethical/misrepresented workmanship.

I will give credit though. He has stayed in business, for decades, despite the internet being chock full of threads like this. I guess there are enough trusting people to keep this slime ball going.

Tiki-good on you for being the first person I have heard of to get VO to pay for the actual repairs on a vehicle they butchered. A few more like you and he would be gone.
 
its like 15 minutes and you could save hundreds on your car insurance ,everybody knows that !!!!!!!!!!
 
Many many years ago, I had a cruiser head from Vancouver drive over in his troopy HJ47 I believe.. I went over it with him, he did of course overpay.. The truck however was original paint so I could see what I was up against.

The mechanical of this truck was very very poor and I did recommend no long trips..
 
I confess... I was VERY naive when I stumbled onto Greg. He is VERY engaging on the phone. I wanted an FJ40 and knew NOTHING about Greg... Not even his last name... And I had NEVER heard of MUD.

With my naïveté , I tried researching Vintage Off Road, but most people, I found out later complain about Greg MUSHRO.

I found a LOT of good reviews and very few bad.

But, I'm getting older... I detest trying to work with someone who fails at the LITTLE things. The third time he failed to call me back at the promised time, I quit taking his calls. That time, he had promised to call at 9pm. He woke us at 2am and we were on the same time as him. Rather than answer, I simply blocked his number.

That was probably the luckiest thing I ever did!

Now that I am even older, I've read MANY bad reviews about MUSHRO and, in retrospect, when ALMOST ALL of his vehicles are advertised as 'best of ' this or that... That should have caused doubts, in itself.

Oh! I almost forgot... He apparently didn't feel I had deep enough pockets... He kept trying to tell me that I couldn't afford a good FJ40... He really wanted to sell my a 'Best of' something 60 and 'build it out the way you want it'.

I am SO glad he pissed me off!!
 
Before I knew about who this guy was, take a look at email I sent him discussing a specific FJ40 that was sold a the Scottsdale 2014 Auction last year that had been totaled. I wish I was the one that had bought it. This was only the second, but last communication I had with him. Instincts told me steer in a different direction...and I did.

Greg,
Thank you for the email. After finding out a little bit more about that FJ40 that was sold so low at the Scottsdale auction, I have some facts and understand why it sold the way it did. I also know, the lady that bought it, quickly turned and flipped it for a huge profit. And I find that shady and on the verge of unethical, of not passing along the good fortunes of a great deal, Karma will not be kind. And people wonder why Used Car Salesmen have such a bad rep! Also, Mr. Overton was none too pleased with the way the Auctioneer presented that vehicle. None the less, that type of vehicle is exactly what I’m looking for. See, I’m not a collector, I just want one to drive back and forth to work, for deer hunting, and drive in the North GA mountains trout fishing and camping. A good looking dependable rig, and I’m sure that one was put back together very well, or it would have never gone to that auction. So if you can put one together “just like” that one, an $80K frame off/nut & bolt restoration for $32K, yes I would possibly be a buyer.

Believe me, I’ve seen a very pristine 82’ and know what one looks like. Mr. Wade in Georgia has one, and it is a thing of beauty.

Here’s my logic on that 1982 FJ40 sold in Scottsdale: Take a plate of full cookies to a dinner party, then take one whole cookie and break it in half. Everyone takes and eats the full cookies, and leaves the broken cookie. Why? Because it is broken….However, I would take and eat the broken cookie. See, in the end, that broken cookie taste just like all the other cookies….The next day, nobody is going to ask, WHO ate the broken cookie? Remember, I’m not a collector.

Best Regards,
 
If you've ever talked to Greg, you know he has a very disarming and reassuring way about him. I sold him a soft top last year and was actually thinking what a nice guy he was. What I can't understand is why he makes the choices he makes when he has the resources and ability to do the right thing, yet he never seems to.

That is a really good point.
 

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