Re: DEPOSIT INSURANCE?????
Well, as one affected by the loss of a great deal of money I definitely have an opinion of how this could or should work. But, one must realize that the GT40 replica manufacturers are extremely low volume. We're not dealing with Factory Five cars here that are produced in large numbers, or even the likes of some of the smaller production Cobra outfits like Unique, ERA, etc. The GT40 production is, and always will be smaller - expense, time to produce, appeal - all of these things sort of ensure that it'll be a small volume business.
As such, a small volume business must have cash flow to keep parts on hand, pay for labor, and pay the rent. If people insist on escrow accounts then the money is going to be tied up while the car is being built and is unavailable for use. Sure, the manufacturer could get loans at that point, but, it'll add cost to the kits. And, since the cars are small volume production with good demand, there will probably be another customer who does not require escrow thus the manufacturer will simply sell to that customer.
The margins are just not such that deposits or down payments can be locked up. While markup on consumer goods is 100:1 sometimes (saw some interesting data on Crossfire about Wal Mart items that they were making a killing on), I imagine a GT40 manufactuer is doing well to get 3:1 or 2:1 markup out of the cars. With that ratio you'd clearly need to sell a huge number before you'd have a lot of cash piled around to not worry about deposits being available for use.
So, what to do? Fran's credit card suggestion is a good one for folks concerned about that, but it'll ad some expense since the credit card company will most certainly charge at least what Fran is quoting. But, the insurance might be worth it if the credit card company covers you in case of loss, fraud, mismanagement, liquidation, bankruptcy, and all the other related words I've recently become accustomed to contemplating.
I don't think we'll see any wholesale change of how replica manufacturers do business as it would cripple the industry. I'm sure it will, however, change the way US folks will be willing to do business with overseas manufacturers, and that might not be a good thing. But, home country players always have an advantage in their own court and it appears there will be plenty of home player options available for all no matter where they live in the world.
Oliver, must you post on every topic just to be posting?